NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER CLASS 9 (NCERT) NOTES

 

NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER CLASS 9 (NCERT) NOTES

Hitler’s Ambition:

• To make Germany into a mighty power
• Wanted to conquer all of Europe. 

What is Nazism System: 

A structure of ideas about the world and politics. 

End of Second World War:

In May 1945,  

• Germany surrendered to the Allies. 
• Fearing facing the same fate

Hitler’s Suicide:

• Hitler along with his
• Propaganda minister Goebbels and 
• His entire family committed suicide collectively in his Berlin bunker in April.

Crimes Against Humanity

• At the end of the war, an International Military Tribunal at
• Nuremberg was set up. 

To prosecute Nazi war criminals for: 

• Crimes against Peace, 
• War Crimes and 
• Crimes Against Humanity

International Condemnation:

Germany’s conduct during the war, 

• Raised serious moral and ethical questions and 
• Invited worldwide condemnation

What were these acts?

Genocidal War:

During II WW, Germany waged

• A genocidal war - resulted in the mass murder of selected groups of innocent civilians of Europe. 
• Genocidal – Killing on large scale leading to destruction of large sections of people.

NUmbers of People Killed:

• 6 million Jews, 
• 200,000 Gypsies, 
• 1 million Polish civilians,
• Even 70,000 Germans (mentally and physically disabled) + political opponents. 

Nazis Methods of killing people

By gassing them in gas Chambers in various killing centres like Auschwitz. 

The Nuremberg Tribunal 

• Sentenced only 11 leading Nazis to death. 
• Others were imprisoned for life. 

Yet the punishment of the Nazis 

1. Far short of the brutality and 
2. Extent of their crimes.

Why:

The Allies did not want to be as harsh on: 

• Defeated Germany 
• As they had been after the First World War.

Everyone feels that: 

The rise of Nazi Germany partly traced back to the German experience at the end of the First World War.

What was this experinece?

Germany and First World War (1914-1918):

• Germany, a powerful empire in the early years of the 20th C
• Fought the First World War (1914-1918) 
• Alongside the Austrian empire (Central Powers) and 
• Against the Allies (England, France and Russia.)

Why countries Participating in IWW:

• All joined the war enthusiastically 
• Hoping to gain from a quick victory. 

Later Realised:

• That the war would stretch on,
• Draining Europe of all its resources. 

Germany initial gains: 

• By occupying France and Belgium. 

After US Entry in 1917:

• The Allies strengthened by: 
• Allies won
• Defeating Germany and the Central Powers in November 1918.

Change in Germany After IWW

Change in German Polity:

• The defeat of Imperial Germany and 
• The abdication of the emperor
• Providing opportunity to parliamentary parties to recast German polity.

National Assembly or Weimar Republic:

• Met at Weimar and 
• Established a democratic constitution with: 
• A federal structure 

Functioning of German Parliament or Republic:

• Deputies elected to the German Parliament or Reichstag, 
• On the basis of equal and universal votes cast by
• All adults including women.

Treaty of Versailles:

Republic not received well

• By its own people
• Why because of the terms 
• It was forced to accept after Germany’s defeat. 

Harsh and humiliating peace treaty:

1. Germany lost its overseas colonies, 

• A tenth of its population, 
• 13 percent of its territories,

2. Iron Resources:

• 75 percent of its iron and 

3. Coal Resources:

26 per cent of its coal goes to 

• France, 
• Poland, 
• Denmark and 
• Lithuania. 

4. Germany demilitarised

• Germany was demilitarised to weaken its power. 

5. The War Guilt Clause 

• Held Germany responsible for the war and 
• Damages the Allied countries suffered. 
• Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion. 

6. Resource-rich Rhineland 

• The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s. 

Conclusion:

Germans held the new Weimar Republic responsible for: 

• Not only the defeat in the war 
• But the disgrace at Versailles.

1.1 The Effects of the War

Entire Europe Continent:

Devastating impact on the entire continent both:

• Psychologically and 
• Financially

From Creditors to debtors:

• From a continent of creditors,
• Europe turned into one of debtors. 

Infant Weimar Republic

• Made to pay for the sins of the old empire. 

How?

The Republic carried: 

• The burden of war guilt
• National humiliation and
• Financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation.

Supporter of Weimar Republic

• Socialists, 
• Catholics and 
• Democrats, 

Became easy targets of attack in the conservative nationalist circles. 

They were mockingly called the ‘November criminals’.

***This mindset had a major impact on the political developments of the early 1930s, as we will soon see.***

Impact of First World War on European society and Polity. 

1. Soldiers: placed above civilians. 

2. Politicians and publicists: Stress on the need for men to be:

• Aggressive, 
• Strong and 
• Masculine. 

3. The media glorified trench life. 

Reality in Trenches life :

• Soldiers lived miserable 
• Trapped with rats feeding on corpses. 
• They faced poisonous gas and enemy shelling,
• witnessed their ranks reduce rapidly. 

Popular ideas in Public Sphere:

• Aggressive war propaganda and 
• National honour 
• Popular support grew for conservative dictatorships 

Unpopular Ideas:

• Democracy a young and fragile idea,
• Not survive the instabilities of interwar Europe.

1.2 Political Radicalism and Economic Crises

1. Revolutionary uprising

The birth of the Weimar Republic coincided with: 

• The revolutionary uprising of the Spartacist League on pattern of (Bolshevik Revolution in Russia). 

• Soviets of workers and 
• sailors were established in many cities. 

2. Political atmosphere in Berlin 

• demands for Soviet-style governance. 

3. Path to democratic republic

Those opposed to this – such as the: 

• socialists, 
• Democrats and 
• Catholics – 

Met in Weimar to give shape to the democratic republic. 

4. The Weimar Republic crushed the uprising through: 

• Free Corps: war veterans organisation 

5. Communist Party of Germany:

• The anguished Spartacists later founded the Communist Party of Germany. 

6. Hostility between Communists and Socialists 

• Both became irreconcilable enemies and 
• Not make common cause against Hitler. 

7. Demands of revolutionaries and militant nationalists 

• Radical solutions

8. Economic crisis of 1923

Political radicalisation 

• Heightened by the economic crisis of 1923. 

Germany and Crisis:

Germany fought the war

• Largely on loans and 
• Had to pay war reparations in gold. 

Result: This depleted gold reserves 

Germany Retaliation:

• 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. 

Currency Devaluation:

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 4,621,000 marks and 
• a 98,860,000 marks by December, 
• the figure had run into trillions. 

Hyperinflation in Germany:

Definition: A situation when prices rise phenomenally high.

As the value of the mark collapsed, 

• prices of goods soared. 

The image of Germans: 

• carrying cartloads of currency notes to buy a loaf of bread was widely publicised 
• Evoking worldwide sympathy. 

Americans (Dawes Plan)

• Americans intervened and 
• bailed Germany out of the crisis 

Plan objective: which reworked the terms of reparation to ease the financial burden on Germans.

1.3 The Years of Depression

The years between 1924 and 1928 

• Saw some stability. 
• Yet this was built on sand. 

USA short-term loans:

• Increase German investments and 
• industrial recovery 

Wall Street Exchange crashed:

Support withdrawn: When the Wall Street Exchange crashed in

1929. 

Wall Street Exchange – The name of the world’s biggest stock exchange located in the USA.

Fearing a fall in prices:  

• People made frantic efforts to sell their
• shares. 
• On one single day, 24 October, 13 million shares were sold.

Starts Great Economic Depression

Over the next three years, 

• Between 1929 and 1932, 
• The national income of the USA fell by half. 

Consequences:

• Factories shut down, 
• Exports fell, 
• Farmers were badly hit
• Speculators withdrew their money from the market. 

The effects of this recession in the US economy were felt worldwide.

German Economy and Impact of Recession:

Worst hit: By the economic crisis. 

By 1932, industrial production:  was reduced to 40 per cent of the 1929 level. 

Unemployment: 

• Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages. 
• Unemployed touched to 6 million. 

Example:

On the streets of Germany men with placards around their necks saying, ‘Willing to do any work’. 

• Unemployed youths played cards or 
• simply sat at street corners, or 
• desperately queued up at the local employment exchange. 

Criminal activities

As jobs disappeared, 

• the youth took to criminal activities 

**and total despair became commonplace.**

Deep anxieties and fears in people:

• Due to economic crisis

The middle classes, 

Salaried employees and pensioners: 

• Their savings diminish (bcoz- currency lost its value). 

• Small businessmen, 
• The self-employed and 
• retailers suffered 
• Their businesses got ruined. 

Middle class and fear of proletarianisation:

An anxiety of being reduced to the ranks of: 

• the working class, or 
• the unemployed. 

Note: To become impoverished to the level of working classes.

Organised workers: 

• Only manage to survive, 
• but unemployment weakened their bargaining power. 

Big business was in crisis. 

Large Peasantry: 

Greatly affected by: 

• a sharp fall in agricultural prices and 

women

• Unable to fill their children’s stomachs

Politically fragility of Weimar Republic 

Had some inherent defects, 

Made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship. 

Defects:

1. Proportional representation: 

In this achieving a majority by any one party a near impossible

• leading to a rule by coalitions. 

2. Article 48:

Gave the President the powers to: 

• Impose emergency, 
• Suspend civil rights and 
• Rule by decree. 

3. Within its short life, 

The Weimar Republic 

• Saw twenty different cabinets lasting on an average 239 days 
• A liberal use of Article 48

4. Unpopularity of Weimar Republic:

• Unable to manage crisis
• People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system (due to no solutions)

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Factors responsible for Rise of Hitler:

1. Crisis Situation: 

• Economy, 
• polity and 
• society 

2. Early Life:

Born in 1889 in Austria, 

Hitler spent his youth in poverty. 

3. Hitler’s Role in First World War:

• He enrolled for the army, 
• Acted as a messenger in the front, 
• Became a corporal, and 
• Earned medals for bravery. 

4. Germany defeat in IWW:

• Horrified him and 
• The Versailles Treaty made him furious. 

5. German Workers’ Party.

• In 1919, he joined a small group 
• Took over the organisation and 
• Renamed it the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. 
• This party came to be known as the Nazi Party.

6. Hitler’s Bavaria Incident:

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. 

7. Nazis in early 1930s.

Not effectively mobilise popular support 

8. Nazis in later 1930s

During the Great Depression 

• Nazism became a mass movement. 

Because after 1929, 

• Banks collapsed and 
• Businesses shut down, 
• Workers lost their jobs and 
• The middle classes were threatened with destitution. 

9. In such a situation 

Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future. 

10. Nazi become the largest party (Reichstag – the German parliament)

• In 1928 - the Nazi Party got 2. 6 per cent votes
• By 1932 - become the largest party with 37 per cent votes.

11. Hitler’s Personality:

A powerful speaker:

• His passion and his words moved people. 

12. Hitler’s Promises:

• To build a strong nation, 
• Undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and 
• Restore the dignity of the German people. 
• Employment for unemployed
• A secure future for the youth. 
• Weed out all foreign influences and 
• Resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against Germany.

13. Hitler’s new style of politics: 

He understood: 

• The significance of rituals and 
• Spectacle in mass mobilisation and Power. 

• The Red banners with the Swastika, 
• the Nazi salute, and 
• the ritualised rounds of applause after the speeches

• Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings to: 
• Demonstrate the support for Hitler and 
• Instil a sense of unity among the people. 

14. Objective of Nazi propaganda 

Projected Hitler as: 

• a messiah, 
• a saviour, 
• as someone who had arrived to deliver people from their distress. 

To captured people’s imagination whose: 

• dignity and pride had been shattered, and 
• who were living in a time of acute economic and political crises.

2.1 The Destruction of Democracy

Hitler’s became Chancellor On 30 January 1933:

President Hindenburg offered Hitler: 

• the Chancellorship, 
• the highest position in the cabinet of ministers.

**By now: 

• The Nazis supported conservatives to their cause.**

Consequences:

1. Destroy Democracy:

• Hitler set out to dismantle the structures of democratic rule. 

2. Fire Decree of 28 February 1933

A mysterious fire 🔥: 

• In the German Parliament building in February facilitated his move. 

The Fire Decree:

Indefinitely suspended civic rights like: 

• freedom of speech, 
• press and 
• assembly 

Earlier guaranteed by the Weimar constitution. 

3. Eliminating Enemies (arch- enemies) The Communists:

The Communists, 

• Severe Repression
• To the newly established concentration camps. 

Example:

Duesseldorf, a small city of half a million population:

• Out of the surviving 6,808 arrest files 
• 1,440 were related to Communists alone. 

Nazis and 52 types of victims:

• Communist one of the types.

4. Enabling Act passed on (3, March, 1933)

• The Act established dictatorship in Germany. 

• It gave Hitler all powers to: 
• Sideline Parliament and 
• Rule by fire 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

To control and maintain order in society:

• Special surveillance and 
• Security forces were created 

Types of Forces under Hitler: 

Already existing: 

• Regular police in green uniform and 
• the SA (Sturmabteilung or Brownshirts) or the Storm Troopers, 

These included: 

• The Gestapo (secret state police), 
• Brutal methods of repression, 
• Surveillance, and 
• Torture.

• The SS Schutzstaffel (the protection squads),
• A paramilitary organization 
• Do regime’s heinous acts, 
• running concentration camps and 
• Enforcing policies of racial purity. 

• Criminal police and the Security Service (SD) - part of SS. 

4. Hitler used the above extra-constitutional powers: 

• Transform Nazi state into criminal state. 

Example:

• People detained in Gestapo torture chambers, 
• sent to concentration camps, 
• Deported at will or arrested without any legal procedures. 

Rule with impunity:

• No action taken against police forces.

     Hitler's Nazi Regime

            |

     Schutzstaffel (SS)

            |

   Concentration Camps,

  Racial Purity Policies

            |

          Gestapo

            |

   Repression, Surveillance,

          Torture

            |

Sturmabteilung (SA)

            |

 Intimidation, Violence,

      Nazi Party Support

            |

      Wehrmacht

            |

  German Armed Forces,

   Military Operations

            |

    Hitler Youth

            |

Indoctrination, Nazi Ideology,

  Youth Preparation

            |

     Volkssturm

            |

Mobilization, Civilian Defense,

       World War II

            |

    Einsatzgruppen

            |

 Mobile Killing Squads,

    Mass Murders

            |

 Ordnungspolizei

            |

 Order Maintenance,

    Repression, Holocaust

2.2 Reconstruction

Germany Economic Recovery:

1. Hitler assigned responsibility to the economist Hjalmar Schacht 

2. Suggested Measures: 

State-funded work-creation programme for:

• full production and 
• full employment 

Results:

Project produced: 

• The famous German superhighways and 
• The people’s car, the Volkswagen.

3. Hitler’s Foreign Policy:

1. Acquired quick successes. 

2. He pulled out of the League of Nations in 1933, 

3. Reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, and 

4. Integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan, 

• One people, One empire, and One leader. 

5. Next went on to wrest (control)

• German- speaking Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia, and gobbled up (eat up) the entire country. 

****Note: England Supported Hitler (unspokenly)

Why:

• which had considered the Versailles verdict too harsh. 
• To avoid conflict****

***Significance of HFP:

Quick successes 

• At home and 
• Abroad 

Seemed to reverse the destiny of the country.***

4. Remove economist Hjalmar Schacht 

Because he advised Hitler not to invest: 

• hugely in rearmament 
• As the state still ran on deficit financing. 

(Deficit Financing = Government Expenditures - Government Revenues)

Why Hitler Chooses War:

1. To end the economic crisis. 

2. Accumulation of Resources:

• Through expansion of territory. 

2nd WW Started:

1. Poland Invasion:

• In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. 

2. This started a war with France and England. 

3. Tripartite Pact

• In September 1940, 
• Between Germany, Italy and Japan, 
• Objective:
• strengthening Hitler’s claim to international power. 

4. Puppet regimes:

• By the end of 1940, Nazi-supported regimes controlled much of Europe.

• Hitler was at the peak of his power.

5. Hitler’s long-term aim: 

• Conquering Eastern Europe. 
• To ensure food supplies and 
• Living space for Germans. 

6. Second Front war (Soviet Union) or (historic blunder) :

• In June 1941. 

Historic blunder:

German western front: 

• To British aerial bombing and 

The eastern front: 

• To the powerful Soviet armies. 

Why considered as Bluender:

Battle of Stalingrad:

The Soviet Red Army inflicted: 

• A crushing and humiliating defeat on Germany.

Significance:

1. Soviet Red Army chased retreating German soldiers 

• Until they reached the heart of Berlin, 

2. Establishing Soviet hegemony over

• The entire Eastern Europe for half a century thereafter.

USA and 2nd WW:

Resisted involvement in the war. 

• Why?: It avoided repeating the First World War's economic crisis.

USA Entry in 2nd WW (Japan):

Not stay out of the war for long. 

Reason:

Japan was expanding its power in the east 

• occupied French Indo-China and 
• planning attacks on US naval bases in the Pacific. 

Main Reason (Pearl Harbor Incident):

• Japan extended its support to Hitler and 
• bombed the US base at Pearl Harbor, 

Finally: The US entered the Second World War. 

Consequences of USA entry in 2nd WW:

• Hitler’s defeat: The war ended in May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat 
• Atomic Bomb: The US dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan.

The Nazi Worldview 

Nazis committed crimes linked to: 

• a system of belief and 
• a set of practices.

Nazi ideology 

• Supports Hitler’s worldview. 

Characteristics:

Only racial hierarchy: No equality between people.

In Top:

• Blond, 
• blue-eyed, 
• Nordic German Aryans 

lowest rung

Jews 

• Regarded as an anti-race, 
• the arch-enemies of the Aryans. 

Peoples Characterisation (external features):

• All other coloured people 

Hitler’s racial ideology:

Borrowed from thinkers like 

• Charles Darwin and 
• Herbert Spencer. 

Charles Darwin:

Darwin was a natural scientist who explained the creation of: 

• Plants and 
• Animals 

Through the concept of evolution and natural selection. 

Herbert Spencer (idea of survival of the fittest):

Later Added

According to this idea, 

• only those species survived on earth that could adapt themselves to changing climatic conditions. 

Note:

Darwin didn't support human interference in the natural selection process.

His concepts were misused by:

• Racist thinkers and Politicians
• To justify imperial rule over conquered peoples. 

The Nazi argument was simple: 

The strongest race would survive and 

• the weak ones would perish. 

The Aryan race was the finest:

• To retain its purity, 
• become stronger and 
• dominate the world.

Hitler's Territorial Vision:

Geopolitical idea of "Lebensraum" (living space).

Believed in acquiring new territories for settlement.

Aimed to expand the mother country's area and 

• strengthen ties to homeland.

Intended to boost German resources and power.

Hitler's plan: Move eastwards, concentrate Germans in one area.

• Poland became the laboratory for this experimentation

3.1 Establishment of the Racial State

Nordic German Aryans – One branch of those classified as Aryans. They lived in north European countries and had German or related origin

Nazi Power and Racial Vision:

1. Nazi Rise to Power: Nazis gained control.

2. Creating Pure German Society: Only racial community of pure German.

How?

3. Elimination of 'Undesirables': Physically removed those deemed undesirable.

4. Society of ‘pure and healthy Nordic Aryans’:

• They alone were considered ‘desirable’ by Nazis.

Only race worthy of: 

• Prospering and 
• Multiplying against all 

Others classed it as ‘undesirable’. 

Even Germans - 

• impure or abnormal - 
• had no right to exist. 

Euthanasia Programme: 

• Helmuth’s father + other Nazi officials 
• Killed Germans - Mentally or physically unfit.

Other communities classified as ‘undesirable’: 

Gypsy:  The groups - had their own community identity.  Sinti and Roma were two such communities.  Many of them traced their origin to India.  Pauperised – Reduce to absolute poverty  Persecution – Systematic, organised punishment of those belonging to a group or religion Usurers –  Moneylenders charging excessive interest;  often used as a term of abuse

Racial ‘inferiors’

• Gypsies and 
• Blacks living in Nazi Germany 
• Widely persecuted

Why Undesirables:

• Threatened the biological purity of the ‘superior Aryan’ race. 

Subhuman

• Russians and Poles 
• undeserving of any humanity. 

German occupation of Poland and parts of Russia

• Captured civilians forced into slave labor
• Many died due to hard work and starvation

Jews 

• Worst sufferers 

Why?

The Nazi hatred of Jews was influenced by a history of traditional Christian hostility towards Jews.

Jews: stereotyped as: 

• Killers of Christ and 
• Usurers.

Until medieval times: 

• Jews were barred from owning land (No Farming)

How they Survived:

Through trade and moneylending. 

Ghettos:

They lived in separately marked areas. 

Persecution of Jews:

• Through periodic organised violence, and 
• Expulsion from the land. 

Hitler’s pseudoscientific theories of race:

Basis for Jew’s  hatred

Theory Stated: 

• Conversion was no solution to ‘the Jewish problem’. 
• Jew’s Problem solved only through their total elimination.

First Phase From 1933 to 1938 (Jews Problem) 

The Nazis: 

• Terrorised, 
• Pauperised (Reduce to absolute poverty) 
• Segregated the Jews, 
• Force them to leave the country. 

Next phase, 1939-1945 (Jews Problem)

The Nazis aimed at: 

• Concentrating them in certain areas and 
• Eventually killing them in gas chambers in Poland.

3.2 The Racial Utopia

During war's, 

The Nazis enacted their deadly racial vision.

Two sides of the same coin

Genocide and war 

Poland Occupation:

Occupied Poland was divided up. 

North-western Poland was annexed to Germany. 

Poles:

Forced to leave their: 

• homes and 
• properties 

Occupied by ethnic Germans brought in from occupied Europe. 

Poles 

• Herded like cattle (General Government) 
• The destination of all ‘undesirables’ of the empire. 

Polish intellectuals were killed to control the population.

Polish children looked like Aryans were taken from mothers, 

• Examined by 'race experts'.

Passing race tests: Raised in German families and 

if not - deposited in orphanages (later died)

In poland: 

• largest ghettos and 
• gas chambers, 
• the General Government - served as the killing fields for the Jews.