NAZISM AND RISE OF

ADOLF HITLER

-JATHAVEDHAS

IX

5

The war had a devastating impact

on the entire continent both

psychologically and financially.

Unfortunately, the infant Weimar Republic

was being made to pay for the sins of the old

empire. The republic carried the burden of war

guilt and national humiliation and was

financially crippled by being forced to pay

compensation.

Those who supported the Weimar Republic, mainly

Socialists, Catholics and Democrats, became easy

targets of attack in the conservative nationalist

circles.

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During World War I, Germany began to

use U-boats or submarines.

Helmut was a German boy his father

was Prominent physician, deliberated with

his wife Whether the time had come to kill

the entire

Family or if he should commit suicide alone . He

said to his wife about his fear of revenge, saying,’

now the Allies will do to us what we did to the

crippled and Jews.’

The whole family committed suicide . Helmut's

father was a Nazi and a supporter of Adolf Hitler.

This crisis in the economy,

polity and society formed the background to

Hitler’s rise to power.

When the First World War broke out, he enrolled

for the army, acted as a messenger in the front,

became a corporal, and earned medals for bravery.

The German defeat horrified him

and the Versailles Treaty made

him furious. In 1919, he joined a

small group called the German

Workers’ Party. He subsequently

took over the organisation and

renamed it the National Socialist

German Workers’ party.

In 1923, Hitler planned to seize control

of Bavaria, march to Berlin and capture

power. He failed, was arrested, tried for

treason, and later released.

The Nazis could not effectively mobilise popular

support till the early 1930s. It was during the Great

Depression that Nazism became a mass movement.

As we have seen, 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 propaganda stirred hopes of

a better future. In 1928, the Nazi Party got no more

than 2. 6 per cent votes in the Reichstag ñ the

German parliament. By 1932, it had become the

largest party with 37 per cent votes

Hitler was a powerful speaker.

His passion and his words

moved people

He promised

employment for those

looking for work, and a

secure future for the

youth. He promised to

weed out all foreign

influences and resist all

foreign ‘conspiracies’

against Germany.

a

Germany was in one of its strongest stances for

nearly 20 years. It was this that Hitler wanted to capitalise

on for the future of Nazi Germany and by doing this they

need to take advantage of the young people as they are the

next generation of Nazis. Using the ideas of Social Darwinism they

Nazis decided that only the most strongest and ruthless should survive.

This was to be the Aryan race. How was Hitler supposed to tackle such a massive

task? Would it work? And what effects would it have? The Nazis would have to

brainwash the German youth in every possible way. So they did, they took over

the lives of

the German children, and run them for them. If Hitler wanted his anticipated 1000-

year regime to succeed the future generations were the children. To get people on

your side you need to get them on your side when they are young,

Younger people are far easier to influence than when they are adults. This is

because the younger you are the more you believe other people as they are more

dependant on them, and the younger generations look up to the older

generations who lead by example to make the younger people the perfect Nazis.

NAZI IDEOLOGY

1920 to 1923, Hitler formulated his ideology, then published

it in 1925–26, as Mein Kampf, a two-volume, biography and

political manifesto.

Though Hitler for "tactical"

reasons had rhetorically declared

a 1920 party platform

with platitudes "unshakable,"

actually "many paragraphs of the

party program were obviously

merely a demagogic appeal to the

mood of the lower classes at a

time when they were in bad straits

and were sympathetic to radical

and even socialist slogans...

THE ART OF PROPAGANDA ………..

The Nazi regime used language and media with care and often to great effect for

Propaganda, they coined different words for their official communications such as –

Mass Killing were termed “Special Treatment"," Final solution” for the Jews, “euthanasis”

“ selection” and “disinfection” for the disabled.

“Evacuation” meant deporting people to gas chambers and gas chambers were

termed as “disinfection area” and looked like bathroom equipped with fake

showerheads.

Nazi idea were spread through visual images, films, radio, posters, catchy

slogan and Leaflets, propaganda films were made to crea

Death of Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30

April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin.] His

wife committed suicide with him by

ingesting cyanide.