Born on December 25, 1918 into a family of thirteen children, Anwar was a very strong man. He grew up 40 miles north of Cairo in the town of Mit Abul Kom, Egypt; which is in the province of Minufiya. Sadat's father worked as a clerk in a local military hospital, which got Anwar very much into the military business. By the time of his birth, Egypt was in the becoming of a British Colony.
Large debts had forced the Egyptian government to sell the British government its interests in the French Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. The British and French had used these resources to establish enough political control over Egyptian affairs, which allowed them to refer to Egypt as a British colony.
Four major figures affected Sadat's early life. The first was Zahran. Zahran came from a small village like Sadat's. The British hanged Zahran in a famous event of colonial rule, for participating in a riot, which had resulted in the death of a British Officer.
English: President Anwar Sadat of Egypt upon his a...
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime M...
Library of Congress description: "Photograph shows...Sadat admired the courage Zahran showed on the way to the gallows.
Another major figure Anwar looked up to was Kemel Ataturk. Kemel created the moderns state of turkey by forcing the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. Not only did Ataturk throw off the shackles of colonialism, but he also established a number of civil service reforms.
Mohandas Ghandi was another man of inspiration to Anwar. Anwar admired how he preached the power of non-violence in combating injustice. Sadat also looked up to Adolf Hitler. Anwar was an anti-colonist and so he viewed him as a potential rival to the British Control.
At the age of eighteen, Anwar Sadat was one of the first students to attend the Abbassia Military Academy in Cairo, Egypt from 1936-1938.