CHAPTER 3

NAZISM AND THE RISE

OF HITLER

Question/Answer:
Q1. Define Allies?
Ans. The allied powers where initially led by the UK and France. In 1941 they
were joined by the USSR and USA. They fought against the Aris Power
namely Germany, Italy and Japan.

Q2. Who was Helmuth?

Ans. Helmuth was a little 11year old German boy.

Q3. What was his father’s occupation?

Ans. His father was a prominent physician.
Q4. Why did Helmuth refuse to eat at home for the following 9 years?
Ans. Helmuth’s father shot himself in his office. Helmuth remembered that he
saw his father’s bloody uniform being burned in the family fireplace. So
traumatized was he by what he had overhead that he reacted by refusing to
eat at home for the following 9 year. He was afraid that his mother might
poison him.
Q5. Why did Germany surrendered to the Allies and when?

Ans. In May 1945 Germany surrendered to the Allies because they realized that
they would be defeated in the Second World War.

Q6. Why did Hitler had his propaganda minister Goebbels commit suicide?
Ans. Anticipating their defeat, Hitler, his propaganda minister Goebbels and his
entire family committed suicide collectively in the Berlin bunker in April.

Q7. Why was International Tribunal formed?

Ans. At the end of the war an International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was
setup to prosecute Nazi war criminals for crime against peace, for war
crimes and crime against humanity. German’s conduct during the war,
especially those actions which came to be called crimes against humanity,
raised serious moral and ethical questions and invited worldwide
condemnation.

Q8. “Under the shadow of the second world war, Germany had waged Genocidal
war which resulted in the mass murder of selected group of innocent
civilians of Europe.” Explain.
  The number of people killed included 6 millions Jews, 200,000 Gypsies, 1
million Polish civilians,7000 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 centers like Auschwitz.
 The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced only 11 leading Nazis to death.
 Many others were imprisoned for life.

Q9. Define the term Genocidal?
Ans. Killing on large scale leading to destruction of large sections of people.

Unit 1
Q1. What led to the birth of the Weimar Republic?

Ans. The defeat of Imperial Germany and the abdication of the emperor gave an
opportunity to the parliamentary parties to recast German policy. A national
assembly met at Weimar and established a Democratic constitution with a
federal structure.

Q2. Name the German Parliament?

Ans. German Parliament was known as “Reichstag.”

Q3. How were the members elected for Reichstag?

Ans. On the basis of equal and universal votes cast by all adult including women.

Q4. “This republic however was not received well by its own people.” Justify the
statement
OR
Why was the peace Treaty of Versailles harsh and humiliating?
OR
Why was new Weimar republic made responsible for the defeat in the war
and also for the disgrace at the Versailles?
Ans.
 The Peace Treaty at Versailles with the Allies was a harsh and humiliating
peace. Germany lost it overseas colonies, one tenth of its population
 Germany also lost 13% of its territories of its 75% of its iron and 26% of its
call 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 resource – rich Rhineland.

Unit 1.1

Q1. “The war had a devastating impact on the entire continent both
psychologically and financially.” Explain?
Ans.
 The war had a devastating impact on the entire continent.
  From a continent of creditors Europe turned into one of debtors.
 Unfortunately, the infant Weimar Republic was being made to pay for
the sins of the old empire.
 The republic carried the burden of the war guilt and national humiliation
and was financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation.
 Those who supported the Weimar Republic, mainly Socialists, Catholics
and Democrats where mockingly called the ‘November Criminals’.

Q2. Who were the November Criminals?

Ans. Those who supported Weimar Republic mainly Socialists, Catholics and
Democrats where mockingly called the ‘November Criminals’.

Q3. What was the impact, effect, outcome of the First World War on European
Society and Polity?
OR
Why was democracy a young and fragile idea which could not survive the
instability of interwar Europe?
Ans.
 Soldiers came to be placed above civilians.
 Politicians and publicists laid great stress on the need for men to be aggressive,
strong and masculine.
 The media glorified trend life.
 The truth, however, was that soldiers lived miserable lives in these trenches,
trapped with rats feeding on corpses.
 They faced poisonous gas and enemy shelling, and witnessed their ranks reduce
rapidly.
 Aggressive war propaganda and national honour occupied centre stage in the
public sphere, while popular support grew for conservative dictatorships that
had recently come into being.

Unit 1.2
Q1. Explain the Political Radicalism and Economic crises in Germany.
 Ans
 The birth of the Weimar Republic coincided with the revolutionary uprising
of the Spartacist League on the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia.
 Soviets of workers and sailors were established in many cities.
 The political atmosphere in Berlin was charged with the demands for Soviet
– style governance.
 Those opposed to this such as the Socialists, Democrats and Catholics – met
in Weimar to give shape to the democratic republic.

Q2. What was free crops?

Ans. It was a group of war veterans.

Q3. What happened in Germany during the economic crises?

Ans.
 Germany had fought the war largely on loans and had to pay war
reparations in gold.
 This depleted gold reserves at a time resources were scare.
 In 1923 Germany refused to pay and the French occupied its leading
industrial area, Ruhr, to claim their coal.
 Germany retaliated with passive resistance and printed paper currency
recklessly.
 With too much printed money in circulation, the value of the German
mark fell.
 As the value of the mark collapsed, prices of goods soared.

Q4. What was hyperinflation?

Ans. Hyperinflation is a situation when prices rise phenomenally high.
Q5. What was Dawes Plan?
Ans. 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.

Unit - 1.3
Q1. What was Wall Street Exchange?
Ans. The name of the world’s biggest stock exchange located in the USA.

Q2. What were the effects of great economic depression?

Ans.
 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.
 Over the next three years, between 1929 and 1932, the national income of
the USA fell by half.
 Factories shut down, exports fell, farmers were badly hit and speculators
withdrew their money from the markets.
 The effects of this recession in the US economy were felt worldwide.
Q.3 The German economy was the worst hit by the economic crises. Why?
Ans.
 By 1932, industrial production was reduced to 40% of the 1929 level.
 Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages.
 The number of unemployed touched an unprecedented 6 million.
 On the streets of Germany, you could see men with placards around their
necks saying, ‘willing to do any work’.
 Unemployed youths played cards or simply sat at street corners or queued
up at the local employment exchange.
 As jobs disappeared the youth took to criminal activities and total despair
became common in public place.

Q4. Define the term proletarianization.

Ans. To become impoverished to the level of working classes.

Unit -2
Q1. Write a short note on the early days of Hitler?
Ans.
 Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria.
 Hitler spend 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.
Q2. When did Hitler join the German Workers Party? What was the new name of
this party?
Ans. In 1990, he joined a small group called the German worker’s party. He
subsequently took over the organization and renamed it the National
Socialist German Worker’s Party. This party came to be known as Nazi Party.
Q3. What happened when Hitler planned to attack Bavaria?
Ans.
 In 1923, Hitler planned to seize control of Bavaria, march to Berlin and
capture power.
 He failed was arrested, tried for treason, and later released.
 The Nazis could not effectively mobilize popular support till the early 1930s.

Q4. When did Nazism became a mass movement and how?

Ans.
 It was during the great depression that Nazism became a mass movement.
 As we have seen, after1929, banks collapsed and business shutdown, workers
lost their jobs and the middle classes where threatened with destitution.
 In such a situation Nazi propaganda stirred hops of a better future.
 In1928, the Nazi party got no more than 2.6% votes in the Reichstag – the
German Parliament.
 By 1932, it had become the largest party with 39% votes.
 Hitler was a powerful speaker. His passion and his words moved people.
 He promised to build a strong organization, undo the injustice of Versailles
Treaty and restore the dignity of the Germany people.
 He promised employment for those looking for work, and a secure future for the
youth.

Q5. When was the role of rituals and the spectacles in mass mobilization?
Ans.
 Hitler desired a new style of politics. He understood the significance rituals
and spectacles in mass mobilization.
 Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings to demonstrate the support
for Hitler and instill a sense of unity among the people.
 The red banners with the swastika the Nazi salute, and the ritualized rounds
of applause after the speeches were all part of the spectacle of power.
 Nazi propaganda skillfully projected Hitler as a messiah, a savior, as
someone who arrived to deliver people from their distress.

Unit 2.1
Q1. What steps were taken by Hitler to destroy democracy from Germany?
OR
How did Hitler establish dictatorship in Germany?.

Ans.
 Becoming Chancellor of Germany:-
o On 30th January 1933, President Hindenburg offered the
Chancellorship, the highest position in the cabinet of ministers, to
Hitler.
 A mysterious fire:-
 o 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.
 The Fire Decree of February: -
o 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.
 Concentration Camps:-
o Hitler turned on his arch-enemies, most of whom were hurriedly
packed off to the newly established concentration camps.
 Enabling Act:-
o 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.
 Special surveillance and security forces:-
o Special surveillance and security forces 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).
Q2. Why Nazi Germany had the reputation of the most dreaded criminal state?
Ans. It was the extra – constitutional powers of these newly organized forces that
gave the Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal state. People
could now be detained in the Gestapo torture chambers rounded up and
sent to concentration camps, deported at will or arrested without any legal
procedures.

Unit 2.2
Q1. Who was Hjalmar Schacht?
Ans. Hjalmar Schacht was an economist who aimed at full production and full
employment through a state funded work creation programme. This project
 produced the famous German super highways and the people’s car the
Volkswagen.

Q2. What was the foreign policy adopted by Hitler?

Ans.
 In foreign policy also Hitler acquired quick successes.
 He pulled Germany out of the league of Nations in 1983.
 He reoccupied the Rhineland in 1986.
 He 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.

Q3. Why did England support Hitler?

Ans. England supported Hitler because England considered the Versailles verdict
too harsh.

Q4. Why did Schacht leave Germany?

Ans. Schacht had to leave Germany because of the following reasons:-
 Schacht had advised Hitler against investing hugely in rearmament the
state still ran on deficit financing.
 Cautious people, however, had no place in Nazi Germany.
 Schacht had to leave.

Q5. When did Hitler attack Poland?

Ans. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

Q6. What was Tripartite pact?

Ans. In September 1940, a Tripartite pact was signed between Germany, Italy and
Japan strengthening Hitler’s clain to International power. By the end of
1940, Hitler was at the pinnacle of his power.
Q7. What was the Historic blunder committed by Hitler in the world History?
OR
Hitler now moved to achieve his long-term aim of consquering Eastern
Europe. Explain.
Ans.
 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 thr Eastern front to the powerful soviet
armies.
 The Soviet Red army inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat on
Germany at Stalingrad.
 After this the Soviet Red Army hounded out the retreating German
soldiers until they reached the heart of Berlin.

Q8. Why did USA not enter in the World War II initially?
Ans. The USA had resisted involvement in the 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.

Q9. Why did America join the World War II after few years?
Ans.
 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 wae ended in May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat and the US dropping of
the atom bombs on Hiroshima in Japan.