NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER

GERMANY

IN WORLD WAR-I

• The First World War was fought between Germany, the Austrian empire and Turkey (Central powers) against the

Allies (England, France and Russia).

• They all joined the war assuming a quick gain and a quick victory.

• France and Belgium were occupied by Germany resulting in initial gains for it.

• But soon after USA joined the War (in 1917), the situation turned around.

• In 1918, the First World War was won by the Allies by defeating Germany and the Central powers.

THE BIRTH OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

• After the defeat of Germany in the First World War and the abdication of the king, the German polity was rebuilt.

• There were two major defects in the Weimar constitution which resulted in its instability and vulnerability to

dictatorship.

• Proportional representation. This created problem for any one party to gain majority, leading to a rule by

coalition

• Article 48, which gave the President the powers to impose emergency, suspended civil rights and rule by decree.

• The Weimar Republic dissolved about 20 times by the President within a span of 239 days. Due to this democratic

parliamentary system, crisis in the economy, polity and society leading to the rise of Hitler to power.

TREATY OF VERSAILLES

• Signed between Germany and the Allied Powers (England, France and Russia)

• Germany lost all its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population and 13% of its territories.

- 26% of its coal mines and 75% of its iron mines were given to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.

• To weaken its powers, the allied powers demilitarised Germany.

• The resource rich Rhineland of Germany was occupied by the Allied armies.

Germany was held responsible for the First World War and the damages suffered by the Allied countries. Due to this

reason, Germany was forced to pay compensation of £6 billion.

Social Effects

Due to the harsh impact of the war, the soldiers were placed above civilians.There was great stress laid on for men to be
aggressive, strong and masculine by the political leaders and media. Aggressive war propaganda and national honour resulted in
popular support for conservative dictatorship

Political Effects

The birth of Weimar Republic coincided with the revolutionary uprising of the Spartacist League. Soviet-style of government was
demanded in Berlin. But the uprising was suppressed with the help of war veterans' organisation known as 'Free Corps'.

Economic Crisis (Hyperinflation)

Germany fought the First World War mainly on loans and later had to repay it in gold. This resulted in depletion of gold
reserves. As Germany refused to pay theloan in 1923, in return France occupied its leading industrial area, Ruhr. Germany began
printing paper currency recklessly and this resulted in over circulation of the paper currency, due to which the value of German
mark fell. This came to be known as hyperinflation, a situation when prices rose phenomenally high.
The Years of Depression

• Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929.• Between 1929 and 1932, the national income of the USA fell by half.• The effects of
this recession in the US economy were felt worldwide.

Effects on Germany

• Germany received short-term loans largely from the US.• Industrial production reduced. • Workers lost their jobs.• Youth
took to criminal activities.• Small businessmen and self-employed suffered as their businesses got ruined.• People lost
confidence in the democratic parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no solutions.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Hitler fought in the First World War, became a corporal and won medals.

(i) The humiliating Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany made him angry.

(ii) In 1919, He joined the ‘German Workers Party’, He took over its organisation and renamed it the National Socialist German
Workers Party. This party came to be known as the Nazi Party.

(iii) During the Great Depression, Nazism became a mass movement.

(iv) Hitler was a powerful speaker; with his words he was able to move the minds of the people.

(v) He promised employment for those looking for work.

(vi) He promised a secure future for the youth.

(vii) He won the support of the common people by promising to undo the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles.

FROM 2.6% VOTES IN 1928 TO 37% VOTES IN 1932

(ix) The Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings to demonstrate the support for Hitler and develop a feeling of unity
among the people.

(x) Red banners with the Swastika and the Nazi Salute were a part of the show of power.

(xi) Nazi propaganda skilfully projected Hitler as the messiah and saviour of the people.

(xii) All those who opposed Hitler were sent to concentration camps.

DESTRUCTION OF DEMOCRACY

President of the Weimar Republic Paul Von Hindenburg made Hitler the chancellor of Germany. Shortly after, a mysterious fire
broke out in the Reichstag, the parliament building of Germany. Blaming the act of arson on communists and other ‘enemy of
the state, Hitler passed the First Fire decree in 1933 which suspended the civic rights like freedom of speech, press and freedom
of assembly. Thus, Hitler effectively started controlling the German population. Other measures he undertook to systematically
dismantle democracy in Germany were:

(I) ‘The Enabling Act’ was passed, which gave all powers to Hitler to sideline the parliament and rule by decree.

(ll) All political parties, with the exception of the Nazi Party, were banned. The members of these banned parties were either
imprisoned, exiled or assassinated.

(III) The communists were eradicated, with the remaining members being sent to concentration camps.

(IV) Special security forces such as the SA, SS, SD and Gestapo were created to control and order society in ways that the Nazis
wanted. These organisations were given extra-judicial powers.

RECONSTRUCTION:

(i) Hitler assigned the economist Hjalmar Schacht. Schacht aimed at full production and full employment through a state-funded
work-creation programme. This project produced the famous German superhighways and the people’s car, the Volkswagen.
 (ii) Hitler also pulled out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 and integrated Austria and
Germany in 1938. Then he took the country of Czechoslovakia.

(iii) Hitler’s hungs for more success and fame, corrupted his mind and soul so much so that he could never distinguish between
right and wrong. Schacht advised him against investing hugely in rearmament as the state still ran on deficit financing. Hitler did
not like such cautious people and immediately removed him.

Hitler’s World View

The Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitlers World view.

(i) According to Nazi ideology there was no equality between people, but only a racial hierarchy.

(ii) In this view, blond, blue eyed Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung and
regarded as the arch enemies of the Aryans.

(iii) Hitler’s racism borrowed ideas from thinkers like Charles Darwin.

(iv) Herbert Spencor gave the idea of the survival of the fittest.

(v) The Nazis argued that the strongest race would survive and the weak ones would perish.

(vi) The Aryan race was the finest. It had to retain its purity, become stronger and dominate the world.

(vii) Hitler believed in the concept of Lebensraum or living space for the German people. Therefore, he believed that new
territories should be acquired for the settlement of German people.

(viii) It would also enhance the material resources and power of the German State.

(ix) The Nazis, in order to create a superior Aryan racial community of Germans, started to eliminate ‘inferior’ races like the
Jews, Poles and Gypsies.

(x) Millions of Jews, Gypsies Blacks and even Russians and Poles were considered undesirables and were to be eliminated by
putting them to death.

The Youth in Nazi Germany

 Hitler was greatly interested in the youth.

(i) He felt a strong Nazi society could be established only by teaching the children Nazi ideology.
(ii) All schools were ‘cleansed’ and purified which means that teachers who were Jews or seen as ‘politically unreliable’ were
dismissed.
(iii) Children were first segregated and German and Jewish children could not sit together or play together.
(iv) The Jews and undesirable children were thrown out of schools and later on killed in gas chambers.
(v) Good German children were subjected to a process of Nazi schooling, a period of ideological training.
(vi) School text books were rewritten and Racial Science introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race.
(vii) Children Jews and worship Hitler.
(viii) Youth organisations promoted the spirit of National Socialism among the youth.
(ix) Ten year old children had to join ‘Jungvolk’ and at 14 years of age all children had to join the Nazi youth organisation
‘Hitler Youth’. were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate
(x) As members of Hitler Youth they learnt to worship war. glorify aggression and violence, condemn democracy and hate
Jews and other undesirables.
(xi) The youth around the age of 18 had to serve in the armed forces and enter one of the Nazi organisations.

The Nazi Cult of Motherhood 

 
In 1933, Hitler said ‘In my state the mother is the most important citizen.’
(i) Girls were told that they had to become good mothers and rear pure blooded Aryan children.
(ii) Girls had to maintain purity of race, distance themselves from Jews and teach their children Nazi values.
(iii) All mothers were not treated equally; women who bore racially undesirable children were punished while those who
produced racially desirable children were awarded and given concessions.
(iv) To encourage women to produce many children, Honour Crosses were awarded. A bronze cross for four children, silver
Cross for six children and a gold Cross for eight or more children.
 (v) All ‘Aryan’ women who deviated from the prescribed code of conduct were publicly condemned and severely punished.
(vi) Those who maintained contacts with Jews, Poles and Russians were paraded through the town with shaved heads and
blackened faces.

The Art of Propaganda 

 The Nazi regime used language and media with care and often to great effect.
EUTHANASIA: DISABLED;FINAL SOLUTION:JEWS
(i) Media was used to win support for the regime and popularise the world view.
(ii) Nazi ideas were spread through images, films, radio, posters, catchy slogans and leaflets.
(iii) Socialists and liberals were shown as weak and degenerate and attacked as foreign agents.
(iv) Propaganda films created hatred for the Jews and referred to them as vermin, rats and pests .
ETERNAL JEWS INFAMOUS FILM FOR JEW HATRED

Ordinary People and Crimes Against Humanity

(i) Many saw the world through Nazi eyes and spoke their mind in Nazi language.
(ii) As they were influenced by Nazism they felt hatred and anger when they saw someone who looked like a Jew.
(iii) They marked the houses of the Jews and reported suspicious neighbours to the Police.
(iv) They really believed that Nazism would bring prosperity and improve general well being.
(v) Not all Germans supported Nazism.
(vi) Many Germans were afraid to oppose Nazism because they would be put to death for opposing the Nazis.
(vii) Because of Nazi propaganda the Jews themselves began believing in Nazi stereotypes about themselves like having
hooked noses, black hair and eyes, Jewish looks and body movements.
PASTOR NIMOLLE A RESISTANCE FIGHTER WROTE POEM

Knowledge about the Holocaust

 
Information about Nazi practices and atrocities had trickled out of Germany during the last years of the regime.
(i) Only after Germany was defeated in the Second World War, the world came to see and realise the horrors of what had
happened to the undesirables in Germany.
(ii) Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the Nazi killing operations.
(iii) Many inhabitants wrote diaries, kept note books and created archives about the Nazi atrocities.
 (iv) When the war seemed lost, the Nazi leadership distributed petrol to its functionaries to destroy all incriminating
evidence in offices.
(v) The memory of the holocaust lives on in memories, fiction, memorials and museums in parts of the world today.

DATES:

May 1945: Germany surrendered to the Allies

1914 to 1918: first world war
1917: the US entered the Allies
November 1918: the allies defeated Germany and the central powers
1923: economic crisis, political radicalisation
1929: the Wall Street exchange crashed
The years between 1929 and 1932: the national income of the USA fell by half
By 1932: the German economy was worst hit and the industrial production was reduced to 40% of the 1929 level
1889: Hitler born in Austria
1919: Hitler joined a small group called German workers party
In 1928: the nazi party got no more than 2.6 % votes
By 1932: the vote of nazi party increased to 37%
30th January 1933: president hindenburg offered the chancellorship to Hitler
March 3 1933: the famous enabling Act was passed
1936: Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland.
1938: Hitler integrated Austria and Germany
September 1939: Germany invaded Poland
September 1940: a tripartite pact was signed between Germany Italy and Japan
June 1941: Hitler attacked the Soviet Union
May 1945: the Second World War ended
From 1933 to 1938: the nazis terrorized and segregated the news.
From September 1941: all Jews had to wear a yellow star of David on their breasts
1922: the youth League of the nazis was founded