History Chapter-3
Nazism and Rise of Hitler
5 marks Questions
1. Highlight the effects of the recession of 1930 on the US
economy.
Ans. The Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929.
Fearing in a fall in prices, people made frantic efforts to sell their shares.
On a single day, 24 October, 13 million shares were sold. This was the
start of the great 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 market.
The effects of this recession in the US economy were felt worldwide.
2. Highlight the effects of the recession of 1930 on the German
economy.
Ans. The German economy was the worst hit by the economic crises. 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 we could see men with placards around their
necks saying, ‘willing to do any work’.
The economic crises created deep anxieties and fear in People. The
middle classes, especially salaried employees and pensioners, saw their
savings diminish when the currency lost its value.
Small businessmen, the self-employed and retailers suffered as their
businesses got ruined. 3. Highlight the important features of the
education imparted in Nazi Schools.
Ans. 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 popularized even through
mathematics 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.
4. Highlight the different provisions which were made by Nazis for
German Youth to enter the Nazi organizations.
Ans. Youth organizations were made responsible for educating German
youth in the spirit of National Socialism.
Ten-year-olds had to enter Jungvolk. At 14 all boys had to join the Nazi
youth organization Hitler Youth-where they learnt to worship war, glorify
aggression and violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews,
communists, Gypsies and all those categorized as undesirable. After a
period of rigorous ideology 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
organizations.
5. Briefly describe the role of the International Military Tribunal
set up after the Second World War?
Ans. In May 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allies.
Anticipating what was coming, Hitler, his propaganda minister Goebbels
and his entire family committed suicide collectively in his Berlin bunker in
April.
At the end of the war, an International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was
set up to prosecute Nazi war criminals for crimes against peace, for War
Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.
Germany’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.
The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced only eleven leading Nazis to death.
Many were imprisoned for life.
6. Explain any five features of Hitler’s foreign policy.
Ans. In foreign policy also Hitler acquired quick success.
He pulled out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland
in 1936, and 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.
In all of this he had the unspoken support of England, which had
considered the Versailles verdict too harsh.
These quick successes at home and abroad seemed to reverse the destiny
of the country.
7. Explain the contribution of Schacht in the economic recovery of
Germany.
Ans. Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery to the
economist Hjalmar Schacht.
He aimed at full production and full employment through a state funded
work-creation program.
This project produced the famous German superhighways and the
people’s car, the Volkswagen.
Schacht had advised Hitler against investing hugely in rearmament as the
state still ran on deficit financing.
Cautious people however had no place in Nazi Germany. Schacht had to
leave.
8. How did the Great Economic Depression of 1929-1932 destroy
the German economy?
Ans. The German economy was the worst hit by the economic crises. By
1932, industrial production was reduced to 40 percent 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
neck saying, “willing to work”. Unemployment youths played cards and
simply sat at street corners, or destroyed queues at the local employment
exchange.
The middle classes, especially salaried employees and pensioners, saw
their savings diminish when the currency lost its value.
9. What were the main problems faced by Weimer Republic in
Germany?
Ans. Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of it population, 13
percent of it colonies, 75 percent of its iron and 26 percent of its coal to
France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania. Weimer Republic was being made
to pay for the sins of the old empire. The republic carried the burden of
war guilt and national humiliation and was financially crippled by being
forced to pay compensations.
Those who supported the Weimer Republic, mainly Socialists, Catholics
and Democrats, became easy targets of attack in the conservative
nationalist circles.
The birth of Weimer Republic coincided with the revolutionary uprising of
SpartacistLeague on the pattern of the Bolsheviks.
10. “Politically, the Weimer Republic was fragile”. Explain.
Ans. Politically, too, the Weimer republic was Fragile. The Weimer
Constitution had some inherent defects, which made it unstable and
vulnerable to dictatorship. One was proportional representation. This
made achieving a majority by any one-party a near impossible task,
leading to a rule by coalition.
Another defect was 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 crises could not
be managed. People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary
system, which seemed to offer no solutions.
