Class 9 History Chapter 3 Extra Question Answers - Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

76) When did the Second World War end in Europe?

Answer: The Second World War ended in May 1945 with Hitler's defeat. 

77) 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.  

78) 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.  

79)   If you were a student sitting in one of these classes, how would you have felt towards Jews?

Answer: 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 me earlier. I would have felt sympathetic towards them and would have hated the government for this action. 

80)   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 that we believe in. They are usually acquired from their ancestors and the traditions and customs of the community to which they belong. 

81)   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. 

82)   Look at the figures and answer the following GERMAN FARMER YOU BELONG TO HITLER! WHY? The German farmer stands in between two great dangers today: The one danger American economic system . Big Capitalism The other is the Marxist economic system of Bolshevism. Big Capitalism and Bolshevism work hand in hand they are born of Jewish thought and serve the master plan of world Jewery. Who alone can rescue the farmer from these dangers? NATIONAL SOCIALISM. From: a Nazi leaflet, 1932. The leaflet shows how the Nazis appealed to the peasants.  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.        

83) Who was Hitler's propoganda Minister?

Answer: Goebbels. 

84) How Hitler's end came?

Answer:Hitler/his Propoganda Minister Goebbels and his entire family committed suicide collectively in his Berlin bunker in April.  

85) What was Nazism?

Answer: It was a system introduced by Hitler, which had a structure of ideas about the world and politics. 

86) Which tribunal was set up after world war II to punish the Nazis for their crime against humanity?

Answer:An International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was set up to prosecute Nazi was criminals for Crimes Against Peace &: Crimes Against Humanity and for War Crimes.  

87) What was 'Genocidal war'?

Answer: It was a war which resulted in the mass murder of selected groups of innocent civilians of Europe. 

88) How was Germany defeated in World War I?

Answer: Germany made initial gains by occupying France and Belgium. However the allies (England, France and Russia) strengthened by US entry in 1917, won, defeating Germany in November 1918.  

89) How Germany adopted democratic Constitution?

Answer:After Germany's defeat in World War I and the abdication of the emperor, a National Assembly met at Weimer and established a democratic constitution with a federal structure.  

90) What was Reichstag?

Answer: It was the German Parliament formed on the basis of equal and universal votes cast by all adults including women.  

91) Name the peace treaty signed after World War I.

Answer: It was called 'Treaty of Versailles'.  

92) How was Weimer Republic made to pay for the sins of old empire?

Answer:The Weimer Republic carried the burden of war guilt (World War I) and National humiliation and was financially crippled by being forced to pay war compensation.  

93) Who were called 'November Criminals'?

Answer:Those who supported the Weimer Republic mainly Socialists, Catholics and Democrats were mockingly called the 'November Criminals'.  

94) Who were Free Corps?

Answer: There was an uprising in Berlin, demanding Soviet style government in Germany. Weimer Republic crushed this uprising with the help of a war veterans, organisation called Free Crops.  

95) What happened when Germany refused to pay war reparation to France?

Answer: In 1923 Germany refused to pay, the French occupied its leading industrial area, Ruhr, to claim their coal. 

96) Why the value of German currency 'mark' fell?

Answer: When French occupied the Ruhr area, Germany retaliated with passive resistance and printed paper currency recklessly. With too much printed money in circulation, the value of the German mark fell.  

97) What does 'Hyperinflation' mean?

Answer: It's a situation when prices rise phenomenally high. 

98) How Germany came out of this financial crisis?

Answer:The Americans bailed Germany out of the crisis by introducing 'Dawes Plan', which reworked the terms of reparation to ease the financial burden on Germany  

99) What was the condition of unemployed youth in Germany during economic crisis?

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

100) What does 'Proletarianisation' mean?

Answer:It is a fear or anxiety of being reduced to the ranks of the working class, or worse still, the unemployed.  

101) What was 'Article 48' of Weimer Republic?

Answer:It gave the President the powers to impose emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.  

102) Who was Hitler?

Answer:  Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria, spent his youth in poverty. When the World War I broke out, he enrolled for army, acted as a messenger in the front, became a corporal and earned medals for bravery.  

Adolf Hitler103) How 'Nazi Party' was formed?

Answer: Hitler joined a small group called German Workers Party. He subsequently took over the organisation and renamed it National Socialist German Workers Party. This party came to be known as 'Nazi Party'.  

104) Under which situation Nazi Propoganda was appreciated?

Answer: After 1929, banks collapsed and businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs and the middle classes were threatened with destitution. In such a situation Nazi propoganda won people's hearts.  

105) What promise was made by Hitler as a leader of Germany to the people.

Answer:He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustices of the Treaty of Versailles and restore the dignity of the German people.  

106) How Nazis mobilised the masses?

Answer: Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings, used the red banners with the Swastika, the Nazi Salute and the ritualised rounds of applause after the speeches. 

107) How Nazis projected Hitler?

Answer: Nazi propaganda skilfully projected Hitler as a messiah, a saviour, as someone who had arrived to relieve people from their distress.  

108) When and by whom Hitler was offered highest position in the Cabinet of ministers?

Answer: On 30th January, 1933, President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship, the highest position in the cabinet of ministers to Hitler. 

109) How Hitler started dismantling democratic rule in Germany?

Answer:  A mysterious fire that broke out in the German Parliament building in February facilitated the move of Hitler. 

110) What does 'The fire Decree'?

Answer: Fire Decree of 28th February 1933 indefinitely suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly that had been guaranteed by the Weimer Constitution.  

111) What was 'Concentration Camp'?

Answer: It was a camp where people were isolated and detained without due process of law. Typically, it was surrounded by electrified barbed wire fences.  

112) What was 'Enabling Act'?

Answer:This Act established dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler all powers to sideline Parliament and rule by decree. All political parties and trade unions were banned except for the Nazi Party and its affiliates. 

113) Which Security forces were created by Nazis to control order in society?

Answer:Besides Regular police in green uniform, there was Gestapo (Secret State Police) the SS (the protection squads). Criminal Police and Security Service.  

114) Which famous economist was appointed by Hitler for economic recovery of Germany?

Answer: Economist Hjalmar Schacht was appointed, who aimed at full production and full employment through a state-funded work-creation programme.  

115) How did Hitler follow the slogan of 'One people, one empire and one leader'?

Answer:Hitler pulled his country 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'. 

116) What was the immediate cause of World War II?

Answer:  In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, this became the immediate cause of World War II. 

117) Among which three countries 'Tripartite Pact' was signed?

Answer: In September 1940, a tripartite pact was signed between Germany, Italy and Japan.  

118) When did US enter the World War II?

Answer:When Japan extended its support to Hitler and bombed the US base at Pearl Harbor, the US entered into World War II.  

119) When did Second World War end?

Answer: The war ended in May 1945 with Hitler's defeat and the US dropping of the atom bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.  

120) What social hierarchy was formed by Hitler?

Answer: In Hitler's view, blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung.  

121) Who was Darwin?

Answer:Darwin was a natural scientist who tried to explain the creation of plants and animals through the concept of evolution and natural selection.  

122) Who was Herbert Spencer?

Answer: Herbert Spencer believed in 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.  

123) What were Nazi views about Aryan Race?

Answer:According to Nazis, the strongest race world survive and the weak world perish. The Aryan race was the finest, it had to retain its purity, become stronger and dominate the world.  

124) Who were considered 'undesirable' by Hitler?

Answer:Jews, Gypsies and blacks living in Nazi Germany were considered as inferior races, who threatened the biological purity of 'Superior Aryan' race, and were called undesirable by Hitler.  

125) Why Jews were the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany?

Answer: Nazis felt that Jews were killers of Christ and were also considered killers of US usurers (Moneylenders).

126) What was 'Pseudoscientific theory of race' followed by Hitler?

Answer: It held that conversion was no solution to 'the Jewish problem'. It could be solved only through their total elimination. They were often prosecuted through periodic organised violence and expulsion from the land.  

127) How were Polish children treated by Nazis?

Answer: 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 orphanage where most perished.  

128) How schools in Nazi Germany were 'cleansed' and 'purified'?

Answer: Teachers who were Jews or seen as 'politically unreliable' were dismissed. Children were segregated as Germans and Jews could not sit together or play. 

129) What was 'Jungvolk'?

Answer:These were Nazi youth groups for children below 14 years of age. 

130) How honour crosses were awarded to women for producing children?

Answer:A bronze cross was given for four children, silver for six and gold for eight or more. These crosses were awarded to the women who produced desirable children.  

131) Which terms were used by Nazis for torturing 'undesirable'?

Answer: In their official communications, mass killings were termed Special treatment, final solution (for the Jews), euthanasia (for the disabled), selection and disinfection, etc. 'Evacuation' meant deporting people to gas chambers.  

132) What were the 'gas chambers' called?

Answer: Gas chambers were called 'disinfection areas' and looked like bathrooms equipped with fake showerheads.  

133) Which was the most infamous film in which orthodox Jews were stereotyped and marked?

Answer: The film was 'The Eternal Jew'.  

134) How were 'Jews' referred in films?

Answer:Jews were referred as Vermin, rats and pests and their movements were compared to those of rodents.  

135) Who wrote the book 'Third Reich of Dreams'?

Answer:   It was written by Charlotte Beradt.  

136) What was written in this book?

Answer:Charlotte Beradt secretly recorded people's dreams in her diary and later published them in this book. She described how Jews themselves began believing in the Nazi stereotypes about them. They dreamt of their hooked noses, black hair and eyes, Jewish looks and body movements.  

137) What was 'Holocaust'?

Answer:The Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the Nazi killing operations which were called the Holocaust. 

138) How do we come to know about Holocaust today? 

Answer:Memory of Holocaust is in memoirs, fiction, documentaries, poetry, memorials and museums in many parts of the world today.   

139) Write a short note on the eleven-year-old Helmuth's experiences of Germany.

Answer:Helmuth was in bed when he heard his parents discussing something seriously. His father was a doctor who was discussing with his wife that either they had to commit suicide or the Jews would kill them for revenge. Next day, the father spent some time with his son Helmuth and later, shot himself in his office. His uniform was silently burnt in the family's fireplace. Helmuth was so traumatised by this incident that he refused to eat at home for the fear that his mother would poison him. This was the tragic end of his father, who was a Nazi supporter.  

140) What do you understand by the 'Genocidal War' in Germany?

Answer:It means the mass murder of selected groups of innocent civilians of Europe. Nazis killed the Jews, Gypsies and the Polish civilians. They killed people in poisoned gas chambers. Number of people killed included six million Jews, 2,00,000 Gypsies, one million Polish civilians, 70,000 Germans, who were considered mentally and physically disabled besides many political opponents.