Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating hatred for the Jews
Answers
Propaganda films were made to create hatred for Jews. The most infamous film was The Eternal Jew. Orthodox Jews were stereotyped and marked. They were shown with flowing beards wearing kaftans. They were referred to as vermin, rats, and pests. Their movements were compared to those of rodents. Orthodox Jews were stereotyped as killers of Christ and moneylenders. Stereotypes about Jews were popularised even through Maths classes. Children were taught to hate the Jews. The Nazi propaganda against the Jews was so effective that people felt anger and hatred surge inside them when they saw someone who looked like a Jew.
Answer:
Yes! Here is your answer!
Explanation:
1. What are the peculiar features of Nazi thinking?
Ans. (i) Nazi ideology believed there was no equality between people but
only a racial hierarchy. In this hierarchy the German Aryans were
at the top and the Jews at the lowest rung.
(ii) These racist beliefs were borrowed from thinkers like Charles
Darwin and Herbert Spencer. These thinkers expounded the concept
of evolution and natural selection and also the idea of survival of
the fittest.
(iii) Their ideas were taken by the Nazis to justify imperial rule over the
conquered people.
(iv) They also believed in the geo-political concept of Lebensraum or
living space. They believed that new territories should be acquired
for Germans to settle which could make Germany a powerful nation
to reckon with.
2. Explain four ways in which Nazi state seek to establish total control over
its people.
Ans. (i) The Nazis sought to establish a strong Nazi society by controlling
the German child both inside and outside the school. All schools
were ‘cleansed’ and ‘purified’. This meant that teachers who were
Jews or seen as ‘politically unreliable’ were dismissed.
(ii) Children were first segregated and subsequently the ‘undesirable
children’- Jews, Gypsies and the physically handicapped were
thrown out of schools.
(iii) The German children were subjected to a prolonged period of
ideological training. School textbooks were rewritten. Children were
taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews and worship Hitler.
Even sports was to nurture a spirit of violence and aggression among
children.
(iv) Youth organizations were made responsible for educating the German
youth. At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi Youth Organisation -
‘Hitler Youth’. After rigorous ideological and physical training, they
joined the Labour service at the age of 18.
(v) In 1926 the organisation ‘Hitler Youth’ came into being. All other
organisations were dissolved and finally banned.
(vi) Hitler dismantled democracy and established total control over the
people, media, army and education system.
3. Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating a hatred for Jews.
Ans. Propaganda is a specific type of message directly aimed at influencing the
opinion of people through the use of posters, films, speeches etc. The Nazi
regime used language and media with care and often to great effect. They
used films, pictures, radio, posters, etc. to spread hatred for the Jews.
(i) Once in power, the Nazis quickly began to implement their dream
of creating an exclusive racial community of pure Germans by
physically eliminating all those who were seen as “undesirable”.
(ii) Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. They were
stereotyped as ‘killers of Christ and usurers’. Until medieval times,
Jews were barred from owning land.
(iii) They survived mainly through trade and moneylending/ They lived in
separately marked areas called ‘ghettos’. They were often persecuted
through periodic organised violence and expulsion from land.
(iv) All this had a precursor in the traditional Christian hostility towards
Jews for being the killers of Christ. However, Hitler’s hatred of the
Jews was based on pseudo-scientific theories of race, which held
that conversion was no solution to ‘the Jewish problem’. It could
be solved only through their total elimination.
4. Describe the problems faced by the Weimar Republic.
Ans. (i) The republic was not received well by its own people largely because
of the terms it was forced to accept after Germany’s defeat at the
end of the First World War. Many Germans held the new Weimar
Republic responsible for not only the defeat in the war but the
disgrace at Versailles.
(ii) The birth of the Weimar Republic coincided with the uprising of
the Spartacus League on the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia. The Democrats, Socialists and Catholics opposed it. Just
led to political radicalism in Germany.
(iii) This republic was finally crippled by being forced to pay
compensation. Soon after the economic crisis hit Germany in 1923,
the value of German mark fell considerably. The Weimar Republic
had to face hyperinflation. Then came the Wall Street exchange crash
in 1929.
(iv) There were defects in Weimar Constitution. Article 48 of the
constitution allowed the president to impose emergency. Proportional
representation did not allowed one party to come to power.
5. Discuss why Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930.
Ans. (i) The Weimar Republic was not welcomed by the German people
as they signed the humiliating treaty of Versailles. This treaty
of humiliating for every German and Hitler capitalised on the
sentiments of the people.
(ii) After the demand of Soviet type government by spartacistly the
socialist party split and after that they could never unite against
the Nazi.