Revision

Nazism and Rise of Hitler (class 9th)

Match the Following:

Q1.

(a) 20th April 1889 (i) Treaty of Versailles

(b) 1st August 1914 (ii) Weimar Republic established

(c) 9th November 1918 (iii) First World War begins

(d) 28th June 1919 (iv) Adolf Hitler born in Austria

Q2.

(a) Mass killing (i) Disinfected areas which looked like a bath rooms with fake shower

(b) Euthanasia (ii) Special treatment, final solution (for the Jews)

(c) Evacuation (iii) Selection, disinfection (for the disabled)

(d) Gas chambers (iv) Deporting people to gas chambers

Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow:

The crimes that Nazis committed were linked to a system of belief and a set of practices. Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitler’s worldview. According to this, there was no equality between people, but only a racial hierarchy. In this view blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung. They came to be regarded as an anti-race, the arch-enemies of the Aryans. All other coloured people were placed in between depending upon their external features. Hitler’s racism borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Darwin was a natural scientist who tried to explain the creation of plants and animals through the concept of evolution and natural selection. Herbert Spencer later added the idea of survival of the fittest. According to this idea, only those species that survived on earth could adapt themselves to changing climatic conditions. We should bear in mind that Darwin never advocated human intervention in what he thought was a purely natural process of selection. However, his ideas were used by racist thinkers and politicians to justify imperial rule over conquered peoples. The Nazi argument was simple: the strongest race would survive and the weak ones would perish. The Aryan race was the finest. It had to retain its purity, become stronger and dominate the world. The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to the geopolitical concept of Lebensraum, or living space. He believed that new territories had to be acquired for settlement. This would enhance the area of the mother country while enabling the settlers on new lands to retain an intimate link with the place of their origin. It would also enhance the material resources and power of the German nation. Hitler intended to extend German boundaries by moving eastwards, to concentrate all Germans geographically in one place. Poland became the laboratory for this experimentation.

Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option:

1. What was Hitler’s ideology of ‘lebensraum’ or living space?
   

   1. Multi-storeyed buildings should be built in Germany to increase the living space

   2. The world must be occupied enabling the material resources and power of the German nation

   3. New territories had to be acquired for settlement

   4. Both (b) and (c)

2. According to the Nazis, ________ people were to be regarded as desirable.

1. Pure and healthy Nordic Aryans

2. German soldiers who helped in territorial expansion

3. German police of different types

4. All those who were willing to consider Hitler as God
   

3. Who influenced the racial ideology of Hitler?

1. Charles Darwin

2. Hitler

3. Herbert Spencer

4. Both (a) and (c)

4. Which concept of Hitler’s ideology revealed his desire for an extended empire?

1. Concept of survival of the fittest

2. Natural concept of selection

3. Geopolitical concept of living space

4. All of these