Chapter Notes

Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

This chapter explores how Nazism, a system of ideas about the world and politics, rose to power in Germany under its leader, Adolf Hitler. We begin with the story of an eleven-year-old German boy named Helmuth in 1945. He overheard his father, a Nazi supporter and physician, discussing suicide because he feared revenge from the Allies (the powers like the UK, France, USSR, and USA who fought against Germany). His father said, 'Now the Allies will do to us what we did to the crippled and Jews.' The next day, Helmuth's father shot himself.

This tragic story shows the deep fear and guilt that gripped many Nazis at the end of World War II. Helmuth's father was afraid because he was part of a regime that committed terrible crimes. To understand his fear, we must look at what Nazism was and how it came to dominate Germany.

After Germany's surrender in May 1945, an International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was established to prosecute Nazi war criminals for Crimes Against Humanity. These crimes included a genocidal war—the mass murder of specific groups of innocent people in Europe. The Nazis killed an estimated:

• 6 million Jews
• 200,000 Gypsies
• 1 million Polish civilians
• 70,000 Germans who were considered mentally or physically disabled
• Countless political opponents

The Nazis used horrifying methods, such as gassing people in killing centres like Auschwitz. The rise of this brutal regime can be traced back to Germany's experiences after the First World War.

Birth of the Weimar Republic

Germany was a powerful empire that fought in the First World War (1914-1918) alongside the Austrian empire against the Allies. After initial gains, Germany and the Central Powers were defeated in November 1918, especially after the USA joined the Allies in 1917.

Following the defeat and the emperor's abdication, a democratic republic was established. A National Assembly met at the city of Weimar and created a new democratic constitution. This new German government became known as the Weimar Republic. It established a parliament, the Reichstag, with deputies elected by all adults, including women.

However, the Weimar Republic was not popular with its own people, mainly because it was forced to accept a harsh and humiliating peace treaty.

The Treaty of Versailles

This was the peace treaty signed with the Allies after WWI. Many Germans felt it was a disgrace. Its terms were severe:

• Territorial Losses: Germany lost its overseas colonies, 13% of its territories, 10% of its population, 75% of its iron, and 26% of its coal to countries like France, Poland, Denmark, and Lithuania.
• Demilitarisation: The Allied Powers demilitarised Germany to weaken its military power.
• War Guilt Clause: This clause held Germany solely responsible for the war and the damages suffered by the Allied countries.
• Reparations: Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion.
• Occupation: The resource-rich Rhineland was occupied by Allied armies for much of the 1920s.

Many Germans blamed the new Weimar Republic for accepting these terms and for the defeat in the war.

The Effects of the War

The First World War had a devastating impact on Europe, both financially and psychologically. The continent, once a creditor, became a debtor. The young Weimar Republic was burdened with paying for the sins of the old empire.

Those who supported the republic—mainly Socialists, Catholics, and Democrats—were attacked by conservative nationalists and mockingly called the "November criminals."

The war also changed society.

• Soldiers were placed above civilians.
• Politicians and publicists emphasized the need for men to be aggressive, strong, and masculine.
• The media glorified the miserable life in the trenches, where soldiers faced poisonous gas, enemy shelling, and lived among rats and corpses.
• Popular support grew for conservative dictatorships, and democracy, a young and fragile idea, struggled to survive.

Political Radicalism and Economic Crises

The birth of the Weimar Republic coincided with a revolutionary uprising by the Spartacist League, who wanted a communist-style government like the one in Russia. The Weimar Republic crushed this uprising with the help of a war veterans' organisation called the Free Corps. This created a deep and lasting divide between the Communists and Socialists, who could never unite against Hitler.

The political situation was made worse by the economic crisis of 1923.

• Cause: Germany had fought the war on loans and now had to pay war reparations in gold. When its gold reserves ran out, Germany refused to pay in 1923. In response, France occupied Germany's main industrial area, the Ruhr, to take its coal.
• Hyperinflation: Germany retaliated by printing paper money recklessly. With too much money in circulation, the value of the German mark collapsed. Prices of goods soared. This crisis is known as hyperinflation.

Eventually, the Americans intervened with the Dawes Plan, which reworked the terms of reparation to ease the financial burden on Germany.

The Years of Depression

Between 1924 and 1928, Germany saw some stability, but this was built on a weak foundation. German industrial recovery depended on short-term loans, mostly from the USA.

This support ended when the Wall Street Exchange (the world's biggest stock exchange in the USA) crashed in 1929, marking the start of the Great Economic Depression. As the US economy collapsed, it withdrew its loans from Germany.

The German economy was the worst hit by this crisis.

• By 1932, industrial production was reduced to 40% of its 1929 level.
• The number of unemployed reached a staggering 6 million.
• The middle classes saw their savings disappear as the currency lost its value.
• Small businesses and retailers were ruined. Many feared proletarianisation—the anxiety of being reduced to the level of the working class.
• Farmers were hit by a fall in agricultural prices, and women were filled with despair, unable to feed their children.

Political Instability of the Weimar Republic

The Weimar constitution had two major defects that made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship:

1. Proportional Representation: This system made it nearly impossible for any single party to win a majority, leading to unstable coalition governments.
2. Article 48: This gave the President the power to impose a state of emergency, suspend civil rights, and rule by decree.

In its short life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets and frequent use of Article 48. People lost confidence in the democratic system, which seemed to offer no solutions to the crisis.

Hitler's Rise to Power

The crisis in the economy, politics, and society created the perfect conditions for Hitler's rise.

• Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889. He served in the German army during WWI and was furious about Germany's defeat and the Treaty of Versailles.
• In 1919, he joined a small group called the German Workers' Party. He soon took over the organisation and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which became known as the Nazi Party.
• In 1923, Hitler attempted to seize control of Bavaria and march to Berlin to capture power. He failed and was arrested for treason.

The Nazis had little popular support until the Great Depression. After 1929, as banks collapsed and unemployment soared, Nazi propaganda gave people hope for a better future.

Hitler's Appeal

• Powerful Orator: Hitler was a passionate and powerful speaker whose words moved people.
• Promises: He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty, restore German dignity, provide employment for the unemployed, and secure a future for the youth.
• New Style of Politics: Hitler understood the power of spectacle. The Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings with red banners featuring the Swastika, the Nazi salute, and ritualised applause to demonstrate power and unity.

Nazi propaganda skilfully projected Hitler as a messiah or a saviour who had come to deliver the people from their distress. This image captured the imagination of a nation whose pride had been shattered by economic and political crises.

The Destruction of Democracy

On 30 January 1933, President Hindenburg offered Hitler the position of Chancellorship, the highest position in the cabinet. Once in power, Hitler moved quickly to dismantle democracy.

1. The Fire Decree: A mysterious fire broke out in the German Parliament building in February 1933. Hitler used this event to pass the Fire Decree on 28 February 1933. This decree indefinitely suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press, and assembly.
2. Targeting Communists: He immediately turned on his enemies, the Communists, sending many to newly established concentration camps.
3. The Enabling Act: On 3 March 1933, the Enabling Act was passed. This act established a dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler the power to sideline Parliament and rule by decree.
4. One-Party State: All other political parties and trade unions were banned, except for the Nazi Party and its affiliates. The state took complete control over the economy, media, army, and judiciary.

To control society, the Nazis created special security forces:

• Gestapo (secret state police)
• SS (the protection squads)
• SD (the Security Service) These forces, along with the regular police and the SA (Storm Troopers), had extra-constitutional powers. They could detain, torture, and arrest people without any legal process, giving the Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal state.

Reconstruction

Hitler assigned the task of economic recovery to the economist Hjalmar Schacht, who focused on full employment through state-funded projects like the famous German superhighways and the people's car, the Volkswagen.

In foreign policy, Hitler achieved quick successes:

• He pulled Germany out of the League of Nations in 1933.
• He reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936.
• He integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan, 'One people, One empire, and One leader.'
• He then took over the German-speaking Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia.

However, Schacht advised Hitler against huge spending on rearmament, but Hitler believed war was the only way out of the economic crisis. He chose to expand German territory to accumulate resources.

• In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, starting the Second World War with France and England.
• In September 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact.
• In June 1941, Hitler made a historic blunder by attacking the Soviet Union, exposing Germany to a two-front war. The Soviet Red Army defeated the Germans at Stalingrad, a turning point in the war.
• The USA, which had initially resisted joining the war, entered after Japan (Germany's ally) bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.

The war in Europe ended in May 1945 with Hitler's defeat.

The Nazi Worldview

The crimes committed by the Nazis were based on a specific set of beliefs, which was synonymous with Hitler's worldview.

Key Features of Nazi Ideology:

• Racial Hierarchy: The Nazis believed there was no equality between people, only a racial hierarchy. At the top were the "Nordic German Aryans" (blond, blue-eyed people), who they considered the finest race. At the bottom were the Jews, who were seen as an "anti-race" and the arch-enemies of the Aryans.
• Survival of the Fittest: Hitler's racism was influenced by a twisted interpretation of the ideas of thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The Nazis argued that the strongest race would survive and the weak ones would perish. They believed the Aryan race had to remain pure, become stronger, and dominate the world.
• Lebensraum (Living Space): This was the idea that Germany needed to acquire new territories for settlement, particularly by expanding eastwards. This would enhance the material resources and power of the German nation. Poland became the first "laboratory" for this experiment.

Establishment of the Racial State

Once in power, the Nazis began to create their exclusive racial community of "pure Germans" by eliminating anyone they considered "undesirable."

The "Undesirables"

• Jews: They were the worst sufferers. Nazi hatred was based on pseudo-scientific theories of race, which claimed that the "Jewish problem" could only be solved by their total elimination.
• Gypsies and Blacks: They were considered racial "inferiors" who threatened the purity of the Aryan race.
• Russians and Poles: They were considered subhuman. When Germany occupied their lands, civilians were forced into slave labour, where many died from hard work and starvation.
• "Impure" Germans: Even Germans who were considered mentally or physically unfit were condemned to death under the Euthanasia Programme.

The persecution of Jews occurred in stages, which are often called the Steps to Death:

1. Stage 1: Exclusion (1933-1939): The Nazis terrorised, impoverished, and segregated the Jews, forcing them to leave the country. The Nuremberg Laws of Citizenship of September 1935 stripped Jews of their German citizenship and forbade marriages or relations between Jews and Germans.
2. Stage 2: Ghettoisation (1940-1944): Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star of David as an identity mark and were herded into ghettos like those in Lodz and Warsaw. These were areas of extreme misery, hunger, and disease.
3. Stage 3: Annihilation (1941-1945): In the final stage, known as the "Final Solution," Jews were transported from ghettos and concentration camps across Europe to death factories in goods trains. They were systematically killed in gas chambers in killing centres, mainly in Poland.

The Racial Utopia

Under the cover of war, the Nazis worked to achieve their murderous racial ideal. Occupied Poland was divided. Northwestern Poland was annexed to Germany, and Poles were forced from their homes to make way for ethnic Germans. The remaining part was called the General Government, which became a destination for all "undesirables" and served as the killing fields for the Jews.

Youth in Nazi Germany

Hitler was fanatically interested in the youth, believing that a strong Nazi society could only be built by teaching children Nazi ideology from a young age.

Control over Schools:

• Schools were "cleansed and purified." Teachers who were Jewish or seen as "politically unreliable" were dismissed.
• Children were segregated. German and Jewish children could not sit or play together.
• "Undesirable children" (Jews, physically handicapped, Gypsies) were thrown out of schools and eventually taken to gas chambers.
• "Good German" children underwent intense Nazi schooling. Textbooks were rewritten, and a subject called "racial science" was introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race.
• Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, to hate Jews, and to worship Hitler. Even sports like boxing were promoted to nurture a spirit of violence and aggression.

Youth Organisations: All boys and girls had to join Nazi youth organisations.

• At age ten, boys entered the Jungvolk.
• At age fourteen, all boys joined the Hitler Youth, where they were taught to worship war, glorify violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews and other "undesirables."
• After rigorous training, they joined the Labour Service and then the armed forces.

The Nazi Cult of Motherhood

In Nazi Germany, women were told they were radically different from men. The struggle for equal rights was seen as wrong and destructive to society.

• Boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine, and steel-hearted.
• Girls were taught that their role was to become good mothers and raise pure-blooded Aryan children. They had to maintain the purity of the race, distance themselves from Jews, and teach their children Nazi values.

Hitler declared, 'In my state the mother is the most important citizen.' However, not all mothers were treated equally.

• Women who produced "racially desirable" children were awarded Honour Crosses (bronze for four children, silver for six, gold for eight or more) and received special treatment.
• Women who bore "racially undesirable" children were punished.
• "Aryan" women who had contact with Jews, Poles, or Russians were severely punished. They were paraded through towns with shaved heads and blackened faces, holding signs that said, 'I have sullied the honour of the nation.'

The Art of Propaganda

The Nazi regime used language and media with great care and chilling effect.

• Deceptive Language: The Nazis never used words like 'kill' or 'murder' in official communications. Instead, they used terms like:
  • Special treatment or final solution (for the mass killing of Jews).
  • Euthanasia (for killing the disabled).
  • Evacuation (for deporting people to gas chambers).
  • Gas chambers were called "disinfection-areas" and were designed to look like bathrooms with fake showerheads.
• Media Control: Nazi ideas were spread through visual images, films, radio, posters, and catchy slogans.
• Stereotyping Enemies: Propaganda stereotyped and mocked groups identified as enemies. The infamous film The Eternal Jew depicted Orthodox Jews with flowing beards and kaftans, referring to them as vermin, rats, and pests to create hatred.

Nazism worked on people's minds, tapped into their emotions, and turned their hatred and anger towards those marked as "undesirable."

Ordinary People and the Crimes Against Humanity

The reaction of common people to Nazism varied.

• Supporters: Many Germans saw the world through Nazi eyes. They felt hatred for Jews, reported on their neighbours, and genuinely believed Nazism would bring prosperity.
• Opponents: A minority organised active resistance to Nazism, braving police repression and death.
• Passive Onlookers: The vast majority of Germans were passive onlookers. They were too scared to act, differ, or protest. They preferred to look away.

Pastor Niemoeller, a resistance fighter, wrote movingly about this silence:

'First they came for the Communists, Well, I was not a Communist - So I said nothing. ...Then they came for the Jews, But I was not a Jew - so I did little. Then when they came for me, There was no one left who could stand up for me.'

For Jews, the experience was a nightmare. A book called Third Reich of Dreams by Charlotte Beradt, based on secretly recorded dreams of Jews, shows that they began to believe the Nazi stereotypes about themselves, dreaming of hooked noses and Jewish looks. They died many deaths even before reaching the gas chambers.

Knowledge about the Holocaust

While some information about Nazi practices had leaked out, the world only came to realize the full horror of what had happened after the war ended. The Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities they had endured during the Nazi killing operations, also known as the Holocaust.

Many ghetto and camp inhabitants showed an indomitable spirit to bear witness, writing diaries and creating archives to preserve the truth. When the war seemed lost, the Nazi leadership tried to destroy all incriminating evidence.

Today, the history and memory of the Holocaust live on in memoirs, documentaries, memorials, and museums. They serve as a tribute to those who resisted, a reminder to those who collaborated, and a warning to those who watched in silence.