CHAPTER-3
NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER
Q1. Who are allies?
Ans. The allied powers led by the UK and France. In 1941 they
were joined by the USSR and USA. They fought against the Axis Powers, namely
Germany, Italy and Japan.
Q2. When and between
whom was the first world war fought? What was the result?
Ans. 1) The first world war was fought between allies power
and axis powers in 1914 to 1918.
2) The allies
strengthened by the US entry in 1917, won, defeating Germany and the central
powers in November 1918.
Q3. What political
changes come in Germany after the defeat in first world war?
Ans. 1) The defeat of imperial Germany and the abdication of
the emperor gave an opportunity to parliamentary parties to recast German
polity.
2) National assembly met at Weimar and establish a democratic
constitution with a federal structure.
3) Deputies were now elected to the German parliament or
Reichstag, on the basis of equal and universal vote caste by all adults
including women.
Q4. ‘The treaty of Versailles
was harsh and humiliating treaty for Germany’. Justify.
Ans. 1) Treaty at Versailles with the Allies was the harsh
and humiliating peace. Germany lost its overseas colonies.
2) 13% of its territories, 75% of its iron and 26% of its
coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.
3) The Allied powers demilitarised Germany to weaken its
power.
4) The war Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the war
and damages the Allied countries suffered.
5) Germany was found to pay compensation to 6billion.
6) The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich
Rhineland for much of the 1920s.
Q5. What was the impact
of first war on Germany?
Ans. 1) The war had a devastating impact on the entire
continent both psychologically and financially.
2) The infant Weimar Republic was being made to pay for the
sins of the old Empire.
3) The republic carried the burden of war guilt and national
humiliation and was financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation.
Q6. Who were called as
November criminals? Or
Define November
criminals.
Ans. Those who supported the Weimer Republic, mainly
socialists, Catholics and Democrats, became easy targets of attack in the
conservative nationalist circles. They were mockingly called the ‘November
criminals’.
Q7. What was the effect
of first world war on European society?
Ans. 1) The first world war left a deep imprint on European
society and polity.
2) Soldiers came to be placed above civilians.
3) Politicians and publicists laid great stress on the need
for men to be aggressive, strong and masculine.
4) The media glorified trench life. The truth, however, was
that soldiers lived miserable lives in these trenches, trapped with rats
feeding in corpses.
5) Aggressive in these propaganda and national honour
occupied centre stage in the public sphere.
Q8. What factors led to
economic crisis in Germany in 1923? Who helped Germany to move act of crisis?
Ans. 1) Germany was hit by the economic crisis of 1923.
2) Germany had fought the war largely on loans and had to pay
war reparations in gold.
3) This depleted gold reserves at a time resources were
scarce.
4) In 1923, Germany refused to pay, and the French occupied
its leading industrial area, Ruhr, to claim their coal.
5) Germany retaliated with passive resistance and printed
paper currency recklessly.
6) With too much printed money in circulation, the value of
the German mark fell.
7) As the value of the mark collapsed, prices of goods
soared. This crisis came to be known as hyperinflation.
8) The Americans intervened and bailed Germany out of the
crisis by introducing the Dawes plan.
Q9. What was the effect
of great economic depression of 1920s on USA and Germany?
Ans. 1) 3 years, between 1929 and 1932, the national income
of the USA fell by half.
2) Factories shut down, exports fell, farmers were badly and
speculators withdrew their money from the market.
3) The effects of this recession in the US economy were felt
worldwide.
4) The German economy was the worst hit by the economic
crisis.
5) By 1932, industrial production was reduced to 40% of the
1929 level.
6) Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages.
7) As jobs disappeared, the youth took to criminal activities
and total despair became commonplace.
Q10. “The economic
crisis in Germany due to the great depression created deep anxieties and fears
in the people of Germany”. Explain
Ans. 1) The economic crisis created deep anxieties and fears
in people. The middle classes, especially salaried employees and pensioners,
saw their savings diminish when the currency lost its value.
2) Small businessman, the self-employed and retailers as
their businesses got ruined.
3) Only organised workers could manage to keep their heads
above water, but employment weakened their bargaining power.
4) Big business was in crisis.
5) The large mass of peasantry was effected by a sharp fall
in agricultural prices.
Q11. Justify with 4
points that politically the Weimar republic in German was fragile.
Ans. 1) The Weimer constitution had some inherent defects,
which made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship.
2) Another defect was Article 48, which gave the president
the powers to impose emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.
3) Within its short life, the Weimar republic saw 20
different cabinets lasting on an average 239 days.
4) People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary
system, which seemed to offer no solutions.
Q12. State the main
feature of enabling act passed by Hitler.
Ans. 1) On 3 March 1933, the famous enabling act was passed.
This act establishing dictatorship in Germany.
2) It gave Hitler all powers to side-line parliament and rule
by decree.
3) All political parties and trade unions were banned except
for the Nazi party and its affiliates.
4) The state established complete control over the economy,
media, army and judiciary.
Q13. Which event marked
the beginning of the second world war?
Ans. 1) In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This
started a war with France and England.
2) In September 1940, a tripartite Pact was signed between
Germany, Italy and Japan strengthening Hitler’s to international power.
Q14. Why did not USA
joined world war 2nd in the beginning? Which incident led to its
entry in the war?
Ans. 1) The USA had resisted involvement in the war.
2) It was unwilling to once again face all the economic
problems that the first world war had caused.
3) But it could not stay out of the war for long.
4) 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
Harbour, the US entered the 2nd world war.
5) The war ended in May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat and the US
dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan.
Q15. State the main
features of Nazi ideology.
Ans. 1) Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitler’s worldview.
2) According to this, there was no equality between people,
but only a racial hierarchy.
3) In this view blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were
at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung.
4) Other coloured people were placed in between depending
upon their external features.
Q16. Write a note on
school under Nazism.
Ans. 1) Ale schools were ‘cleansed’ and ‘purified’. This
meant that teachers who were Jews or seen as ‘politically unreliable’ were
dismissed.
2) Children were first segregated: Germans and Jews could not
sit together or play together.
3) Subsequently, ‘undesirable children’ – Jews, the
physically handicapped, Gypsies- were thrown out of schools.
4) ‘Good German’ children were subjected to a process of Nazi
schooling.
5) School textbooks were rewritten. Racial science was
introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race.
6) Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate
Jews, and worship Hitler.
Q17. Discuss the life
of youth in Nazi’s Germany.
Ans. 1) Youth organisations were made responsible for
educating German youth in the ‘the spirit of National Socialism’.
2) At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation-
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’.
3) After a period of rigorous ideological and physical
training, they joined the labour service, usually at the age of 18. Then they
had to serve in the armed forces and enter one of the Nazi organisations.
Q18. What were Nazi’s
views about equality of men and women?
Ans. 1) Children in Nazi Germany were repeatedly told that
women were radically different from men.
2) The fight for equal rights for men and women that had
become part of democratic struggles was wrong and it would destroy society.
3) While boys were to be aggressive, masculine and steel
hearted, girls were told that they had to become good mothers and rear
pure-blooded Aryan children.
Q19. What treatment
were given to the mothers in Nazi’s Germany?
Ans. 1) In Nazi Germany, all mothers were not treated
equally.
2) Women who bore racially undesirable children were punished
and those who produced racially desirable children were rewarded.
3) They were given favoured treatment in hospitals and were
also entitled to concessions in shops and on theatre tickets and railway fanes.
4) To encourage women to produce many children, Honour
crosses were awarded.
Q20. What punishment
were given to the women who deviated from the prescribed code of conduct given
by Nazi’s in Germany?
Ans. 1) All ‘Aryan’ women who deviated from the prescribed
code of conduct were publically condemned, and severely punished.
2) Those who maintained contact with Jews, Poles and Russians
were paraded through the town with shaved heads.
3) Blackened faces and placards hanging and their necks
announcing ‘I have sullied the honour of the nation’.
4) Many received jail sentences and lost their civil honour
as well as their husbands and families for this ‘criminal offence’.
Q21. Discuss the role
of media in spreading Nazi ideology in Germany.
Ans. 1) Media was carefully used to win support for the
region and popularise its worldview.
2) Nazi ideas were spread through visual images, films,
radios, posters, catchy slogans and leaflets.
3) In posters groups identified as the ‘enemies’ of Germans
were stereotyped, mocked, abused and described as evil.
4) Socialists and liberals were represented as weak and
degenerate.
5) Propaganda films were made to create hatred for Jews.
Q22. How did media
portrays Jews under Nazi Germany?
Ans. 1) Propaganda films were made to create hatred for Jews.
2) Orthodox Jews were stereotyped and mocked.
3) They were shown with flowing beards wearing Kaftans.
4) Their movements were compared to those of rodents.
5) Nazism worked on the minds of the people, trapped their
emotions and turned their hatred and anger at those marked as ‘undesirable’.
Q23. How did the common
people react to Nazism?
Ans. 1) Many saw the world through Nazi eyes and spoke their
mind in Nazi language.
2) They felt hatred and anger surge inside them when they saw
someone who looked like a Jew.
3) But not every German was a Nazi. Many organised active
resistance to Nazism, braving police repression and death.
4) The large majority of Germans, however, were passive on
lookers and apathetic witness. They were too scared to act, to differ, to
protest.
5) They preferred to look away.
Q24. How did the Jews
felt about themselves in Nazi Germany? Explain with the help of writing of
Charlotte Beradt.
Ans. Charlotte Beradt secretly recorded people’s dreams in
her diary and later published them in a book called the Third Riech of Dreams.
2. She describes how jews themselves began believing in the
Nazi streotypes about them.
3. They dreamt of their hooked noses, black hair and eyes,
Jewish looks and body movements.
4. The stereotypical images publicised in the Nazi press
hunted the jews.
5. They troubled them even in their dreams , jews died many
deaths even before they reached the gas chamber.
Q25. How did the world
came to know about the torture of Nazi on the Jews in Germany?
Ans. It was only after the war ended and Germany was defeated
that the world came to realise the horrors of what had happened to the Jews in
Germany.
2. The Jews wanted the world to remember their sufferings
they had endured during the Nazi killing operations – also called the
Holocaust.
3. This indomitable spirit to bear and to preserve the documents can be seen in
many Ghetto and camp inhabitants who wrote diaries kept notebooks, created
archieves.
Q26. Write a short note on early years of Hitler’s life.
Ans. Born in 1889 in
Austria , Hitler spent his youth in poverty. When the first world war broke out
, he enrolled for the army, acted as a messenger, in the front, became a
corporal and earned medals for bravery. The German defeat horrified him and the
Versailles treaty made him furious. In 1919, he joined a small group called the
German workers party. He subsequently took over the organisation and renamed it
with National Socialist. German worker’s Party. This party came to be known as
Nazi Party.
Q27. How did Nazi party
become a popular party in Germany?
The Nazi could not effectively mobilise popular support till
the early 1930s. It was during the great depression that Nazism became a mass movement.
As we have seen after 1929, banks collapsed and business shut down workers lost
their jobs and the middle classes were treated with destitution. In such a
situation Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of the better future.
Q28. “Hitler was a
powerful speaker” support the given statement with 3 points.
Ans. Hitler was a powerful speaker. His passion and his words
moved the people.
2. He promised to build a strong nation, under the injustice
of the versallies treaty and restore the dignity of the German people. He
promised employment for those looking for work and a secure future for the
youth.
3. He promised to weed out all foreign influences and resist
all foreign ‘conspiraces’ against Germany.
Q29. How did Hitler
re-construct Germany?
Ans. Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery
to the economics Hjalmar Schact who aimed at full production and full
employment through a state – funded work creation programme.
2. This project produced the famous German super highway and
the people’s car , the Volkswagen.
3. He reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 and integrated Austria
and Germany in 1936 under the slogan ‘one people, one empire and one leader’.
Q29. What was the Nazi
ideology about races ?
Ans. Nazi ideology did not give equality to the people.
2. Only Nordic German Aryans were regarded as the superior
and Jews regarded as the superior and the Jews were at the lowest track.
3. According to this only those species could be regarded as
superior who were purely Aryans.
4. The Nazi’s said that the strongest species would survive
and the weak perish.
