Class 9 History Chapter 1 Question Answers - India and the Contemporary World - 1

Q1: ‘The First World War left a deep imprint on the European society and polity’. Give examples to support the statement.
Ans:
The following examples can be given in support of the above statement.

• 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 trench 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 being reduced rapidly.
• Aggressive war propaganda and national honour occupied center stage in the public sphere, while popular support grew for a conservative dictatorship that had recently come into being. Democracy could not survive in such circumstances.

Q2: What were the promises made by Hitler to the people of Germany? (Imp)
Ans:
Hitler made several promises to the people of Germany:

• He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty, and restore the dignity of the German people.
• He promised employment for those looking for work and a secure future for the youth.
• He promised to end all foreign influences and resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against their nation.

Q3: How did Hitler mobilize the German people?
Ans:

• Hitler mobilized the German people through his powerful oratory. His passion and his words moved the Germans. He made many promises to them, which included restoration of their dignity, employment for those looking for work, etc.
• He understood the significance of rituals and spectacle in mass mobilization. Nazis held massive rallies, public meetings to demonstrate support for Hitler and instill a sense of unity among the people.
• Nazi propaganda skillfully projected Hitler as a messiah, a savior, as someone who had arrived to deliver people from their miseries. It is an image that captured the imagination of a people whose sense of dignity and pride had been shattered, and who were living in a time of acute economic and political crisis.

Q4: What do you know about the genocidal war waged by Germany in the shadow of the Second World War?
Ans:

• Germany waged a genocidal war under the shadow of the Second World War. It resulted in the mass murder of selected groups of innocent civilians in Europe.
• The number of people killed included 6 million Jews, 200,000 Gypsies, 1 million Polish civilians, 70,000 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.

Q5: Whom did Hitler assign the responsibility for economic recovery in Germany? Why was he removed?
Ans:

• Hitler appointed the economist Hjalmar Schacht. Schacht 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.
• Hitler also pulled out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938. Then he took the country of Czechoslovakia.
• Hitler’s hunger for more success and fame corrupted his mind and soul so much so that he could never distinguish between right and wrong. Schacht advised him against investing hugely in rearmament as the state still ran on deficit financing. Hitler did not like such cautious people and immediately removed him.

Q6: Describe what you know about the Nazis’ art of propaganda.
Ans:

• Nazi ideas were spread through visual images, films, radio, posters, catchy slogans, and leaflets.
• Propaganda films were made to create hatred for Jews. The most infamous film was the Eternal Jew, in which Orthodox Jews were stereotyped and marked.
• They were shown with flowing beards wearing kaftans. They were referred to as vermin, rats, and pests. Their movements were compared to those of rodents.
• Orthodox Jews were also stereotyped as killers of Christ and moneylenders. Stereotypes about Jews were even popularized through math classes. Children were taught to hate Jews.
• Nazi propaganda was so effective that a large section of people began to see the world through Nazi eyes and speak their minds in Nazi language. They felt hatred and anger surge inside them when they saw someone who looked like a Jew.

Q7: How was the German economy hit by the Great Depression?
Ans:

• The German economy was badly hit by the Great Depression. 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 grew. Unemployed youths played cards or simply sat at street corners or desperately queued up at the local employment exchange.
• The economic crisis created deep anxieties and fears in people. Small businessmen, the self-employed, and retailers suffered as their businesses were ruined. These sections of society were reduced to the ranks of the working classes. The large mass of peasantry was equally distressed.

Q8: What was the effect of the economic crisis on the small businessmen of Germany? How did the peasantry class suffer?
Ans:

• The effect of the economic crisis on the small businessmen of Germany was deep. They suffered as their businesses got ruined. These people were filled with the fear of proletarianization, an anxiety of being reduced to the ranks of the working class, or worse still, the unemployed.
• The large mass of peasantry was affected by a sharp fall in agricultural prices. Women became victims of deep despair as they were unable to feed their children.

Q9: Which communities were classified as undesirable in Nazi Germany?
Ans:

The Nazis classified several communities as ‘undesirable’:

• Jews, Gypsies (Sinti and Roma), Blacks, and others were seen as racially inferior.

• Poles, Russians, and political opponents were also dehumanized.

• Even Germans with physical or mental disabilities were considered unfit to live under Nazi racial policies.

Q10: How were Jews treated in Nazi Germany?
Ans:

Jews faced systematic discrimination, violence, and eventually extermination:

• From 1933 to 1938, they were boycotted, segregated, and forced to emigrate.
• After 1941, they were confined to ghettos in inhuman conditions.
• From 1941 to 1945, millions were sent to concentration camps and gas chambers, especially in Poland.

Q11: What do you know about the traditional Christian hostility towards Jews? How were they treated until medieval times? What was Hitler’s hatred of Jews based on?
Ans:

• The traditional Christian hostility towards Jews is well-known. The Jews had been stereotyped as killers of Christ and usurers.
• Until medieval times, Jews were barred from owning land. They survived mainly through trade and moneylending. They were made to live in separately marked areas called ghettos. They were often persecuted through periodic organized violence and expulsion from the land.
• Hitler’s hatred of Jews was based on pseudoscientific theories of race, which held that conversion was no solution to the Jewish problem. It could be solved only through their total elimination. Therefore, Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany.
  
  

Q12: How was the Weimar Republic politically fragile?
Ans:
The Weimar 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 coalitions.
• Another defect was Article 48, which gave the president the powers to impose an emergency, suspend civil rights, and rule by decree.
• Within its short life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets lasting on average 239 days, and a liberal use of Article 48. Yet the crisis could not be managed.

Q13: What were the two inherent defects in the Weimar Constitution?
Ans:
The Weimar 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 coalitions.
• Another defect was Article 48, which gave the president the powers to impose an emergency, suspend civil rights, and rule by decree.
• Within its short life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets lasting on average 239 days, and a liberal use of Article 48. Yet the crisis could not be managed.

Q14: ‘The Peace treaty at Versailles with the Allies was a harsh and humiliating peace’. Explain.
Ans:
The terms that Germany was forced to accept after its defeat at the end of the First World War were too harsh and humiliating:

• Germany had to lose its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13 percent of its territories, 7 percent of its iron, and 26 percent of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark, and Lithuania.
• The Allied Powers demilitarized Germany to weaken its powers. The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the war and damages the Allied countries suffered.
• Germany was made to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion. The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s. Thus, Germany had to face disgrace at Versailles.

Q15: What measures did Hitler take to create an exclusive racial community of pure Germans? 
Ans:

• Hitler aimed to create an exclusive racial community of pure Germans by eliminating all those considered ‘undesirable’.
• He envisioned a society of “pure and healthy Nordic Aryans”, who alone were seen as worthy of prosperity and reproduction.
• The following groups were classified as undesirable:
  - Jews, Gypsies (Sinti and Roma), and Blacks – labeled as racial inferiors.
  - Russians and Poles – considered subhuman; captured civilians were forced into slave labour in occupied territories.
• Jews were the worst affected:
  - From 1933 to 1938, they were terrorized, segregated, and pauperised, forcing many to leave the country.
  - From 1939 to 1945, Jews were concentrated in ghettos and later exterminated in gas chambers, especially in Poland.

Q16: How were Poles treated in Nazi Germany?
Ans:

• Occupied Poland was divided. Much of north-western Poland was annexed to Germany.
• Poles were forced to leave their homes and properties behind to be occupied by ethnic Germans brought in from occupied Europe. Poles were then herded like cattle in the other part, called the General Government, the destination of all ‘undesirables’ of the empire.
• Members of the Polish intelligentsia were murdered in large numbers in order to keep the entire people intellectually and spiritually servile.
• Polish children who looked like Aryans were forcibly snatched from their mothers and examined by ‘race experts’. If they passed the race tests, they were raised in German families, and if not, they were deposited in orphanages where most perished. In this way, Poles were treated very ruthlessly in Nazi Germany. They were considered subhuman and were exploited through forced labor, cultural repression, and mass executions.

Q17: What was the famous Enabling Act? Mention some of its important provisions. (Imp)
Ans:
On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This Act established Hitler’s dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler all powers to sideline Parliament and rule by decree. Some of its provisions were:

• The structures of democratic rule were dismantled, and dictatorship was established in its place.
• 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.
• Special surveillance and security forces were 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), and the SS (the protection squads), criminal police, and the security service or (SD).
• People could now be detained in Gestapo torture chambers, rounded up and sent to concentration camps, deported at will, or arrested without any legal procedures. The police forces acquired powers to exercise unchecked power.

Q18: How were the ideas of Darwin and Herbert Spencer adopted by the Nazis?
Ans:

• Hitler’s racism borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Darwin was a natural scientist who tried to explain the creation of plants and animals through the concept of evolution and natural selection.
• Herbert Spencer later added the idea of survival of the fittest. According to this idea, only those species survived on  earth that could adapt themselves to changing climatic conditions.
• Although Darwin never advocated human intervention in what he thought was purely a natural process of selection, his ideas were used by racist thinkers and politicians to justify imperial rule over conquered peoples.
• The Nazis argued that the strongest race would survive and the weak ones would perish.
• They considered that the Aryan race was the finest. It had to retain its purity, become stronger, and dominate the world.

Q19: Describe Hitler’s policy towards women.
Ans:

• Hitler believed that women were radically different from men. He was not in favor of equal rights for men and women. He considered it wrong because it would destroy society.
• While boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine, and steel-hearted, girls were told that they had to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children.
• 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 Aryan culture and race.
• In Nazi Germany, all mothers were not treated equally. Women who bore racially undesirable children were punished, and those who produced racially desirable children were rewarded. They were given favored treatment in hospitals. To encourage women to produce many desirable children, Honour Crosses were awarded.
• All ‘Aryan’ women who deviated from the prescribed code of conduct were publicly condemned and severely punished. Those who maintained contact with Jews, Poles, and Russians were humiliated and harassed in many ways.

Q20: What was Hitler’s policy towards the youth of the country?
Ans:

• Hitler showed deep interest in the youth of the country. He was of the opinion that a strong Nazi society could be established only by teaching children Nazi ideology. Hence, all schools were purified by dismissing teachers and students who were Jewish.
• ‘Good German’ children were subjected to a process of Nazi schooling, a prolonged period of ideological training. Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews, and worship Hitler. Boxing was encouraged among boys because it made them iron-hearted, strong, and masculine.
• Youth organizations were made responsible for educating German youth in ‘The spirit of National Socialism’. Ten-year-olds had to enter the Jungvolk. At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi youth organization, that is, Hitler Youth, where they learned to worship war, glorify aggression and violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews, Communists, and Gypsies.
• After a period of rigorous ideological and physical training, they joined the Labor Service, usually at the age of 18. Then they had to serve in the armed forces and enter one of the Nazi organizations.
• The Youth League of the Nazis was founded in 1922. Four years later, it was renamed Hitler Youth. To unify the youth movement under Nazi control, all other youth organizations were systematically dissolved and finally banned.