Transcript Hitler and the Rise of Nazi Germany

Rise of Nazi Germany
Christensen 2014
Losing WWI
• Weimar Republic was weak
– Too many political parties
• All Germans hated the Versailles Treaty
• Many made German Jews the
scapegoat
• Germany owed $33 billion – and needed
to rebuild their own country
• Government printed huge quantities of
money
1923-issue 50 million mark
banknote. Worth approximately
$1 US when printed, this sum
would have been worth
approximately $12 million, nine
years earlier.
A New Leader
• Adolf Hitler was born in
Austria in 1889
• Was rejected from art school,
and developed hatred for
Jews
• Fought for Germany in WWI
• After the war, joined the
National Socialist German
Workers party (Nazi Party)
Hitler as a soldier in WWI.
In Munich at the outbreak of WWI.
Nazis
• Hitler’s book Mein Kampf (My
Struggle) reflected Nazi
ideals:
– Extreme Nationalism
– Hatred of the Versailles Treaty
– Need for German “living
Space”
– Superior Aryan “master race”
– Anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews)
FACT
Hitler described how his political career had been dedicated to
undoing the Versailles Treaty: “I have endeavored to destroy sheet
by sheet the treaty which contains the vilest oppression which
peoples and human beings have ever expected to put up with.”
Reichstag Burns
• Hitler lost the Election of 1932 to
Paul von Hindenburg
• Hindenburg was pressured to
appoint Hitler Chancellor
• Feb 27, 1933, the Reichstag
building was burned down
• The Enabling Act passed giving
Hitler full control over
government for 4 years
• Pres. Hindenburg died in 1934
Hitler Youth
• Nazis indoctrinated youth with their ideology
• Boys are taught outdoor skills
– Hiking, camping, shooting
• Girls are taught to exercise and stay in shape
and the importance of motherhood
• All are taught obedience to Hitler and the
Nazis, Supremacy of German culture, and the
evils of the Jews
Persecution of the Jews
• Nazi SS destroyed Jewish property,
businesses, and synagogues
• Jews banned from Govt. jobs, attending public
school
• Nuremberg Laws 1935:
• Forbade marriage between Jews and Non-Jews
• Stripped Jews of citizenship
• Defined how a person could be classified as a Jew
Kristallnacht
(Night of Broken Glass)
FACT
Many Jews wanted to
leave Germany, but other
countries, including the
United States, would not
accept them.
• Nov 9-10, 1938 Nazi mobs destroyed 8,000
Jewish businesses, 900 synagogues, killed 100
Jews
• Jews’ insurance money was seized to pay for
the damages
War and the Holocaust
• War and Conquest
– Hitler attacked Poland, starting
WWII, conquered most of Europe
– Nazi police units round up Jews
in conquered lands
• Ghettos
– After taking Poland, Nazis force
Jews into fenced off areas of
cities
– Kept to await deportation to
Concentration Camps
Extermination
• Mass shootings in conquered Russian lands
– Shooters complained the task was “too unpleasant”,
a new solution was needed
• Final Solution: Concentration Camps
– Jews were told they were being “re-settled” in the
east
– Those deemed unable to work were killed
immediately
– Victims were first killed in mobile gas vans, later
permanent gas chambers were set up.
• Began using Zyklon B (acid
pellets) to reduce killing time
• 30 percent of incoming Jews
were kept and used for profit
as slave laborers
• Prisoners rarely survived
longer than 4 months
• Many were chosen for
medical experiments,
especially twins
Aftermath
• As the war wound down, the camps and
prisoners were abandoned.
• About 6,000,000 Jews had been killed, and
another 6,000,000 prisoners, political enemies,
gypsies, homosexuals, and others
• Nuremberg Trials 1945-46
– Allies wanted to punish Nazi leaders for war crimes
– Many leaders already had committed suicide
– They were meant to send a warning to countries to
behave humanely