Chapter: Nazism and the rise of Hitler
Questions: Long Answer Type
- Describe Hitler’s rise to power with reference to his…… (a) Policy towards the youth
(b) His personal qualities (c) Development of the art of propaganda - How did the assigned role for women by Nazis help in the establishment of the racial state?
How were women perceived in Nazi Germany? [CBSE 2014] - Evaluate the use of Media by the Nazis to popularise their ideology in Germany. [CBSE 2012]
- Explain any five steps taken by Hitler to establish strong Nazi Society. [CBSE 2012]
Answers
1. (a) Policy towards youth: Hitler was fanatically interested in the youth of the country. He felt that a strong Nazi society could be established only by teaching children the Nazi ideology. This required a control over the child, both inside and outside school. Good German children were subjected to a process of Nazi schooling, a prolonged period of ideological training. Youth organizations were made responsible for educating the German youth in ‘the spirit of National Socialism’. Ten-year-olds had to enter Jungvolk. At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation.
(b) His personal qualities: Hitler was a tireless worker and an able organiser. He had a charming personality. He was an effective orator. Bitterly anti-Communist, he promised to save the country from the onslaught of communism. He won over the nationalists by promising to vindicate national honour by repudiating the Treaty of Versailles.
(c) Development of the art of propaganda: The Nazi regime used language and media with care, and often to great effect. The terms they coined to describe their various practices were not only deceptive, they were chilling. Nazis never used words ‘‘kill’’ or ‘‘murder’’ in their official communications.
2. Assigned role for women by Nazis:
(i) They were told to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryans.
(ii) They were supposed to keep purity of race and keep away from Jews.
(iii) Women who bore racially desirable children were rewarded.
(iv) Women who bore racially undesirable children were punished.
(v) All Aryan women who diverted from code of conduct were publicly condemned.
3. Use of media by Nazis:
(i) Ideas were spread through visual images, films, radio, posters and slogans.
(ii) In posters, enemies of Germans were stereotyped, mocked and abused.
(iii) Socialists and liberals were represented as weak and degenerated.
(iv) Propaganda films were made to create hate for Jews.
(v) Jews were stereotyped and shown with flowing beards and wearing kaftans.
(vi) Though media, Nazism worked on the minds of people and turned their hatred at
‘undesirable’.
4. Five steps are:
(i) By teaching Nazi ideology to the children.
(ii) All schools were cleaned and purified.
(iii) Jewish teachers and politically unreliable were dismissed.
(iv) School textbooks were re-written.
(v) Children were taught hatred against Jews. The undesirable children, Jews and handicapped were thrown out of the school.
(vi) Hitler believed that boxing could make children iron-hearted, strong and masculine. Functions of sports were held to nurture spirit of violence and aggression.
