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NCERT Solutions for Class 9 History chapter 3 – Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

Back Exercise

Question 1.
Describe the problems faced by the Weimar Republic.
Answer:
The problems faced by the Weimar Republic were as follows:

1. The Weimar constitution had Inherent drawbacks making Weimar Republic fragile.
   (a) One was proportional representation which made it difficult for any party to get a majority leading to coalition governments.
   (b) Article 48, which gave the President the power to rule by decree, suspend civil rights and to impose emergency.
   People lost confidence in democratic parliamentary system.
2. The Weimar Republic was not received well by the people because of the terms it was forced to accept at Versailles at the end of the First World War. It was a harsh and humiliating treaty which Germany had to accept with the Allies. Many people held the Weimar Republic responsible for the defeat in the war and for accepting the terms of the Treaty of Versailles,
3. In 1923 Germany refused to pay reparation payments and the French occupied its leading industrial area, the Ruhr, to claim their coal. Germany offerred with passive resistance and printed paper currency. With too much paper currency in circulation the value of German mark fell. The situation is called hyperinflation.
4. Weimar Republic had to face another economic crisis. USA Withdrew her support when Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929. German economy was worst hit by the economic crisis. Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages. The numbers of unemployed reached 6 million. The economic crisis created a feeling of fear among the people.

Question 2.
Discuss why Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930.
Answer:
Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930 in the following manner.

1. The crisis in economy, politics and society led to the rise of Hitler. He joined the German Workers’ party in 1919 and took its organisation. He renamed it as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. It came to be known as the Nazi Party.
2. Nazism became a mass movement during the Great Depression. After 1929 banks closed, workers lost their jobs and middle class was threatened with poverty. Nazi propaganda gave hopes of a better future. By 1932, the Nazi Party became the largest party in the Reichstag with 37 per cent votes.
3. Hitler was a powerful speaker. He could draw the attention of the people. He promised to build Germany into a strong nation, wipe out the humiliation of Treaty of Versailles and restore the dignity of the Germans. He promised employment and better future to the youth.
4. He understood the importance of show-biz. Massive rallies were held where he addressed the SA and SS columns. Public meetings were held to show support for Hitler and instil unity among the people.
   The red banners with the Swastika, Nazi salute, the ritualised round of applause were part of all meetings. Hitler was projected as a saviour, who would end all misery and restore the dignity of Germany and German people.

Question 3.
What are the peculiar features of Nazi thinking?
Answer:
The peculiar features of Nazi thinking are as follows.

1. Nazi ideology was same as Hitler’s worldview. According to this there was no equality between people but only a racial hierarchy. In this view blond, blue-eyed Nordic German Aryans were at the top called ‘desirables’ while Jews (undesirables) were placed at the lowest rung. Hitler’s racism was influenced by thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The Nazi argument was simple: ‘The strongest race would survive, the weak ones would perish’.
2. Hitler believed in Lebensraum or living space. New territories had to be conquered to increase the living space.
3. Nazis wanted a society of pure and healthy Nordic Aryans. It meant that even those Germans who were seen as impure or abnormal had no right to live. Under the Euthanasia Programme, the Nazi condemned to death many Germans, who were mentally or physically unfit.
4. As soon as Hitler came to power he tried to eliminate the undesirables and the gypsy. The Nazis proceeded to realise their murderous racial ideals.
5. Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. They were called ‘undesirables’. Hitler’s hatred for Jews was based on pseudoscientific theories of race, which held conversion was no solution. They should be completely eliminated.

Question 4.
Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating a hatred for Jews.
Answer:

1. Jews remained the worst enemy in Nazi Germany. Hitler’s hatred for the Jews was based on the pseudoscientific theory that conversion was no solution for the Jews. They had to be exterminated. Form 1933 to 1938, they were segregated, from 1939 to 1945 they were place in certain areas and finally they were killed in gas chambers of Poland e.g. Auschwitz.
2. Media was used to popularise Nazi thinking. Their ideas were popularised through films, radio, posters, caricatures, slogans and leaflets. The most notorious film made on the Jews was The Eternal Jew.
3. Jews were shown with flowing beard and wearing kaftans. They were referred to as vermin, rats and pests. Nazism workedon the thinking of the people and turned their anger and hatred towards the ‘undesirables’.
4. One of the posters, showed a Jew sitting on a big bag of money. The caption read, ‘Money is the God of the Jews. In order to earn money, he can commit the greatest crime’.

Question 5.
Explain what role women had in Nazi society. Return to Chapter 1 on the French Revolution. Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the role of women in the two periods.
Answer:
In Nazi Germany, boys were told to be aggressive and steel-hearted, girls were told that they had to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children. Girls had to protect the purity of German race. They had to look after their homes and Nazi values had to be taught to the children.
Women who produced ‘desirable children’ were awarded. They got better treatment in hospitals, and got concessions in shops, on theatre tickets and railway fares. Honour crosses were awarded to women. A bronze cross was awarded to women for four children, silver cross for six children and gold for eight or more children.

Question 6.
In what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its people?
Answer:
The Nazi state tried to establish total control over its people. Special forces were created to control the society, in the way Nazis wanted. Apart from SA or the Storm Troopers, and regular police, who wore green unifrom, these included the Gestapo (secret state police) and SS (the protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service (SD). They were given extra-constitutional powers, that gave the Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal state. People were tortured in Gestapo chambers and sent to concentration camps. People were arrested without any legal procedure.

In-Text Questions

Page 61
Activity 1.  Read Sources A and B

Source A

“For this earth is not allotted to anyone nor is it presented to anyone as a gift. It is awarded  by providence to people who in their hearts have the courage to conquer it, the strength to preserve it, and the industry to put it to the plough… The primary right of this world the right to life, so far as one possesses the strength for this. Hence on the basis of the right a vigorous nation will always find ways of adapting its territory to its population size

Hitler, Secret Book, ed. Telford Taylor.

Source B

“In an era when the earth is gradually being divided up among states, some of which embrace almost entire continents, we cannot speak of a world power in connection with a formation whose political mother country is limited to the absurd area of five hundred kilometers.”

Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 644.

(a) What do they tell you about Hitler’s imperial ambition?

Answer The two texts tell that Hitler’s imperial ambition was to expand the boundaries of Germany till wherever they could possibly reach. He believed that an aggressive nation will find methods to adjust its territory to its population’s size. In source ‘B’ he was comparing Germany’s size to that of Russia and wanted Germany to become a world power of similar size.

(b) What do you think Mahatma Gandhi would have said to Hitler about these ideas?

Answer Mahatma Gandhi would have told Hitler to remove the idea of aggression against other nations from his mind, as violence begets violence.

Page 63
Activity 1. What does citizenship mean to you? Look at Chapters 1 and 3 and write 200 words on how the French Revolution and Nazism defined citizenship.

Answer To me, citizenship means the right to live freely in the country of my birth or the country where I desire to live. The French Revolution defined citizenship in a way which was different from the way that the Nazism defined it.

The French people thought that all men have equal rights as they are born equal. The rights of a citizen include liberty, security, owning of property and resisting oppression. Also they believed in the freedom of expression, whether verbal or in writing, art, etc. They believed in the rule of law and that no one can be above it.

However, the Nazi definition of citizenship was quite different. It was defined with the perspective of racial discrimination against all except the ‘pure Aryan’ Nordic race. So they said that Jews and other ‘undesirable population would not be considered as citizens of Germany. These people were given very harsh treatment like death in the gas chamber or banishment to concentration camps. Many of them were forced to flee to other countries because of this.

Page 63
Activity 2. What did the Nuremberg Laws mean to the undesirables’ in Nazi Germany? What other legal measures were taken against them to make them feel unwanted?

Answer Basically, the Nuremberg Laws meant that the ‘undesirables’ had no rights to live along with the other citizens. These included Jews, Gypsies, ‘Blacks’ and other nationalities like Polish and Russian people.

These laws, promulgated in 1935, stated

(i) Only persons of German or related blood would be German citizens, enjoying the protection of the German Empire.

(ii) Marriages between Germans and the ‘undesirables’ were forbidden. Extramarital relations between them also became a crime.

Other legal measures included

(i) Boycott of Jewish businesses.

(ii) Expulsion of Jews from government services.

(iii) Confiscation and forcible selling of the properties of Jews.

Page 66
Activity 1. If you were a student sitting in one of these classes, how would you have felt towards Jews?

Answer 1 If I had been a student sitting in one of these classes, I would have felt very bad, as I would be missing my friends, who used to play with he earlier. I would have felt sympathetic towards them and would have hated the government for this action.

Page 66
Activity 2. Have you ever thought of the stereotypes of other communities that people around you believe in? How have they acquired them?

Answer I have thought about the stereotypes of other communities the we believe in. They are usually acquired from their ancestors and the traditions and customs of the community to which they belong.

Page 69
Activity 1. How would you have reacted to Hitler’s ideas if you were

(a) A Jewish woman

(b) A non-Jewish German woman

Answer 1 If I was a Jewish woman, I would have condemned these ideas as they were against our community and also against women.

If I was a non-Jewish German woman, I would have condemned them as being too restrictive to women’s roles in life. Also, I do not agree with Hitler about the idea of Jews being ‘undesirable’, as I have a number of Jewish women as my friends and 1 find them likeable, just like other human beings.They should not be called ‘undesirables’.

Page 69
Activity 2. What do you think this poster is trying to depict?

Answer The poster is making fun of Jews, by depicting that they are only interested in making money, by whatever means at their disposal. It is trying to show that Jews are greedy. The fatness of the man depicted indicates that the poster maker felt that the greed of Jews is excessive.

Page 70
Activity 1. Look at Fig. 29 and 30 and answer the following

What do they tell us about Nazi propaganda? How are the Nazis trying to mobilise different sections of the population?

Answer The first poster is addressed to the German farmer, while the second one is addressed to the German worker. This tells us that through this kind of propaganda, the Nazis were trying to win the support of the working classes. The second poster is telling them to vote for Hitler, who has fought on the front line in the First World War. The first poster is condemning the Capitalists and the Bolsheviks, because they are the enemies of Nazism. By this method, the Nazis tried to mobilise different sections of the population to their cause.

Page 71
Activity 1. Why does Erna Kranz say, I could only say for myself? How do you view her opinion?

Answer She said this because at that time, she personally felt that the economy was being revived. However, since she was not able to see the conditions of others at that time, being too young to go out and see what was happening elsewhere.

Her opinion may be correct as far as she was concerned, but as she had no idea about what was happening in the rest of the country, it is difficult to say whether others felt similarly.

Page 71
Activity 1. Write a one page history of Germany

(a) as a schoolchild in Nazi Germany

(b) as a Jewish survivor of a concentration camp

(c) as a political opponent of the Nazi regime

Answer 1

(a) As a Schoolchild in Nazi Germany : I have been conditioned to behave in a particular manner since I was three years old. First I was given a flag to wave, to show my patriotism. I was told that men’s and women’s roles in life were totally different. We were told that the fight for equal rights of men and women was a thing of the past as it would destroy our society today. We boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steel hearted, while the girls were told that they had to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children.

The girls had to maintain the purity of the race, distance themselves from Jews, look after the home, and teach their children Nazi values.They had to be the bearers of the Aryan culture and race.

I had to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler, proclaiming him as the savior of the country. I have been told that after finishing school, I will join the Hitler Youth Organisation. This will be followed by military service, which is compulsory.

(b) As a Jewish Survivor of a Concentration Camp : Thanks to the Lord for saving my life. I am happy to have survived three years of torturous life in the concentration camp. Of course, I am now very weak and ill, but I am still alive.

So many of my friends, relatives and even family members died before my eyes due to the bad treatment meted out to them in the camp. They were regularly beaten, left to starve and worked in very harsh conditions. Many of them were sent to the gas chambers and l was always afraid of my number coming next. Luckily I have survived to tell this tale.

(c) As a Political Opponent of the Nazi Regime : Since the Nazis have captured power, they are making life hell for all people who do not follow their doctrine. I do not understand what they will gain by trying to conquer other nations.

The bombing by the British on our homes has killed many of my relatives and friends. Aggression on other countries will definitely cause war with them and we will also lose men and property in war. The way the Nazis are going about increasing their power, I feel, in the long run, we will lose out, as this war will make all other nations to go against us. I hope Hitler sees sense and stops this war soon.