CLASS 9 - HISTORY - NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER

 

Class 9 Important Questions 

Nazism and the Rise of Hitler 

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
What was genocidal war?
Answer:
It was a war started by Germany during the Second World War, which resulted in the mass murder of selected groups of innocent civilians of Europe.

Question 2.
What was the impact of the First World War on the political system of Germany?
Answer:

• The abdication of the emperor gave an opportunity to parliamentary parties to recast German polity.
• A democratic constitution was established with a federal structure.

Question 3.
Name the members of the Axis powers.
Answer:
Germany, Italy and Japan.

Question 4.
Name the members of the Allies.
Answer:
England, France and Russia.

Question 5.
What refers to the Secret State Police of Germany?
Answer:
Gestapo.

Question 6.
What is hyperinflation? Mention the factor responsible for this.
Answer:
It is a situation when there is very high price rise. It occurred in Germany after the First World War due to too much printing of currency.

Question 7.
What was the Enabling Act which was passed by Hitler after he took control over Germany?
Answer:
The Enabling Act was passed in 1933. It gave Hitler all powers to sideline the Parliament and the rule by decree. All political parties and trade unions were banned except the Nazi Party.

Question 8.
Name the Treaty which was signed by the Allies with Germany after the First World War.
Answer:
The Treaty of Versailles.

Question 9.
When was the Tripartite Pact signed? What was its importance?
Answer:
It was signed in 1940 between Germany, Italy and Japan. It strengthened Hitler’s claim to international power.

Question 10.
“The new republic established in Germany after the First World War was not received well by its own people”. Give reason. HOTS
Answer:
Because the new republic signed the Treaty of Versailles accepting all the demands of the Allies.

Question 11.
Who supported the Weimar Republic?
Answer:
Socialists, Communists and Democrats.

Question 12.
Why was the new Weimar Constitution introduced in August 1919 weak?
Answer:
Due to availability of much political party, frequent changes of government and difficulty to establish stability, Weimar constitution introduced in August 1919 became weak.

Question 13.
What is the term used for the German Parliament?
Answer:
eichstag.

Question 14.
Why was the Treaty of Versailles hated by Germany?
Answer:
Because Germany lost 75% of its iron and was demilitarized.

Question 15.
In Weimar Republic, which right was not given to the president according to the Article 48?
Answer:
Install Communism.

Question 16.
Among whom Tripartite Pact which strengthened Hitler’s claim to international power was signed?
Answer:
Germany, Italy and Japan.

Question 17.
When did Hitler become the Chancellor of Germany?
Answer:
1933.

Question 18.
What was Free Corps?
Answer:
It was a war veterans organisation which helped the Weimar Republic to crush the uprising of the workers or socialists.

Question 19.
Which year is known for the beginning of the Great Depression?
Answer:
1929.

Question 20.
Mention two provisions of Article 48 with reference to Germany.
Answer:

• It was the President to impose emergency.
• It provided powers to President to suspend Civil Rights.

Question 21.
Who was assigned the responsibility of economic recovery by Hitler?
Answer:
Hjalmar Schacht.

Question 22.
When did Germany withdraw herself from the ‘League of Nations’?
Answer:
1933.

Question 23.
Who was the Propaganda Minister of Hitler?
Answer:
Goebbels.

Question 24.
Hitler integrated which two nations under the slogan, ‘One people, One Empire and One Vote’?
Answer:
Austria and Germany.

Question 25.
“The Weimar constitution had some inherent defects, which made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship.” Explain.
Answer:

• The system of proportional representation made achieving a majority by any one party a near impossible task, leading to the rule by coalitions.
• Article 48 gave the President the power to impose emergency. So this article was being misused by the ruler.

Question 26.
Where was Hitler bom?
Answer:
Austria.

Question 27.
Why was the famous Enabling Act passed?
Answer:
To establish dictatorship in Germany.

Question 28.
Name any four races or people who were considered undesirable or Inferior in Germany. ,
Answer:

• Jews,
• Blacks,
• Gypsies,
• Russians.

Question 29.
Who were known as November criminals?
Answer:
The group of people, who mainly supported the Weimar Republic of Germany were known as November criminals. Most of them were Socialists, Catholics and Democrats.

Question 30.
What was Dawes Plan?
Answer:
It was a Plan introduced by America to bail Germany out of the financial crisis which it suffered after the First World War.

Question 31.
Name any four countries which were occupied or attacked by Germany between 1936 to 1945.
Answer:

• Rhineland,
• Austria,
• Sudetenland
• Poland.

Question 32.
Why were the Jews classified as ‘undesirable’ by the Nazis?
Answer:
The Jews were classified as ‘undesirable’ by the Nazis because they had been stereotyped as the killers of Christ and usurers.

Question 33.
Which science was introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race?
Answer:
Racial Science.

Question 34.
To whom did Mahatma Gandhi had written a letter for International peace?
Answer:
Hitler.

Question 35.
“Nazism became a mass movement during the Great Depression period’’. Give reason for the same. HOTS
Answer:
It was during the Great Depression that Nazism became a mass movement. The depression had a severe impact on the economy of Germany, many banks collapsed and businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs and the middle classes were threatened with destitution. In such a situation Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future.

Question 36.
Who was the founder of Nazi Party?
Answer:
Hitler.

Question 37.
Define Holocaust.
Answer:
These were Nazi killing operations which were carried out to kill the Jews.

Question 38.
When did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
Answer:
9 December, 1941.

Question 39.
What was the reason for the entry of US in Second World War?
Answer:
Japan bombed Pearl Harbour.

Question 40.
Which incident marked the end of the Second World War?
Answer:
The war ended in May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat and the US dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
Mention four major terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
Or
‘The Treaty of Versailles was harsh and humiliating’. Justify by
giving four terms of the treaty.
Answer:

• Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13 per cent of its territories, 75 per cent of its iron and 26 per cent of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.
• The Allied Powers demilitarised Germany to weaken its power.
• The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the war and damages the Allied countries suffered. Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to around £ 6 billion.
• The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s. Many Germans held the new Weimar Republic responsible for not only the defeat in the war, but the disgrace at Versailles.

Question 2.
State three features of political radicalism in Germany.
Answer:
Features of political radicalism in Germany are :

• The political situation that came into view after the rise of Weimar Republic is termed as political radicalism.
• The demand and the uprising for Soviet style governance were suppressed by the Weimar republic and this enraged them to form the communist party.
• Both communists and socialists wanted political radicalism against Hitler’s Rule.
• This situation aggravated with economic crisis in 1923. Germany paid war repartation in Gold and so the Gold Reserves of Germany became scarce.
• Due to this, Germany refused to pay the war repartation. As a result, French occupied Ruhr, which was the leading industrial area of Germany.
• Germany printed paper currency in excess which further led to worsening of the situation and hyper inflation, (any three)

Question 3.
Examine two inherent defects in Weimar Constitution.
Answer:

• The system of proportional representation made achieving a majority by any one party a near impossible task, leading to the rule by coalitions.
• 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 lasting on an average 239 days, and a liberal use of Article 48. Yet the crisis could not be managed. People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no solutions, (any two)

Question 4.
Explain any three components of the ideology of Hitler.
Answer:

• According to Nazi theory, 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 the Jews were at the bottom.
• Hitler borrowed his ideas from the theory of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Both these scientists explained the concept of evolution and natural selection. They gave the concept of ‘survival of the fittest.’ This idea was used by the Nazis to justify their imperial rule and war.
• Hitler also used the idea of Lebensraum or living space. He believed that new territories had to be acquired for settlement.

Question 5.
State any three major effects of the First World War in Germany.
Answer:
Three major effects of the First World War in Germany are :

• World War I, ended with the Allies defeating Germany and the Central Powers in November 1918. The Peace Treaty at Versailles with the Allies was a harsh and humiliating Treaty. Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population. 13 percent of its territories, 75 per cent of its iron and 26 per cent of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.
• The Allied Powers demilitarized Germany to weaken its power Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to £ 6 billion.
• The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s.

Question 6.
What were the promises made hy Hitler to people of Germany?
Answer:

• He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people.
• He promised employment for those looking for work, and a secure future for the youth.
• He promised to weed out all foreign influences and resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against Germany.

Question 7.
Explain the impact on Germany of her refusal to pay war f compnsation in 1923.
Answer:

• The French occupied Ruhr, the leading industrial and mineral dominating area.
• Germany retaliated with passive resistance and printed paper currency recklessly. With too much printed money in circulation, the value of the German Mark fell drastically.
• Due to the fall in the value of Mark prices of goods soared and Germany fell into hyperinflation situation.

Question 8.
Explain the three fold plan of Hitler to consolidate the Nazi Power, after becoming the Chancellor of Germany.
Answer:

• Suspension of Rights: The Fire Decree of 28th February, 1933 indefinitely suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly that had been guaranteed by the Weimar constitution.
• End of Communism: Hitler was totally against communism. So he ordered his officials to put all the communists and their supports in the newly established concentration camps. The repression of the communists was severe. They were, however, only one among the 52 types of victims persecuted by the Nazis across the country.
• Enabling Act: On 3rd 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.

Question 9.
What steps were taken by Hitler to reconstruct Germany?
Answer:

• Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery to the economist, Hjalmar Schacht, who 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.
• In foreign policy also, Hitler, acquired quick successes. He pulled Germany out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938. .
• He was of the opinion that resources are to be accumulated through the expansion of territory.

Question 10.
Explain Hitler’s ideology related to the geo-political concept of Lebensraum.
Answer:
Hitler’s Geo-political Concept of Lebensraum :

• Hitler’s ideology was related to the geo-political concept of Lebensraum or living space. He believed new territories had to be acquired for settlement.
• This would enhance the area of the mother country, while enabling the settles on new lands to retain an intimate link with the place of their origin.
• It would also enhance the material resources and power of the German nation.

Question 11.
How was the Nazi Party formed?
Answer:
Nazi Party formed by :

• Disintegration of Weimar Republic led to the formation of Nazi Party after the First World War.
• Hitler enrolled for the army when the First World War broke out. He also earned medals for bravery.
• The German defeat horrified him and Versailles Treaty made him furious. Later, he joined a small group called the German Workers party.
• Subsequently, he took over the organization and renamed in National Socialist German Workers Party. This party came to be known as Nazi Party.

Question 12.
Explain the racial policy of Hitler or the Nazis.
Answer:

• The Nazis wanted to establish an exclusive racial community of pure Germans by eliminating all other races.
• They wanted only a society of ‘Pure and healthy Nordic Aryans’.
• Under his racial policy, Hitler even ordered to eliminate unhealthy or abnormal Aryans.
• Many ‘inferior’ races like Gypsies, the Blacks and Jewish were killed and deported.

Question 13.
Who wrote the book ‘Third Reich of Dreams’? What did the author describe in this book? HOTS
Answer:
Charlotte Beradt wrote the book ‘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 published in the Nazi press haunted the Jews. They throubled them even in their dreams. Jews died many deaths even before they reached the gas chamber.

Question 14.
Explain the following terms :
(i) Holo-caust,
(ii) Concentration Camp,
(iii) Wall Street Exchange.
Answer:
(i) Holocaust:

• It refers to the Nazi killing operations. Undesirable people were taken to concentration camp, Gestapo, gas chambers etc., and were subjected to death.
• While the Germans were pre-occupied with their own plight as a defeated nation emerging out of the rubble, the Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the Nazi killing operations.

(ii) Concentration Camp :

• It was a camp where people were isolated and detained without due process of law. Typically, it was surrounded by electrified barbed wire fences.
• When Hitler became the Chancellor on 30th January 1933, he hurriedly packed off his arch-enemies, the communists to the newly established concentration camp.

(iii) Wall Street Exchange :

• It is the world’s biggest stock exchange located in the USA.
• In 1929, when the Wall Street Exchange crashed, Germans were very much affected because they were totally dependent on short-term loans, largely from the USA.

Question 15.
“Nazism reflects ugly face of humanity,” State three arguments in support of the statement. VBQ
Answer:

• Cleaning and Purification of Schools : 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.
• Racial Science : School textbooks were rewritten. Racial science was introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race. Stereotypes about Jews were popularised even through maths classes.
• Spirit of Loyalty and Aggression : 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.

Question 16.
Why USA resisted its involvement in the Second World War? Which incident marked its entry into the war?
Answer:
The USA had resisted involvement in the Second World War. It was unwilling to once again face all the economic problems that the First World War had caused. But it could not stay out of the war for long. 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.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
How did the Great Economic Depression of 1929 affect the life of the people of Germany? Explain. HOTS
Answer:

• Drastic Fall in Industrial Production: By 1932, industrial production was reduced to 40 per cent of the 1929 level.
• Unemployment: Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages. The number of unemployed touched an unprecedented 6 million. As jobs disappeared, the youth took to criminal activities and total despair became commonplace. The economic crisis created deep anxieties and fears in people.
• Loss of Saving: The middle classes, especially salaried employees and pensioners, saw their savings diminish when the currency lost its value.
• Impact on Small Entrepreneur: Small businessmen, the self-employed and retailers suffered as their businesses got ruined. Big business was in crisis.
• Impact on Peasants: 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.

Question 2.
Explain briefly the main causes of the Rise of Nazi dictatorship in Germany.
Answer:
The main causes of rise of Nazi dictatorship in Germany are as follows:
(i) The First World War defeat
(ii) Weakness of Weimar Republic: The Weimar constitution had some inherent defects which made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship. Due to proportional representation, one party rule became an impossible task, leading to a rule by coalitions. Another defect was Article 48, which gave the President the power to impose emergency, suspend civil rights and by decree.

(iii) Treaty of Versailles: Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles with allied powers.
This made Germany to lose its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13% of territories and many more. The allied powers demilitarized Germany. The Allied armies also occupied the resource rich Rhineland.
The war guilt clause forced Germany to pay £ 6 billion as war damages to the Allied Powers.

(iv) The Economic Crisis: German economy was worst hit. Industrial production was reduced to 40%. Due to great economic depression the National Income of the USA fell by half leading to shut down the factories. The exports fell down and farmers suffered the most during the depression.

(v) Mass Unemployment: Workers of Germany lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages. Unemployed youth played cards or lined up at local employment exchange. Jobs disappeared and youth took to criminal activities.

(vi) German people thought that Hider would be a good dictator as he promised to undo the injustice of Treaty of Versailles. He also promised to give employment to those looking for work. Later, the Nazi Party became the largest Party with 37% votes in Reichstag.

Question 3.
Explain how Hitler dismantled the democratic structure.
Answer:
(i) Suspension of All Rights: The Fire Decree of 28th February, 1933 indefinitely suspended the civic rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly that had been guaranteed by the Weimar constitution.

(ii) Ill-treatment to the Communists: Hitler was against communists. Most of them were hurriedly packed off to the newly established concentration camps. The repression of the communists was severe. The Enabling Act : On 3rd March, 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This Act established dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler all powers to sideline the Parliament and the 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 the judiciary.

(iii) Total Control: Special surveillance and security forces were created to control and order the 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).

(iv) Single Party System: Hitler believed in ‘One people, one empire, and one leader policy’. Immediately after coming into power he banned all the other political parties except Nazi Party and its affiliates.

Question 4.
What were the major factors responsible for economic crisis in Germany during 1920s?
Answer:

(i) War Loans: Germany had fought the First World War largely on loans. As there were no other resources to pay back so Germany had to pay back in gold. This depleted gold reserves at a time resources were scarce.

(ii) French Occupied Ruhr: Ruhr was the most important industrial region of Germany. In 1923, Germany refused to pay, and the French occupied Ruhr, to claim their coal.

(iii) Reckless Printing of Currency: Germany retaliated with passive resistance and 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 July 353,000 marks, in August 46,21,000 marks and at 9,88,60,000 marks by December, the figure had run into trillions.

(iv) Hyperinflation: As the value of the mark collapsed, prices of goods soared. This crisis came to be known as hyperinflation, a situation when prices rise phenomenally high. Eventually, the Americans intervened and bailed Germany out of the crisis by introducing the Dawes Plan, which reworked the terms of reparation to ease the financial burden on Germans.

(v) Great Depression in USA: German investments and industrial recovery were totally dependent on short-term loans, largely from the USA. This support was withdrawn when the Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929.

Question 5.
What were the main features of Hitler’s geopolitical concept of ‘Lebensraum’? Give five features.
Answer:

• Lebensraurp meaning ‘living space’ was an expansionist policies of Nazi Germany.
• Nazis believed that new territories had to be acquired for settlement. This would enhance the area of the mother country, while enabling the settlers on new lands to retain an intimate link with the place of their origin.
• It would also enhance the material resources and power of the German nation.
• Hitler intended to extend German boundaries by moving eastwards, to concentrate all Germans geographically in one place.
• Poland became the laboratory for this experimentation.

Question 6.
Highlight Nazi cult of motherhood.
Answer:
Many social programs were implemented by Hitler to encourage the growth of a strong German Nazi Volk. One such programme was to advocate the virtues of motherhood. This programme included the following features:
(i) Girls were told that they had to become good mothers, distance themselves from the Jews and look after their homes. They should teach their children Nazi values and rear pure blooded Aryan children.

(ii) Women who bore racially desirable children were awarded with concessions in shops, theatre and railway tickets. They were also given favoured treatment in hospitals.

(iii) Cash incentives were paid for each child born.

(iv) Such was the desire to increase the German population that in 1943, a law was discussed among Nazi leaders that all women married or single should have four children. The father of these children should be racially pure. Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS was particularly keen on this idea.

(v) On the 16th December, 1938, Hitler instituted a new award to honour German Nazi motherhood, especially the large family. The cross of Honour of the German Mother (Ehrenkreuz der deutschen Mutter) was created in three classes from 16th December 1938, when the decoration was first instituted, to mid 1939, Nazi mother’s crosses bore the inscription ‘Das Kind adelt die Mutter’ (The child ennobles the mother). This award was normally presented in a blue envelope bearing the title of the award on the front. The gold cross was presented to the woman who have produced 8 children, silver was for 6 children and bronze was for 4 children. The award was also accompanied by a large certificate bearing a facsimile of Hitler’s signature.

(vi) All Aryan women were publicly condemned and punished if they failed to follow the Nazi conditions.

Question 7.
Describe any five consequences of defeat of Germany at the hands of Allies in the First World War.
Answer:

• Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13 per cent of its territories, 75 per cent of its iron and 26 per cent of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.
• The Allied Powers demilitarised Germany to weaken its power.
• The War Guijt Clause held Germany responsible for the war and damages the Allied countries suffered. Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to around £ 6 billion.
• The Allied armies also occupied the resourcerich Rhineland for much of the 1920s.
• Many Germans held the new Weimar Republic responsible for not only the defeat in the war, but the disgrace at Versailles.

Question 8.
Explain Hitler or the Nazi’s policy towards the Jews. VBQ
Answer:

• The Jews were considered ‘undesirable’ and were given the lowest rank in the racial hierarchy.
• The Jews remained the worst sufferers in the Nazi Germany. The Nazi hatred of Jews had a precursor in the traditional Christian hostility towards the Jews. They had been stereotyped as killers of Christ and usurers. Until the medieval times, Jews were barred from owning land. They survived mainly through trade and money lending. They lived in separately marked areas called the ghettos. They were often persecuted through periodic organised violence, and expulsion from the land.
• However, Hitler’s hatred of the Jews was based on pseudoscientific theories of race, which held that conversion was no solution to ‘the Jewish problem’. It could be solved only through their total elimination.
• From 1933 to 1938 the Nazis terrorised, pauperised and segregated the Jews, compelling them to leave the country. The next phase, 1939-1945, aimed at concentrating them in certain areas, and eventually killing them in gas chambers in Poland.

Question 9.
Explain Hitler’s foreign policy.
Answer:
Hitler was always in favour of an aggressive foreign policy. To implement his policies, he took the following steps :

• He pulled Germany out of League of Nations in 1933.
• He reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan One people, One empire and One leader.
• In the same year i.e., in 1938, he seized the German speaking Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
• Hitler was of the opinion that the resources were to be accumulated through the expansion of territory. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Thus, 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. Puppet regimes, supportive of Nazi Germany, were installed in a large part of Europe. By the end of 1940, Hitler was at the pinnacle of his power.
• Hitler now 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, Hider exposed the German western front to British aerial bombing, and the eastern front to the powerful Soviet armies.
• Germany was surrounded from all sides by the Allied powers and she was forced to surrender in 1945.

Question 10.
How did the Nazis proceed to realize their murderous racial ideology hy eliminating the undesirables? Explain.
Answer:
Once in power, the Nazis quickly began to implement their dream of creating an exclusive racial community of pure Germans by physically eliminating all those who were seen as ‘undesirable’ in the extended empire were mentally or physically unfit Germans, Gypsies, Blacks, Russians, Poles. But Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. They were stereotyped as ‘killers of Christ and usurers’.

Until medieval times, Jews were banned from owning land. They survived mainly through trade and money lending. They lived in separately marked areas called ‘ghettos’. They were often persecuted through periodic organised violence and expulsion from land. All this had a precursor in the traditional Christian hostility towards Jews for being the killers of Christ.

However, Hitler’s hatred of the Jews was based on pseudo-scientific theories of race, which held that conversion was no solution to ‘the Jewish problem’. It could be solved only through their total elimination.

Question 11.
Mention five important consequences of Nazism in Germany.
Answer:
Consequences of Nazism :

• All schools were cleansed and purified. Teachers who were Jews were dismissed.
• Children were segregated i.e., Germans and Jews could not sit or play together. Undesirable children-Jews, handicapped were thrown out of the schools.
• School textbooks were re-written and social science was introduced. Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews and worship Hitler.
• Jews were the worst sufferers as they were treated very badly.
• They were classified as undesirable. They were considered as racial inferiors.
• They were widely prosecuted. They were stereotyped as killers of Christ and usurers.
• They were banned from owing land. They lived in separately marked areas.

Question 12.
Explain any five features of Hitler’s policy towards the Polish under his rule.
Answer:

• 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 brought in from occupied Europe.
• Poles were then herded like cattle in the other part called the General Government, the destination of all undesirables of the empire.
• 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. With some of the largest ghettos and gas chambers, the General Government also served as the killing fields for the Jews.

Question 13.
Explain the status of women in the German society under Nazism.
Answer:
Status of Women in Germany :

• Children in Nazi Germany were told that women were radically different from men.
• While boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steal hearted, girls were told to be good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children. They have to teach Nazi values to their children.
• Women bearing undesirable children were punished and those bearing desirable were awarded.
• Girls had to maintain the purity of race.
• They had to keep distance from the Jews, look after their home and teach Nazi values to their children.
• To encourage women to produce more children, a bronze cross was given for four, silver for six and gold for eight or more children.
• Those who maintained contacts with the Jews, Poles or Russians were severely punished.

Question 14.
Explain Hitler or Nazis policy towards the youth.
Answer:

(i) Total Control over Schools: Hitler was fanatically interested in the youth of the country. He felt that a strong Nazi society could be established only by teaching children the Nazi ideology. This required a control over the child, both inside and outside the school.

(ii) Purification of Schools: 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.

(iii) New Education Policy: To popularise his ideology, Hitler announced a New Education Policy, Under this, 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 Hider.

(iv) Division of the Life: Life of the youth was divided into different stages. At each stage he had to pass through various training and teaching programmes.

(v) Formation of Hitler Youth: The Youth League of the Nazis was founded in 1922. Four years later, it was renamed the ‘Hitler Youth’. To unify the youth movement under Nazi control, all other youth organisations were systematically dissolved and finally banned.

Question 15.
Explain the Nazi’s or Hitler’s Art of propaganda.
Answer:
(i) Various Codes: To eliminate ‘inferior races’ they always used code language. 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. They were labelled ‘disinfection-areas’, and looked like bathrooms equipped with fake showerheads.

(ii) Use of Mass Media and Communication System: Media was carefully used to win support for the regime, and popularise its worldview. The 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.

(iii) Films: Propaganda films were made to create hatred for Jews. The most infamous film was The Eternal Jew.
(iv) New Education Policy in Schools Schools and education institutions were also used to spread the Nazi ideology. School textbooks were re-written. Racial science was introduced to justify the Nazi ideas of race.

(v) Inhuman Treatment to Jewish Students: ‘Undesirable children’ i.e., the Jews, Blacks and the Gypsies were thrown out of school. The Youth League of Nazis was founded in 1922.

Question 16.
How did the world come to know about the ‘Nazi holocaust’? Explain.
Answer:
(i) Information about Nazi practices had trickled out of Germany during the last years of the regime. But it was only after the war ended and Germany was defeated that the world came to realise the horrors of what had happened.

(ii) While the Germans were preoccupied with their own plight as a defeated nation emerging out of the rubble, the Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the Nazi killing operations — also called the holocaust.

(iii) The indomitable spirit to bear witness and to preserve the documents can be seen in many ghetto and camp inhabitants who wrote diaries, kept notebooks, and created archives.

(iv) 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 it.

Question 17.
State the verdict of Nuremberg Tribunal. Why did the allies avoid hard punishment on Germany?
Answer:
The Nuremberg Tribunal which was set up to, prosecute the Nazis for committing grave crime against humanity which involved killing of
innocent civilians in Europe, sentenced only 11 Nazis to death. Some were given life imprisonment Allies avoided harsh punishment on Germany because :
(i) They did not want to repeat the mistakes committed after the First World War where they imposed harsh terms on Germany, by virtue of Treaty of Versailles which resulted in the rise of Hitler.

(ii) It was this humiliating treaty of Versailles with Germany which was imposed by the victors on the vanquished and compelled Germany to give away all its territorial claims and it imposed huge economic burden on it. The war guilt clause made Germany responsible for all the damage war had inflicted on the allied and made it pay for the damage. This made Weimer Republic highly unpopular among the Germans. This brought Germany in a crippled position. Weimer Republic could do little to recover its economy. Treaty of Versailles was r physiologically damaging for the Germans and also proved to be a national shame. The treaty has sown the seeds of the Second World War.
This made the allies cautious enough of not being much harsh on Germans again.