Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

Q82. 'The Nazi regime used language and media with case, and often to great effect'. Explain and justify

Ans. The Nazi regime used language and media with care, and often to great effect. The terms they coined to describe their various practices are not only deceptive. They are chilling. Nazis never used the words kill or murder in their official communications. Mass killings were termed special treatment, final solution (for the Jews), euthanasia (for the disabled), selection and disinfections. ‘Evacuation’ meant deporting people to gas chambers. Gas chambers were were labelled disinfection-areas, and looked like bathrooms equipped with fake showerheads.

Q83. Who wrote the book the ‘Third Reich of Dreams’? What did the author describe in this book?
Or
Write a short note on the book the ‘Third Reich of Dreams’.

Ans. 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 Jews 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.

Q84. Mention the communities termed as desirable and undesirable.
Or
List the communities which were classified as undesirable in Nazi Germany.

Ans. Desirable - Blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were considered desirable. Nazis wanted only a society of ‘pure and healthy Nordic Aryans. They alone were considered ‘desirable.

Undesirable - Jews, many Gypsies and blacks living in Nazi Germany were the only communities classified as undesirable. Even Russians and Poles were considered subhuman, and hence undeserving of any humanity. Even those Germans who were seen as impure or abnormal were considered undesirable and had no right to exist.

Q85. How did the Nazi state get the reputation as the most dreaded criminal state?
Or
Why did the Nazi state get the reputation as the most dreaded criminal state?
Or
What gave Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal state?
Or
Explain how did the Nazi State earn its reputation as the most dreaded criminal state?

Ans. Special surveillance and security forces were created to control and order society in ways that the Nazis wanted. Apart from the already existing regular police in green uniform and the SA or the Storm Troopers, these included the Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service (SD). It was the extra-constitutional powers of these newly organised forces that gave the Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal state. People could now be detained in Gestapo torture chambers, rounded up and sent to concentration camps, deported at will or arrested without any legal procedures.

Q86. Define genocidal war. Mention any two methods adopted for extermination of Jews.

Ans. Genocidal war means killing on large scale leading to destruction of large sections of people. 

The two methods adopted for extermination of Jews were:

1. By gassing them in various killing centres like Auschwitz.
2. They were kept in ghettos like Lodz and Warsaw in the east. These became sites of extreme misery and poverty. Jews had to surrender all their wealth before they entered a ghetto. Soon the ghettos were brimming with hunger, starvation and disease due to deprivation and poor hygiene.

Q87. In what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its people?
Or
State any three ways in which Nazi state established total control over its people.

Ans. Nazi state established total control over its people by the following ways: 

1. On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This Act established dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler all powers to sideline Parliament and rule by decree. All political parties and trade unions were banned except for the Nazi Party and its affiliates. 
2. The state established complete control over the economy, media, army and judiciary. 
3. Special surveillance and security forces were created to control and order society in ways that the Nazis wanted.