🛑 Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

Weimar Republic

Democratic government formed in Germany after WWI (1919)

Treaty of Versailles

1919 peace treaty that imposed harsh terms on Germany

Proportional Representation

System where parties gain seats in proportion to votes

Article 48

Allowed German President to rule by decree in emergencies

Spartacist League

Communist group that opposed Weimar Republic

Freikorps

War veterans used by Weimar to suppress Spartacist uprising

Hyperinflation

Extreme inflation in 1923 that devastated German economy

Great Depression

1929 economic crisis that helped Nazis gain support

Adolf Hitler

Born 1889 in Austria

German Workers’ Party

Party joined by Hitler in 1919

Nazi Party

National Socialist German Workers’ Party

Beer Hall Putsch

1923 failed Nazi attempt to seize power in Munich

Mein Kampf

Book written by Hitler in prison

Chancellor of Germany

Position given to Hitler on 30 January 1933

Reichstag Fire

1933 fire used by Hitler to suppress Communists

Fire Decree

28 Feb 1933 law suspending civil rights and allowing arrest

Enabling Act

1933 law giving Hitler dictatorial powers

Gestapo

Nazi secret police

SS (Schutzstaffel)

Hitler's elite bodyguards and Nazi enforcers

Concentration camps

Detention centers for political prisoners and minorities

Nazi ideology

Extreme nationalism

Racial hierarchy

Aryans considered superior; Jews at the bottom

Aryans

Blond

Anti-Semitism

Hatred and persecution of Jews

Nuremberg Laws

1935 laws excluding Jews from German citizenship

Kristallnacht

9–10 Nov 1938: ‘Night of Broken Glass’ – Jewish properties attacked

Final Solution

Nazi plan to exterminate Jews through mass killings

Ghettos

Isolated urban areas where Jews were confined

Gas chambers

Killing centers where mass executions were carried out

Auschwitz

One of the largest Nazi death camps

Lebensraum

‘Living space’ – Nazi policy to expand eastwards

Holocaust

Mass genocide of 6 million Jews during WWII

Nuremberg Trials

1945–46 trials of Nazi war criminals

Youth League of Nazis

Nazi youth organisation later renamed Hitler Youth

Hitler Youth

Boys trained in Nazi ideology and warfare

Jungvolk

Nazi group for boys aged 10–14

League of German Maidens

Nazi youth wing for girls

Role of women in Nazi Germany

Expected to be mothers and housekeepers

Honour Crosses

Awarded to women with 4

Stereotyping of Jews

Portrayed as greedy

Nazi propaganda

Posters

The Eternal Jew

Famous Nazi propaganda film promoting anti-Semitism

Volkswagen

Symbol of prosperity promised to common Germans under Nazis

Tripartite Pact

1940 alliance between Germany

Hitler’s expansion

Invasion of Poland (1939)

WWII starts

1 September 1939 – Germany invades Poland

Soviet victory at Stalingrad

Major turning point against Germany (1942–43)

May 1945

Germany defeated; WWII ends in Europe

Helmuth

11-year-old boy whose Nazi father commits suicide

Crimes Against Humanity

Mass killings and atrocities committed by Nazis

Pastor Niemoeller

Famous for poem on silent complicity during Nazism

Resistance to Nazis

Some Germans resisted