Nationalism in Europe And India Test - 4

The famous Enabling 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.

Nazi ideology was based on Hitler's worldview. According to this, there was no equality between people, but only a racial hierarchy. In this view, Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung.

According to the geopolitical concept of 'Lebensraum' or living space, Adolf believed that new territories had to be acquired for settlement.

Nazis wanted a society of only 'pure and healthy Nordic Aryans'. They alone were considered 'desirable'. The Jews, Russians, Poles, Gypsies and blacks were considered as racial 'inferiors' or 'undesirable'.

Ghettos – Separate marked areas where Jews lived
Concentration camps – Place where people were detained without due process of law
Gestapo – Secret state police in Germany
Synagogues – Place of worship for people of Jewish faith

Children in Nazi Germany were repeatedly told that women were radically different from men. Boys were taught to be aggressive masculine and steel hearted whereas girls were told that they had to become good mothers and rear pure blooded Aryan children. Girls had to maintain purity of the race, distance themselves from Jews, look after the home, and teach their children Nazi values.

Those women who produced racially desirable children were awarded and also entitled to concessions in shops and on theatre tickets and railway fares.

Under Nazism, all schools were `cleansed` and `purified`. This meant that who were Jews or seen as `politically unreliable` was dismissed. Children were first segregated. Germans and Jews could not sit together or play together. Subsequently, `undesirable children` - Jews, the physically handicapped Gypsies - were thrown out of schools. Even in schools, the function of sports was to nurture a spirit of violence and aggression among children.

Final solution – Mass killing of the Jews
Evacuation – Deporting people to gas chambers
Holocaust – Nazi killing operations
Jungvolk – Youth groups for children below 14 years

The youth league of the Nazis was later named as `Hitler youth` not `Nazi Movement`. Youth organisations were made responsible for educating German youth in `the spirit of National Socialism`. At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation - Hitler Youth - where they learnt to worship war, glorify aggression and violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews, communists, Gypsies and all those categorised as `undesirable`. The boys had to serve in the armed forces and enter one of the Nazi organizations.