NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER
1. Birth of The Weimar Republic
2. Hitler's rise to power
3. The Nazi Worldview
4. Youth in Nazi Germany
5. Ordinary people and the Crimes against humanity
Flowchart
First World War ( 1914 - 1918 )
Allied power(Won) Central Power(Lost)
F - France Aus - Austrian empire
R - Russia. G - German empire
E - England. O - Ottoman empire ( turkey)
E - ×
U - U. S. A ( 1917 )
After first World War
* After the defeat of Imperial German in the Imperial abdicated.
* This gave an opportunity to parliamentary parties to recast German polity.
* A national assembly met at Weimar and established a democratic constitution with a federal structure.
1. Birth Of Weimar Republic
#First World War
* 1st world war started in 1914 between allied and Central power
* The allied power composed of England, France and Russia; while the central power comprise of German empire and Austrian Empire.
* They all joined the war with enthusiason to gain from a quick victory. None of them realised that work would continue for so long.
* Initially Germany made gains by occupying France and Belgium.
# Turning Point :- However the entry of US in 1917 made the position of allies stronger, as a result they won and Central powers and Germany were defeated.
* Deputies were now elected to the German parliament Reichstag. for this votes were casted by all adults including women.
* This Republic, however was not received well by its own people largely because of the terms it was forced to accept after Germany's defeat at the end of the first World War.
# Treaty Of Versailles
* This treaty was signed with allies for peace at Versailles.
* It had very harsh and humiliating terms for Germany.
Terms :-
— Germany was held responsible for all the damages.
— Compensation :--
a) Germany had to pay £ 6 billion.
b) Germany lost :-
13 % of territories = Poland
75% of Iron = Denmark
26% of coal = Lithuania
c) Germany was demilitarised to weaken its power.
d) resources rich areas was occupied by allies.
1.1 The Effects of War
Financial Effects
* Europe turned into debtors from the creditors.
➡️ Germany was financially crippled by the loan.
Psychological Effects
* Politician,media glorified trench life and lead great stress on the need for men to be aggressive, strong and masculine.
• Soldiers came to be placed above civilians.
# Opposite truth
However in reality the soldier lived miserable lives in these Gonches.
They faced poisonous gas, enemy shelling and witness their dark reduces rapidly.
Conclusion :- aggressive war propaganda and national honour occupied centre stage in the public sphere.
# Political effect
* Democracy was indeed a young and fragile idea and could not win the support of more people.
The supporters of Weimar republic were marked as " November Criminals".
1.2 Political Radicalism and Economic crisis
Political Radicalism
* The Spartacist League tried to bring the revolution in Berlin on the pattern of Bolshevik Revolution.
* Their demand was to form Soviet style governance.
* This all happened at the same time, the Weimar was taking shape.
* Weimar republic crushed the uprising with the help of a war veterans organisation called free crops.
* The supression flagbearers of spartacist later founded the Communist Party of Germany.
* The communist and socialist became Inconcilable enemies and could not make common cause against Hitler.
# Economic Crisis
* Germany had fought the war largely on loans and had to war reparations in gold.
* This depleded gold reserves and Germany refused to pay which resulted into French occupying its leading industrial area, Ruhr to claim their coal.
* In response, Germany printed paper currency recklessly.
* Due to too much printed money in circulations the value of German in mark fell.
E.g. April - US $ - 24,000 marks
July - US $ - 353,000 marks
August - US $ - 4,6,21,0000 marks
December - US $ - 98,860,000 marks
* As the value of mark fell, the price of goods soared, the image of Germans carrying carloads of currency notes to buy a leaf of bread was wide by publicised evoking worldwide sympathy.
* A situation when prices rise very high, is known as Hyperinflation.
Bailout
Finally American bailed out Germany by introducing the Dawes Plan.
According to this plan the terms of loan was reworked to ease the burdens on Germany.
1.3 The Years of Depression
* The years between 1924 and 1928 saw some stability, yet this time was built on sand.
* 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.
* fearing a fall in prices people made frantic efforts to sell shares.
This was the start of the great economic depression.
# Effect
* over the next three years between 1929 and 1932 the national income of USA fell by half.
* factory shut down exports fell, farmers werebadly hit and speculators withdrew their money from the market.
# Effects on Germany
* the German economy was the worst hit by the economic crisis.
* buy 1933 industrial production reduced to 40%.
* Woekres lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages.
* unemployed people touched on unprecedented 6 million.
* unemployed youth played cards or simply sat at a street corner. When job disappeared the youth took to criminal activities.
* the crisis created a deep aniexities and fear in people.
* the middle class saw their savings when the currency lost its value.
* They werefilled with the fear of proletarianisation. (anxiety of being reduced to the ranks of the working class).
2. Hitler's rise to Power
Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria .He was to spend his youth in poverty.When the first world war broke out, he enrolled for the army and acted as a messenger.The German defeat and versailles treaty made him very angry.
Political activities
In 1919 he joined a small group called the German workers Party.Very soon he became its leader due to his extraordinary speaking skills. This party was later known as Nazi Party.
Plan to seize power
In 1923,Hitler planned to seize power but he failed .As a result he was arrested on the charge of treason and later released.
Coming to power
➡️ It was during the great depression people had developed likeness towards Nazi due to their promises for creating a better future .
➡️ In 1928 the Nazi party got no more than 2.6 % vote in the German parliament but in 1932 it had become the largest party with 37% vote .
➡️On 30 January 1933 Hitler was offered chancellor ship of Germany by president.
The reason he came in power
A. Oratory
He was a powerful speaker who could sway the masses and change their mind through it
B. Promises
He promised exactly the same thing people wanted at the time such as ---
➡ Building the strong Nation
➡️Undoing the injustice of Versailles
➡️ Employment for those looking for work ➡️Removing all foreign influences and conspiracy
C. Power of rituals
➡️Nazis understood the impact of rituals in mass mobilization .Nazi held massive rallies and public meetings to show the support for Hitler.
➡️ The red banners with the Swastika ,the Nazi salute and rounds of applause after the speech attracted a lot of people.
D. Image as a saviour
He was projected as a Saviour who would deliver people from their distress .This image captured the imagination of a people whose sense of dignity and pride had been shattered.
2.1 The Destruction of Democracy
After Hitler came to power, he begin to dismantle the structure of Democratic rule.
A mysterious fire in the parliament in February 1933 further helped him go ahead with his goal.
He blamed the communists for the fire and put them into newly established concentration camp.
They were repressed very severely.
Enabling act
On 3 March 1933, the famous enabling act was passed which established dictatorship in Germany.
All political parties and trade unions were banned except for the Nazi Party.
Everything from media, economy, army and judiciary was put under the control of Nazis.
#Special security forces
Special police like Gestapo, criminal police and the security service was created..
People could now be detained in Gestapo torture chamber, rounded up and sent to concentration camp.
Reconstruction
Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery to the economist Hjalmar Schacht.
He used the fund of government to increase production and employment.
The project included the famous german super highways and the peooe's car, the volkswagen..
Foreign Policy
➡️ He decided to pull Germany out of the league of nations (made after first world war to stop future war).
➡️ He reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 and united Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan 'One people, one empire and one leader '.
➡️ He was supported by England which had considered the Versailles verdict too harsh...
➡️ Hitler began increasing expenses on defence, however his economic advisor Schacht warned him,but Hitler did not like anyone to question his decision so he was removed from his post.
Moving towards Second World War
➡️ Hitler believed that the war is a solution of economic crisis .He will gain more resources by expanding the area in the war.
➡️ In Sep 1939, Germany invaded Poland which started a war with France and England.
➡️ In Sep 1940 , tripartite pact was signed between Germany , Italy and Japan.
➡️ Hitler's historic blunder was to attack the Soviet Union in June 1941. By this he exposed the German Western front to the British and the Eastern front to the powerful Soviet armies.
➡️The Soviet Red Army defeated Germany at stalingrad. Meanwhile the US wanted to stay out of the war due to economic damage it could cause , but the bombing on US base at Pearl Harbour led them to enter into the war .
This further made the position of allied power strong and finally the war ended with Hitler's defeat and bombing on Hiroshima in Japan.
3. The Nazi's Worldview
Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitler's worldview.
Hitler's Worldview
➡️ He did not consider all people equal rather he believed in the racial hierarchy in which blue-eyed Nordic German Aryans were at the top and Jews are located at the lowest rung.
➡️Jews were regarded as the the arch-enemies ( कट्टर शत्रु ) of the Aryans .
Influence of Thinkers
➡️ Hitler derived racism from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer.
Herbert Spencer
➡️He gave the idea of the survival of the fittest according to which only those species who could not adapt themselves to changing climatic condition would not be able to survive.
➡️Hitler misinterpreted these ideas to suit his claim and said that since the Aryan were the strongest race, it meant only they would live and the weak ones would be destroyed by us.
Lebensraum(Living Space)
Hitler also believed in this theory according to which new territories need to be acquired for settlement and enhancing the resources of any nation.
3.1 Establishment of the Racial State
After coming to power Nazi divided people into two categories: desirable and undesirable .
a) Desirable : Only pure and healthy nordic Aryans alone were considered desirable even those Germans who were seen as impure or abnormal had no right to exist.
b) Undesirable : Almost 52 types of people are regarded as undesirable . Some of them are Russian, poles,Jews ,Blacks and disabled persons etc .
Jews
They were the worst sufferer in Nazi Germany. Nazi hated Jews due to the traditional Christian hatred towards them. They were considered the killer of Christ and userers ( सूदखोर).
Hitler used the three steps to death for genocide of the jews
STEPS TO DEATH
STEP 1: EXCLUSION :1933-39
The Nuremberg law of citizenship was passed in Sep 1935 which says:
• Only persons of German or related blood would be citizens.
• Marriage between Jews and Germans were forbidden.
• Jews were forbidden to fly national flag.
• Other legal measures included boycott of jewish business, expulsion from government services and forced selling of their properties.
STEP 2 :GHETTOISATION :1940-44
• From sep 1941,all jews had to wear a yellow star ➕ of david on their breast.
• This identity mark was stamped on their passport, all legal documents and houses.
• They were kept in ghettos and became site of extreme misery and poverty.
STEP 3: ANNIHILATION (1941 onwards)
• Jews from jewish houses, concentration camps and ghettos from different parts of Europe were brought to death factories by goods trains.
• They were thrown into gas chambers and killed within minutes..
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