The Nazi worldview:

(i)Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitler’s worldview. According to this there was no equality between people, but only a racial hierarchy.


(ii)In this view blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung. 

(iii)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.

(iv)The Nazi argument was simple: the strongest race would survive and the weak ones would perish.

(v)The Aryan race was the finest. It had to retain its purity, become stronger and dominate the world.

The implication of the economic crisis:

(i)The economic crisis created deep anxieties and fears in people. The middle classes, especially salaried employees and pensioners, saw their savings diminish when the currency lost its value.

(ii)Small businessmen, the self-employed and retailers suffered as their businesses got ruined.

(iii)These sections of society were filled with the fear of proletarianisation, an anxiety of being reduced to the ranks of the working class, or worse still, the unemployed.

(iv)Only organised workers could manage to keep their heads above water, but unemployment weakened their bargaining power. Big business was in crisis.

(v)The large mass of peasantry was affected by a sharp fall in agricultural prices and women, unable to fill their children’s stomachs, were filled with a sense of deep despair.

The peace treaty at Versailles with the Allies was a harsh and humiliating peace.

(i)Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13 per cent of its territories, 75 per cent of its iron and 26 per cent of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.

(ii)The Allied Powers demilitarised Germany to weaken its power.

(iii)The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the war and damages the Allied countries suffered.

(iv)Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion.

(v)The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s.