NAZISM AND RISE OF HITLER-ERP

1. Describe the problems faced by the Weimar Republic.

ANSWER: After the defeat of Imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic came
into existence. The Republic had a democratic constitution and a federal
structure. The Republic was not well received by the people. The Weimar
Republic faced many problems on all fronts-economic, political, and social.
 It was held responsible for the defeat in the First World War. The Republic

had to pay war compensation and this put the Republic in deep financial crisis.
 Germany had fought the war largely on loans and had to pay war reparations

in gold. Subsequently, gold reserves depleted and the value of the German
market fell. Prices of essential commodities rose dramatically.
 The Weimar Republic faced problems on the political front also. The

Constitution had many defects. The Constitution gave the President powers
to impose emergency, suspend civil rights, and rule by decree.(Article 48)
 The Weimar Republic had 20 different cabinets within a short span of time.
Soon people lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system.

2. Enumerate the factors contributing to the rise of Hitler?

ANSWER:
 Hitler was a powerful orator. His speech could mesmerize the masses.
 The factors responsible for the meteoric rise of Hitler are
He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles
Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people.
 He assured employment for unemployed people and a secured future
for the youths.
 He promised to control all foreign influence and resist all foreign
conspiracies against Germany.
 He introduced a new style of politics. Nazi party held massive rallies and
public meetings to demonstrate the support for Hitler and this massive
mobilisation created a sense of unity among German people.
 Nazi propaganda skillfully projected Hitler as a messiah, a saviour as
someone who had arrived to save people from their distress.
 Hitler came during such a period when the dignity and pride of German
people were totally shattered due to the defeat in the First World War and
humiliating Treaty of Versailles.
 The crisis in the economy, polity and society formed the background of
Hitler's rise to power.

3. ‘Hitler set out to dismantle the structures of democratic rule’. Explain

ANSWER:
On 30 January 1933, President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship,
the highest position in the cabinet of ministers, 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 in February facilitated his move.
 The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 indefinitely suspended civic
rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly that had been
guaranteed by the Weimar constitution.
 Then he turned on his arche enemies, the Communists, most of
whom were hurriedly packed off to the newly established
concentration camps.
 . On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This Act
established dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler all powers to
sideline 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 the Nazis wanted. Apart from the
already existing regular police in green uniform and the SA or the
Storm Troopers, these included the Gestapo (secret state police),
the SS (the protection squads), criminal police and the Security
Service (SD)
4. Describe the art of propaganda of Nazi regime.
ANSWER:
 The Nazi regime used language and media with care, and often to
great effect.
 The terms they coined to describe their various practices are not
only deceptive. They are chilling. Nazis never used the words ‘kill’
or ‘murder’ in their official communications. Mass killings were
termed special treatment, final solution (for the Jews), euthanasia
(for the disabled), selection and disinfections. ‘Evacuation’ meant
deporting people to gas chambers.
  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.
 Propaganda films were made to create hatred for Jews. The most
infamous film was The Eternal Jew.
 Orthodox Jews were stereotyped and marked. They were referred
to as vermin, rats and pests. Their movements were compared to
those of rodents.
5. Describe the Nazi policy towards schools.
ANSWER:
 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. And finally in the 1940s, they were taken to the gas
chambers.
 ‘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 through maths
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.
6. Describe the policy of Nazi’s government towards women .
ANSWER:
 Children in Nazi Germany were repeatedly told that women were
radically different from men. 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 ,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 were also
entitled to concessions in shops and on 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, blackened
faces and placards hanging around their necks announcing ‘I have
sullied the honour of the nation’.
 Many received jail sentences and lost civic honour as well as their
husbands and families for this ‘criminal offence’
7. Outline Political Map of World (For locating and labeling / Identification)
Major countries of Second World War
a) Axis Powers – Germany, Italy, Japan
b) Allied Powers – UK, France, Former USSR, USA
c) Territories under German expansion (Nazi Power) Austria, Poland,
Czechoslovakia (only Slovakia shown in the map), Denmark,
Lithuania, France, Belgium