Rise of Nazism

• Helmuth, an eleven-year-old German boy, overheard his parents discussing whether to kill the family or commit suicide due to fear of Allied revenge in the spring of 1945.
• Helmuth's father, a physician, killed himself, deeply traumatizing Helmuth, who refused to eat at home for nine years.
• The rise of Nazism involved not just Hitler's determination to conquer Europe and kill Jews, but was a complex system of ideas.
• In May 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allies, and Hitler, along with his propaganda minister Goebbels, committed suicide.
• The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was established to prosecute Nazi war criminals for Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Humanity.
• Germany waged a genocidal war, resulting in the mass murder of 6 million Jews, 200,000 Gypsies, 1 million Polish civilians, and 70,000 disabled Germans.
• The Nazis used methods like gassing in killing centers like Auschwitz.
• The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced eleven leading Nazis to death, but many others were imprisoned.

Birth of the Weimar Republic

• Germany fought World War I (1914-1918) with the Austrian Empire against the Allies (England, France, and Russia).
• Germany initially gained territory in France and Belgium but was eventually defeated by the Allies, who were strengthened by the US entry in 1917.
• After Imperial Germany's defeat and the emperor's abdication, a National Assembly met in Weimar to establish a democratic constitution with a federal structure.
• Deputies were elected to the Reichstag based on equal and universal votes, including women.
• The Weimar Republic was not well-received due to the harsh terms it was forced to accept after Germany's defeat in World War I, known as the Versailles Treaty.
• Germany lost overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13% of its territories, 75% of its iron, and 26% of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark, and Lithuania after the war.
• The Allied Powers demilitarized Germany to weaken its power.
• The War Guilt Clause blamed Germany for damages suffered by Allied countries, forcing it to pay compensation of £6 billion.
• Allied armies occupied the Rhineland, a resource-rich area, for much of the 1920s.

The Effects of the War

• The war devastated Europe psychologically and financially, turning it from a continent of creditors into one of debtors.
• The Weimar Republic was burdened with war guilt and financial challenges.
• Supporters of the Weimar Republic, like Socialists, Catholics, and Democrats, became targets of attacks from conservative nationalist circles, labeled as 'November criminals'.
• World War I led to soldiers being placed above civilians, and politicians emphasized aggression and strength in men, glorifying trench life.
• However, soldiers faced miserable trench conditions with rats, poisonous gas, and enemy shelling.
• Aggressive war propaganda and national honor dominated the public sphere, while democracy struggled to survive in interwar Europe.

Political Radicalism and Economic Crisis

• The birth of the Weimar Republic coincided with the Spartacist League's revolutionary uprising, inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution.
• Soviets of workers and sailors were established, leading to a charged political atmosphere with demands for governance.
• The Weimar Republic retaliated, aided by war veteran organizations known as the Free Corps.
• The anguished Spartacists later founded the Communist Party of Germany.
• Communists and Socialists became enemies, while revolutionaries and militant nationalists craved radical solutions.
• Political radicalization was heightened by the economic crisis of 1923, stemming from Germany's war loans to pay reparations in gold.
• France occupied Germany's leading industrial area, Ruhr, to claim war reparations after Germany refused payments.
• Germany retaliated with passive resistance, printing paper currency recklessly.
• Hyperinflation occurred as the value of the German mark plummeted.
• In December, prices rose to 98,860,000 marks, leading to Germans using cartloads of currency to buy bread.
• The Americans intervened with the Dawes Plan, restructuring German reparations to ease the financial burden.
• Social disruption created deep anxieties and fears in the middle classes.
• Economic crisis caused savings to diminish when the currency lost value.
• The self-employed businessmen and retailers struggled.
• The Wall Street Exchange crash impacted the German economy.

The Years of Depression

• The years between 1924 and 1928 saw some stability.
• German investments and industrial recovery were totally dependent on short-term loans, largely from the USA.
• Support was withdrawn when the Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929.
• The Great Economic Depression caused exports and farmers to be badly hit.
• In 1932, industrial production was reduced to 40 per cent of the 1929 level.
• The number of unemployed touched 6 million.
• The economic crisis created anxieties and fears in the middle classes.
• Savings diminished when the currency lost its value.
• Businesses, the self-employed and retailers suffered.
• The Weimar Republic's inherent defects included proportional representation, making it difficult for any one party to achieve a majority and Article 48, granting the President power to impose emergency, suspend civil rights, and rule by decree.

Hitler's Rise to Power

• A small group called the German Workers’ Party renamed itself the National Socialist German Worker's Party, or the Nazi Party.
• It was during the Great Depression that Nazism became a mass movement.
• Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future.
• By 1932 it had become the largest party with 37% of the parliamentary vote.
• Hitler promised employment for those looking for work and a future for the youth.
• He promised to weed out all foreign influence and foreign conspiracies.
• The Nazis demonstrated their support for Hitler with rallies that instilled a sense of unity.
• Nazi propaganda skilfully projected Hitler as a saviour, one with dignity, pride and hope.

The Destruction of Democracy

• On January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship to Hitler.
• Having acquired power, Hitler set out to dismantle the structures of democratic rule.
• Civil Rights were suspended by the Fire Decree following a mysterious fire.
• Communists were targeted and most were sent to concentration camps.
• The Enabling Act was passed, which established dictatorship in Germany.
• New security forces were created to control order in the ways that the Nazis wanted.
• The police possessed powers to rule with impunity.
• People could be detained in Gestapo torture chambers without due process.

Reconstruction

• Hitler assigned economic recovery to Hjalmar Schacht
• They would use a state-funded work-creation program to full production.
• Achievements included superhighways, and the Volkswagen.
• Hitler acquired successes in foreign policy
• He pulled out of the League of Nations, and integrated Austria into Germany.
• He also went on to wrest the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.

Economic Crisis

• Resources were to be accumulated through expansion of territory. Germany invaded Poland.
• A war with France and England began.
• The Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Italy and Japan.
• Puppet regimes, were set up that the Nazi's approved of.
• By the end of 1940, Hitler was at the pinnacle of his power.
• Hitler wanted to achieve Eastern conquering Europe
• Hitler exposed the German western front to British aerial bombing.
• The USSR got involved and WWII began.

The Nazi Worldview

• The crimes that Nazis committed were linked to a system of belief and a set of practices.
• Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitler's worldview.
• He believed there was no quality between people.
• Blond blue-eyed Germans were at the top.
• Jews were at the bottom.

Establishment of the Racial State

• The Nazis implemented the process of creating an exclusive racial community.
• They physically eliminated those they called ‘undesirables’.
• Nazis wanted only a society of pure Nordic Aryans’.
• Gypsies and blacks living in Nazi Germany were considered racial inferiors.

The Racial Utopia

• Nazis proceeded to realize their racial ideal.
• Genocide and war were two coins.
• Occupied Poland was divided up and much of it annexed for Germany.
• Poles were forcibly snatched from their homes to be raised as Germans.

Steps to Death

• Stage Exclusion 1933-1939
• The Nuremberg Laws of Citizenship implemented in September 1935:
  • Only Germans enjoyed protection.
  • Marriages and relations with Jews were forbidden. Stage Ghettoisation 1940-1944
• Jews kept in Jewish houses in Germany, and in ghettos that became sites of extreme misery and poverty. Stage Annihilation 1941 onwards
• Jews brought to death factories.
• Mass killings took place.

Youth in Nazi Germany

• Schools were ‘purified’ so that only those who believed in Nazi ideals could be in a position of power and influence.
• In ideology, sports were to nurture a spirit of violence and aggression among children.
• Girls joined League of German Girls.
• Had to enter one of the Nazi organizations.
• Girls told told that their roles were to rear pure blooded children.

The Art Of Propaganda

• The Nazi regime used language and media well.
• They used the words kill and murder.
• Mass killings were termed treatment, final solution Jews.
• Media was carefully used to win support for popularize its world view.

Ordinary People and the Crimes Against Humanity

• Some organized active resistance to Nazism, braving police repression and death.
• Most Germans were passive onlookers apathetic.
• They were too scared to protest.
• They preferred to look away.