Chapter-3

Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

The Allied Powers -The UK, France, the then USSR and USA

Axis Powers- Germany, Italy and Japan.

Central powers- Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey (Ottoman Empire)

Genocidal war

 Killing of a selected racial group by the other. Under the shadow of the Second World
War, Germany had waged a genocidal war against Jews.
 The number of people killed included 6 million Jews, 200,000 Gypsies, 1 million Polish
civilians, 70,000 Germans who were considered mentally and physically
disabled, besides innumerable political opponents.
 Nazis devised an unprecedented means of killing people, that is, by gassing them in
various killing centres.

What was international Military Tribunal?

 After the Second World War the allied powers formed an international military court
(Tribunal) at Nuremberg to punish Nazi war criminals.
 The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced only eleven leading Nazis to death. Many others
were imprisoned for life.

Germany in the World War I

 Germany, a powerful empire fought the First World War (1914-1918) alongside the
Austrian empire and Turkey and against the Allies (England, France and Russia.)
 All joined the war enthusiastically hoping to gain from a quick victory.
 Germany made initial gains by occupying France and Belgium.
 But USA’s entry changed the course of the war.
 However the Allies won the War by defeating Germany and the Central Powers in
November 1918.

Birth of the Weimar Republic and its failure

 The defeat of Imperial Germany and the abdication of the emperor gave an
opportunity to parliamentary parties to recast German polity. A National Assembly
met at Weimar and established a democratic constitution with a federal structure.
 The Weimar constitution had some inherent defects, which made it unstable
and vulnerable to dictatorship. One defect was proportional representation. This
made achieving a majority by any one party a near impossible task, which led to a
rule by coalitions.
  Another defect was Article 48, which gave the President the powers to impose
emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.
 Within its short life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different
cabinets (governments)lasting on an average 239 days, and a liberal use of Article
48. People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system, which seemed to
offer no solutions except Hitler.

Versailles treaty- (A Pease treaty signed between allied powers and Germany)

 Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population and 13 per cent of its
territories.
 75 per cent of its iron mines and 26 per cent of its coal mines were given to France,
Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.
 The Allied Powers demilitarised Germany to (not to possess more than one lakh soldiers)
weaken its power.
 Germany was made responsible for the I World War and damages the Allied countries
suffered. Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion.
 The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s.

November criminals

Many Germans held the new Weimar Republic responsible for not only the defeat in the
war but the disgrace at Versailles. Those who supported the Weimar Republic, mainly
Socialists, Catholics and Democrats became easy targets of attack in the conservative
nationalist circles. They were mockingly called as the November criminals.

The Effects of the World War I in Germany

a. Psychological Effect (social effect)

 The First World War left a deep imprint on European society. Soldiers were placed
above civilians.
 Politicians and media laid great stress on the need for men to be aggressive, strong
and masculine.
 Aggressive war propaganda and national honour led to popular support for
conservative dictatorships

b. Political Radicalism( Political effect)

 The birth of the Weimar Republic coincided with the revolutionary uprising of the
Spartacist League on the pattern of the Revolution in Russia.
 The political atmosphere in Berlin was charged with demands for Soviet-style
government. But the uprising was suppressed with the help of a war veterans
organisation called Free Corps.

c. Economic crisis (Hyperinflation)

  Germany had fought the war largely on loans and had to pay war reparations in gold.
This depleted gold reserves.
 In 1923 Germany refused to pay so the French occupied its leading industrial area,
Ruhr.
 Germany printed paper currency recklessly. With too much printed money in
circulation, the value of the German mark fell. In April the US dollar was equal to
24,000 marks, in August 4,621,000 marks and in December 98,860,000 marks.
 This crisis came to be known as hyperinflation, a situation when prices rise
phenomenally high.

d. Economic Depression and its impact on Germany

 The years between 1924 and 1928 USA gave short-term loans to Germany. This
support was withdrawn when the Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929 in the USA.
 Fearing a fall in prices, people made frantic efforts to sell their shares. On one single
day, 24 October, 13 million shares were sold. This was the start of the Great
Economic Depression in the USA.
 The German economy was the worst hit by the economic crisis. By 1932, industrial
production was reduced to 40 per cent, Workers lost their jobs, and number of
unemployed touched an unprecedented 6 million.
 Germans hung placards around their necks saying, Willing to do any work.
 Unemployed youths took to criminal activities and total despair became common
place. The middle classes, especially salaried employees and pensioners, saw
their savings diminish when the currency lost its value.

e. Proletarianisation ( Fear of becoming poor)

 The rich, small business men, middle class and self-employed persons developed a
fear that at any time they would become poor and come to street in poverty.
 This group began to support Hitler and his ideas.

Hitler’s Promises

 Hitler promised to build Germany in to a strong nation.

 Hitler promised to undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and restore the dignity
of the German people.
 He promised employment for those looking for work.
 He promised to secure future of the youth.
 He promised to weed out all foreign influences and resist all foreign conspiracies
against Germany.

Hitler’s Destruction of Democracy

 On 30January1933, President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship to Hitler. Having

acquired power, Hitler set out to dismantle the structures of democratic rule.
 A mysterious fire that broke out in the German Parliament building and
the Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 was passed which indefinitely suspended civic
rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly.
 Then he turned on his arch- enemies, the Communists, most of whom were hurriedly
packed off to the newly established concentration camps. The repression of the
Communists was severe. The socialists, democrats and Catholics also were arrested and
killed.
 On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This Act established
dictatorship in Germany.
 It gave Hitler all powers to control over the economy, media, army and judiciary.
 Special surveillance and security forces were created to control and order society in
ways that the Nazis wanted. Apart from the already
existing regular police in green uniform the Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the
protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service (SD). The
police forces arrested, tortured and killed the undesirables.

Reconstruction of German Economy by Hitler

 Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery to the economist Hjalmar

Schacht who provided employment through a state-funded work-creation programme.
This project produced the famous German superhighways and the people’s car, the
Volkswagen.
 In foreign policy also Hitler acquired quick successes. He reoccupied the Rhineland
in 1936, and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan, One people,
One empire, and One leader.
 He then went on to wrest German-speaking Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, and
gobbled up the entire country. In all of this he had the unspoken support of
England and France.
 These quick successes at home and abroad seemed to reverse the destiny
of the country. Hitler invested hugely in rearmament as the state still ran on deficit
financing.
 Hitler chose war as the way out of the approaching economic crisis which led to II World
War.

Germany in the World War II

 In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This started a war with France and
England. In September 1940, a Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Italy and
Japan, strengthening Hitler’s claim to international power.
 Hitler moved to achieve his long-term aim of conquering Eastern Europe. He wanted
to ensure food supplies and living space for Germans.
 He attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941. In this historic blunder Hitler exposed the
German western front to British aerial bombing and the eastern front to the powerful
Soviet armies. The Soviet Red Army inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat
on Germany at Stalingrad.
 Japan was expanding its power in the east. It had occupied French Indo-China and was
planning attacks on US naval bases in the Pacific. When Japan extended its support to
Hitler and bombed the US base at Pearl Harbor, the US entered the Second World
War.
 The war ended in May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat and the US dropping of the atom bomb
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

Hitler’s worldview/ Nazi ideology/ Nazi worldview (peculiar features of Nazi World View)

 According to Nazi ideology

there was no equality between people, but only a racial
hierarchy. In this view blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans
were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung. They came to be
regarded as an anti-race, the arch-enemies of the Aryans.
 The other ideology of Hitler’s was Lebensraum, or living space. He believed that
new territories had to be acquired for settlement. This would enhance the area of
the mother country, and the material resources to be used for Germany.
 Nazis wanted only a society of pure and healthy Nordic Aryans.
They alone were considered desirable. Only they were seen as worthy of
prospering and multiplying against all others who were classed as undesirable.
 Under the Euthanasia Programme, Helmuth’s father along with other Nazi officials
had killed many Germans who were considered mentally or physically unfit.
 Many Gypsies and blacks living in Nazi Germany were
considered as racial inferiors.They were widely persecuted. Even Russians and
Poles were considered subhuman and killed.
 Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany.
 They had been stereotyped as killers of Christ and usurers. They lived in
separately marked areas called ghettos. They were often persecuted
through periodic organised violence, and expulsion from the land.

The Racial Utopia and killing of polish Civilians

 Genocide and war became two sides of the same coin in Germany. Occupied Poland
was divided up. Much of north-western Poland was annexed to Germany.
 Poles were forced to leave their homes and properties behind to be occupied by
ethnic Germans.
 Members of the Polish intelligentsia were murdered in large numbers in order to
keep the entire people intellectually and spiritually servile.
 Polish children who looked like Aryans were forcibly snatched from their mothers
and examined by race experts. If they passed the race tests they were raised in
German families and if not, they were deposited in orphanages where most
perished.

Youth in Nazi Germany / What happened in schools under Nazism?

 All schools were cleansed and purified. This meant that teachers who were Jews or seen
as politically unreliable were dismissed.
 Children were first segregated
Germans and Jews could not sit together or play together. Subsequently,
undesirable children Jews, the physically handicapped, Gypsies were thrown out of
schools.
 Good German children were subjected to a process of Nazi schooling,
a prolonged period of ideological training. School textbooks were rewritten. Racial
science was introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race. Stereotypes about Jews were
popularised even in classes.
 Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews, and worship Hitler. Even the
function of sports was to nurture a spirit of violence and aggression among children.
Hitler believed that boxing could make children iron hearted, strong and masculine.
 Youth organisations were made responsible for educating German youth in the spirit of
National Socialism.. Ten-year-olds had to enter Jungvolk. At 14, all boys had to join the
Nazi youth organization called Hitler Youth, where they learnt to worship war, glorify
aggression and violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews, communists, Gypsies and
all those categorised as undesirable.

The Nazi Cult of Motherhood

 While boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steel hearted, girls were
told that they had to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan
children. Girls had to maintain the purity of the race, distance
themselves from Jews, look after the home, and teach their children Nazi values
 In Nazi Germany all mothers were not treated equally.
Women who bore racially undesirable children were punished and those who
produced racially desirable children were awarded. They were given
favoured treatment in hospitals and concessions in shops , theatre tickets and railway
fares.
 To encourage women to produce many children, Honour Crosses were awarded. A
bronze cross was given for four children, silver for six and gold for eight or more.
 All Aryan women who deviated from the prescribed code of conduct were publicly
condemned, and severely punished. Those who maintained
contact with Jews, Poles and Russians were paraded through the town with shaved
heads and blackened faces.

The Art of Propaganda (why was Nazi propaganda effective in creating a hatred for Jews)

 The Nazi regime used language and media with care, and often to great effect. Nazis
never used the words kill or murder in their official communications. Mass killings
were termed special treatment, final
solution, euthanasia, selection and disinfections.
 Media was carefully used to win support for the regime and popularise its
worldview. Nazi ideas were spread through visual images, films, radio, posters,
catchy slogans and leaflets.
  In posters, groups identified as the enemies of Germans were stereotyped, mocked,
abused and described as evil.
 Socialists and liberals were represented as weak and degenerate. They were
attacked as malicious foreign agents.
 Orthodox Jews were shown with flowing beards wearing kaftans. They were referred
to as vermin, rats and pests. Their movements were compared to those of rodents.

How did the common people react to Nazism?

 Many people saw the world through Nazi eyes, and spoke their mind in
Nazi language. They felt hatred and anger surge inside them when they saw
someone who looked like a Jew.
 They marked the houses of Jews and reported suspicious neighbours. They believed that
Nazism would bring prosperity and improve general well-being.
 But not every German was a Nazi. Many organised active resistance to Nazism, braving
police repression and death. The large majority of Germans, however, were passive
onlookers and apathetic witnesses. They were too scared to act, to differ, to protest.

What did Jews feel in Nazi Germany?

 Charlotte Beradt secretly recorded jew’s dreams in her diary and later published them in
a highly disconcerting book called the Third Reich of Dreams.
 She describes how Jews themselves began believing in the Nazi stereotypes about them.
They dreamt of their hooked noses, black hair and eyes, Jewish
looks and body movements.
 The stereotypical images publicised in the Nazi press them even in their dreams. Jews
died many deaths even before they reached the gas chamber.

Holocaust

 Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured
during the Nazi killing operations. They collected and preserved documents wrote
diaries, kept notebooks, and created archives which are called the Holocaust.
 On the other hand when the war seemed lost, the Nazi leadership distributed petrol to
its functionaries to destroy all incriminating evidence available in offices.
 The history and the memory of the Holocaust live on in memoirs, fiction, documentaries,
poetry, memorials and museums in many parts of the world today. These are a
tribute to those who resisted Nazism and a warning to those who watched the Nazi
crimes in silence.

QUESTION AND ANSWERS

Q-1) What were the provisions of treaty of Versailles?
A-1) The treaty of Versailles was harsh and humiliating one. Its provisions were:-
1. Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13 percent of
its territories, 75 percent of its iron and 26 percent of its coal to
France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.
2. The allied powers demilitarized Germany to weaken its power.
3. Germany was forced to pay compensation of the damages. Allied countries
suffered loss amounting to $6 billion.
4. The allied armies also occupied the resource rich Rhineland for much of 1920’s.
-
Q-2) Who were the NOVEMBER CRIMINALS?
A-2) After Germany lost in World War 1 and its emperor was abdicated, a national
assembly was formed at Weimar i.e. the German parliament. It was known as Weimar
republic, mainly socialists, Catholics and democrats and became easy targets of attack in
the conservative nationalist circles. They were mockingly called “NOVEMBER CRIMINALS”

Q-3) Explain the following:-

1. ALLIES-The Allies powers were initially led by the UK and France. In 1941 they
were joined by the USSR and USA. They fought against powers namely GERMANY,
ITALY and JAPAN.
2. REICHSTAG-After Germany lost in World War I, a national assembly met at Weimar
and established a democratic constitution with a federal structure in Germany. The newly
elected German parliament was called REICHSTAG.
3. CONCENTRATION CAMPS-A camp where people were isolated and detained
without due process of law. Typically it was surrounded by electrified fences.
4. JUNGVOLK- Nazi youth groups for children below 14 years of age.
5. HOLOCAUST-The Nazi ruling operation during which the Jews endured atrocities
and suffering were called as HOLOCAUST.
6. LEBENSRAUM OR LIVING SPACE-It was the geopolitical concept of Hitler’s
ideology. He believed that new territories had to be acquired for settlement which would
enhance the area of mother country and enable the settlers on new lands to retain an
intimate link with the place of origin.
7. GESTAPO OR THE SECRET STATE POLICE-It was a special surveillance and
security force created to control and order society in ways that the Nazis wanted. It was
thus given extra constitutional powers.
8. NUREMBERG TRIBUNAL-At the end of World War 2, an international military
tribunal at Nuremberg was set up to prosecute Nazi war criminals for crimes against
peace, against humanity, for war crimes.
9. NAZI PARTY-German worker’s party was a small group and was joined by Adolph
Hitler in 1919 who subsequently took over the organization and renamed it as the
NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKER’S PARTY or NAZI PARTY.
10. GREAT ECONOMIC DEPRESSION-During this factories were shut down, exports
fell, farmers were badly hit and speculators withdrew their money from the market. The
effects of this recession in US economy were felt worldwide.

Q-4) What were the defects of Weimar Republic?

A-4) The two defects of Weimar republic were:-
1. Its proportional representation which made achieving a majority by any one party, a
nearly impossible task, leading to a rule by coalitions.
2. The article 48 which gave the president the powers to impose emergency suspend civil
rights and rule by decree.
Q-5) Why was the treaty of Versailles a humiliating experience for Germany?
A-5) The treaty of Versailles was a humiliating experience for Germany because:-
1. Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13 percent of
it’s territories, 75 percent of its iron and 26 percent of its coal to France, Poland,
Denmark and Lithuania.
2. The allied powers demilitarized Germany to weaken its power.
3. The war guilt cause held Germany responsible for war and forced to pay compensation
amounting to $6 billion.
4. The allied armies also occupied the resource rich Rhineland for much of the 1920’s
Many Germans held the new Weimar republic responsible for not only the defeat but the
disgrace at Versailles.

Q-6) In what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its people?
A-6) On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This act established
dictatorship in Germany.
•It gave Hitler all powers to side line parliament and rule by decree.
•All political parties and trade unions were banned except for the Nazi party and its
affiliates.
•The state established complete control over the economy, media, army and judiciary.
Special surveillance and security forces were created to control and order society in ways
that Nazis wanted.

Q-7) Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating a hatred for Jews?
A-7) The Nazis used language and media with care and often to great effects.
 They used deceptive practices. Nazis never used the “work or murder”. Mass
killings were termed “special treatment”, “Euthanasia”, “selection” and
“disinfection”.
 Media was carefully used to gain support and popularize it worldwide.
 The ideas were spread through images, films, radio, posters, groups identified as
enemies were stereotyped, mocked, abused.
 Socialists and liberals were represented as weak and degenerate.
 Propaganda films were made to create hatred. They were shown with flowing
beards, wearing kaftans whereas in reality it was difficult to distinguish German
Jews by their appearance.
 They were referred as vermin, rats as pests. Their movements were compared to
those of rodents. Nazism worked on the minds of the people trapped their
emotions and turned hatred and anger at those marked as undesirable.

Q-8) Explain the role of women in Nazi society?

A-8) In Nazi society women were created different from men.
• The principal role assigned to women was to become good mothers and give birth to
pure blooded Aryan children. They were motivated for this.
• Their main obligation was to maintain the purity of race. They were expected to look
after their homes and teach children Nazi values.

Q-9) Discuss why Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930?

A-9) It was during the great depression that Nazism became a mass movement.
• Banks collapsed, businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs. In such a
• Situation Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future.
• Hitler was a powerful speaker. His passion and hid words move people he promised to
build a strong nation undo the justice if Versailles treaty and restore dignity.
• He provisioned employment for those looking for work and a secure future for the
youth. He promised to use all foreign influences.
• He advised a new style of politics. He understood the significance of rituals mass
mobilization.
• He held massive rallies and public meetings.

Q-10) What are peculiar feature of Nazi thinking?

A-10) In their view there was no equality between people but only a racial hierarchy.
• In this world blood, blue eyed Nordic were at the top while Jews were at the lowest.
They were as regarded as anti racial.
• All other coloured people were placed in between depending on their features.
• Hitler’s other ideology was that new territories had to be acquired. This would enhance
the area of mother country while enabling settlers to newer lands. It would also enhance
the material resources.

Q-11) Describe the problems faced by Weimar republic?

A-11) The Weimar republic faced economic and political problems.
• Because of the treaty and Versailles Germany had to pay large amounts of money for
the damages caused to the allied powers. It also had to pay huge sums of loans taken to
fight the war which was taking away all of German’s gold reserves.
• Because of the government was very unstable, emergency was imposed a number of
times so people had lost their confidence in the democratic parliamentary systems.

Q-12) What were the economic effects of great depression on Germany?

A-12) The economic effects of depression on Germany were:-
• By 1932 industrial production was reduced to 40% of the 1929 level. Workers lost their
job or were paid reduced wages. The number of unemployed touched an unprecedented 6
million on the streets of Germany. You could see men with played cards around their
necks saying “willing do any work”.
• Unemployed played cards or sat at streets or desperately queued up at the
unemployment exchange.
• As jobs disappeared, youth took to criminal activities and total despair become
commonplace.
• The economic crisis created deep anxieties and faces in people.
• The middle class salaried employees and pensioners saw their savings diminish when
the currency it’s value.
• Small businessman, self -employed retailers suffered as their business got ruined.
• They were with the fear of proletarianisation, an anxiety of being reduced to the ranks
of the unemployed.
• Only organized workers could manage to keep their heads above water but
unemployment weakened their bargaining powers. Big businesses were in crisis.
• The large mass of peasantry was affected by a sharp fall in agricultural prices and
women unable to fill their children’s stomachs were filled with a sense of deep despair.
 Q-13 What were the political effects of Great depression on Germany?
A-13) In addition to the crisis the Weimar republic had some inherent defects, which
made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship.
• One was the proportional representation which was an impossible task to achieve
majority.
• The other-Article 48 gave the president too much power to impose emergency, suspend
civil rights and rule by decree.
• Within its short life, the Weimar republic saw 20 different cabinets lasting on an
average 239 days and a liberal use of article 48.
• But the crises could not be managed people, and they lost confidence in the democratic
parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no solution.

Assignment
1. What is Genocidal war?
2. What was international Military Tribunal?
3. What was Weimar Republic and what were the defects of its constitution?
4. Explain the conditions of Versailles treaty?
5. Who were called as November criminals?
6. What were the Effects of the World War I in Germany?
7. Explain Hitler’s Promises.
8. How did Hitler Destroyed Democracy in Germany?
9. How did Hitler Reconstruct German Economy?
10. Explain the peculiar features of Nazi World View.
11. What happened to schools under Nazism in Germany?
12. Explain the Nazi Cult of Motherhood.
13. Why was Nazi propaganda so effective in creating a hatred for Jews?
14. How did the common people react to Nazism?
15. What did Jews feel in Nazi Germany?
16. What is Holocaust?
Nazism and Rise of Hitler Outline Political Map of World (For locating and labeling /
Identification)
 Major countries of Second World War Axis Powers – Germany, Italy, Japan
 Allied Powers – UK, France, Former USSR, USA
 Territories under German expansion (Nazi Power)
 Austria,
 Poland,
 Czechoslovakia (only Slovakia shown in the map),
 Denmark,
 Lithuania,
 France,
 Belgium