CBSE Class 9 - Social Science - Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

Charlie Chaplin as Hilter in 'The Great Dictator'
The two contemporaries... Chaplin who won heart of millions
and other killed millions!
image credits:wikipedia

MCQs

Q1: When the First World War was fought?
(a) 1911-1914
(b) 1914-1918
(c) 1916-1920
(d) 1941-1945

Q2: During First World War against whom Germany did not fight?
(a) Austria
(b) England
(c) France
(d) Belgium



Q3(CBSE 2010): Reichstag refers to
(a) Imperial German
(b) German Parliament
(c) French Parliament
(d) Imperial England

Q4: Who from the following were not 'November Criminals'?
(a) Socialists
(b) Spartacists
(c) Catholics
(d) Democrats

Q5: Why Weimar Republic was called 'November Criminals'?
(a) because they signed armistice agreement and conceded Germany to Allies
(b) because they crushed Spartacists with the help of Free Corps
(c) because they misused Article 48
(d) they secured loans from USA. 

Q6(CBSE 2010): Who was the propaganda minister of Hitler?
(a) Hjalmar Schacht
(b) Hindenburg
(c) Goebbels
(d) Helmuth

Q7: What was ‘Dawes Plan’?
(a) A plan secure loans from US bankers.
(b) A plan to ease reparation terms on Germany
(c) A plan to overtake Rhineland mines
(d) An extension of Versailles treaty.

Q8(CBSE 2010): What was the name given to gas chambers by Nazis ?
(a) Killing Machine
(b) Solution Areas
(c) Revolutionary Ground
(d) Disinfection Areas

Q9(CBSE 2010): Hitler took over the German Workers Party and renamed it as:
(a) Secular German Workers
(b) Socialist Workers of Germany
(c) National Socialist Party
(d) National Workers of Germany

Q10(CBSE 2010): The Great Depression was a period of:
(a) Political crisis
(b) Social crisis
(c) Global crisis
(d) Economic crisis

Q11: US entered into World War II due to
(a) annexation of Poland by Germany
(b) aerial bombing on London
(c) Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour
(d) non payment of reparation dues by Germans

Q12(CBSE 2010): Who among the following was assigned the responsibility of economic recovery by Hitler?
(a) Goebbels
(b) Hindenburg
(c) Hjalmar Schacht
(d) Adam Smith

Q13(CBSE 2010): The Nazi party became the largest party by
(a) 1930
(b) 1931
(c) 1932
(d) 1933

Q14: When did Hitler join German Workers Party?
(a) 1918
(b) 1919
(c) 1920
(d) 1921

Q15: When did Hitler try to seize control of Bavaria and capture Berlin?
(a) 1919
(b) 1923
(c) 1929
(d) 1933

Q16(CBSE 2010): Who amongst these offered Chancellorship to Hitler?
(a) Churchil
(b) Goebbels
(c) Helmuth
(d) Hindenburg

Q17: When did Hitler become Chancellor of Germany?
(a) January 30, 1923
(b) January 30, 1929
(c) January 30, 1933
(d) March 3, 1933

Answer:

1. (b) 1914-1918
2. (a) Austria
3. (b) German Parliament
4. (b) Spartacists
5. (a) because they signed armistice agreement and conceded Germany to Allies
6. (c) Goebbels
7. (b) A plan to ease reparation terms on Germany
8. (d) Disinfection Areas
9. (c) National Socialist Party
10. (d) Economic crisis
11. (c) Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour
12. (c) Hjalmar Schacht
13. (c) 1932 (acquired 37 percent votes)
14. (b) 1919
15. (b) 1923
16. (d) Hindenburg
17. (c) January 30, 1933

Q18(NCERT): Discuss why Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930.
or
What factors were responsible for Hitler's rise in Power?

Answer:

Q19: What were the terms of Versailles Treaty? What was the main objective of this treaty?

Answer:

Q20: What do you mean by Nazism?   (1 mark)

Answer: Nazism was a political system introduced by Hitler in Germany. Its ideology was based on
dictatorship and fascism which propagate extreme hatred against other communities specially Jews.

Q21: Who were called the November criminals? Why?              (2 marks)

Answer:  They were the politicians and people who supported the Weimar Republic. Mainly they were Socialists, Catholics and Democrats. They became easy targets of attack in the conservative nationalist circles because they were responsible for unjustice done on Germany by signing Versailles treaty. They were mockingly called the ‘November criminals’.

Q22(NCERT): Describe the problems faced by the Weimar Republic.

Answer:

Q23(CBSE 2010): Examine any three inherent defects in the Weimar Constitution.

Answer: The Weimar constitution had some inherent defects, which made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship. These were:

1. Proportional Representation: This made achieving a majority by any one party a near impossible task, leading to a rule by coalitions.
2. Article 48 which gave the President the powers to impose emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.
3. Within its short life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets lasting on an average 239 days, and a liberal use of Article 48.
4. People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no solutions.

Q24(CBSE 2010): What were the promises made by Hitler to people of Germany?

Answer: To gain power, Hitler made following promises to people of Germany:

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

Q25(CBSE SQP): Explain any three effects of Nazism on the school system?
or
Q(CBSE 2010):What do you know about ‘Nazi Schooling’?

Answer: Effects of Nazism on the school system were:

1. All schools were cleansed and purified i.e. teachers who were Jews or seen as ‘politically unreliable’ were dismissed.
2. Children were first segregated. German and Jews could not sit together or play together.
3. Subsequently, ‘undesirable children’ – Jews, the physically handicapped, Gypsies – were thrown out of schools.
4. Good German children were subjected to prolonged period of Nazi Schooling. 
5. School textbooks were rewritten. Racial science was introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race.
6. Ten-year-olds had to enter Jungvolk. At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation
   – Hitler Youth. 

Q26: What did the German children learn after Nazi schooling?  (2 mark)

Answer: They learnt to worship war, glorify aggression and violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews, communists, Gypsies and all those categorised as ‘undesirable’. Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews, and worship Hitler.

Q27: Explain any five features of political policy adopted by Hitler after coming to power in 1933.

Answer: Policies adopted by Hitler once he came to power in 1933.

1. Suspended civil Rights.
2. Introduced Enabling Act which gave him all powers to sideline Parliament and rule by decree.
3. All political parties and trade unions were banned except for the Nazi Party and its affiliates.
4. Established complete control over the economy, media, army and judiciary.
5. Special surveillance and security forces (Gestapo, SA and SS) were created to control and order society in ways that the Nazis wanted.
6. Sent communists and other opponents to concentration camps.

Q28(CBSE 2010): How was the Weimar Republic born in Germany? Explain.

Answer:

1. The defeat of Imperial Germany and the abdication of the emperor gave an opportunity to parliamentary parties to recast German polity.
2. A National Assembly met at Weimar and established a democratic constitution with a federal structure.
3. Deputies were now elected to the German Parliament or Reichstag, on the basis of equal and universal votes cast by all adults including women.

Q29: What was the role of the International Military Tribune set up after the World War II ?

Answer: An International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was set up to prosecute Nazi war
criminals :

• for crimes against peace, 
• for war crimes and 
• crimes against humanity.

Q30: Enumerate the events which led to the Great Economic Depression.

Answer: Following events led to Great Economic Depression which made huge economic crisis in USA, Europe (including Germany):

1. Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929. Fearing a fall in prices, people made frantic efforts to sell their shares. On one single day, 24 October, 13 million shares were sold. This was the start of the Great Economic Depression.
2. Over the next three years, between 1929 and 1932, the national income of the USA fell by half. Factories shut down, exports fell, farmers were badly hit and speculators withdrew their money from the market.
3. The German economy was the worst hit by the economic crisis. By 1932, industrial production was reduced to 40 per cent of the 1929 level. Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages. The number of unemployed touched an unprecedented 6 million.

Q31: Who were the Free Corps?

Answer: Free Corps were the war veteran’s organization in Germany that helped Socialists and Weimar Republic to suppress the revolutionary uprising of the Spartacist League.

Q32: What do you mean by LEBENSRAUM?

Answer: Lebensraum means Living Space. This geopolitical concept was given by Hitler to annex neigbouring territories. He believed that new territories had to be acquired for settlement which would enhance the area of mother country and enable the settlers on new lands to retain an intimate link with the place of origin. It would also enhance the material resources and power of the German nation. Poland was acquired based on this idea.

Q33: Explain what role did women have in Nazi Society.

Answer:

 Q34: What was the outcome of Nuremberg Tribunal? In what way its outcome was different?

Answer: After the defeat of Germany and end of WWII, an International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was set up to prosecute Nazi war criminals for crimes against peace, for war crimes and
crimes against humanity.

The Nuremberg Tribunal only eleven leading Nazis sentenced to death. Others were imprisoned for life. The retribution did come, yet the punishment of the Nazis was far short of the brutality and the extent of their crimes.

The allies did not want to be as harsh on defeated Germany as they had been after the First World War.

Q35: How did the common people of Germany react to Nazism?

Answer: Common people of Germany can be put into three categories based on their views about Nazism.

1. Those who believed in Nazism Idea and supported it. They marked the houses of Jews and spread anger and hatred against other communities including Jews.
2. Those who opposed it actively. They had to face the wrath of Nazi government and even death sentences.
3. Those who were passive onlookers and apathetic witnesses. They were to scared to act or to protest. Pastor Niemoeller, a resistance fighter, wrote about this attitude of apathy among Germans to let atrocities to occur in their neigbourhood.

Q36: What is third reich?

Answer: It refers to Nazi regime from 1933-45.


Q37: Who wrote the book Third Reich of Dreams? What did it tell us about?

Answer: Charlotte Beradt secretly recorded people’s dreams in her diary and later published them in a highly disconcerting book called the Third Reich of Dreams.
She describes how mental and physical torture done on Jews hauted them. They themselves began believing in the Nazi stereotypes about them. They dreamt of their hooked noses, black hair and eyes, Jewish looks and body movements. The stereotypical images publicised in the Nazi press haunted the Jews. They troubled them even in their dreams. Jews died many deaths even before they reached the gas chamber.


Q38: What was Spartacist League?
Answer: The Spartacist League was another political party in Germany that opposed the Weimer Republic. They supported Soviet-style governance. They were opposed by the Socialists, Democrats, Catholics and were crushed by the Free Corps.

Later the anguished Spartacists founded the Communist Party of Germany. It led to political radicalization between Communists and Socialists. Henceforth they became irreconcilable enemies and could not make common cause against Hitler.

Q39: What is a holocaust?

Answer: It refers to the systematic, state-sponsored mass torture and murder of approximately six millions Jews under Nazi regime.