Q1. Who was Helmuth?
Ans. Helmuth was an eleven-year-old German boy who overheard his parents discussing about the when to kill the whole family.
Q2. Who was Helmuth? What was his biggest fear about?
Ans. Helmuth was a little eleven-year-old boy whose father was a Nazi and a supporter of Adolf Hitler. His biggest fear was that his mother might poison him one day.
Q3. Who was Helmuth’s father? What he was discussing about his fear of revenge?
Ans. Helmuth’s father was a prominent physician. His fear of revenge was about allies who were going to do the same thing that they did to the crippled and Jews.
Q4. Why did Helmuth’s father took him to the woods?
Ans. Helmuth’s father took him to the woods because this was their last happy time spent together, singing old children’s songs. And, later Helmuth’s father shot himself in his office.
Q5. How and why did Hitler die?
Ans. Hitler, his propaganda minister Goebbels and his entire family committed suicide in his Berlin Bunker in April. They had to commit suicide as Germany had surrendered to the Allies in May 1945.
Q6. Why Germany’s action in the World War II raised serious ethical questions worldwide?
Ans. Germany’s action in the World War II raised serious ethical questions worldwide because of the actions it took, which came to be called Crimes Against Humanity.
Q7. What happened when Germany surrendered to the Allies?
Ans. When Germany surrendered to the Allies, Hitler and his propaganda minister Goebbels and his entire family committed suicide collectively in his Berlin bunker in April.
Q8. At the end of the war, what was set up in Nuremberg and why?
Ans. An International Military Tribunal was set up at Nuremberg to prosecute Nazi war criminals for crimes against peace, for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.
Q9. What was the result of the genocidal war that Germany has waged under the shadow of the Second World War?
Ans. The was resulted in the mass murder of selected groups of innocent civilians of Europe. The number of people killed included 6 million Jews, 200,000 Gypsies, I million Polish civilians, 70,000 Germans who were considered mentally and physically disabled.
Q10. Germany fought the first world war against whom?
Ans. Germany fought the first world war alongside the Austrian empire and against the Allies (England, France and Russia).
Q.11 Name the allied powers and central powers of World War I?
Ans. The allied powers: – England, France and Russia. The Central powers: – Austria and Hungary.
Q12. The defeat of Imperial Germany and the abdication of the emperor gave what opportunity to the parliamentary parties?
Ans. Defeat of Imperial Germany and the abdication of the emperor gave an opportunity to the parliamentary parties to recast German polity.
Q13. How were the deputies elected then?
Ans. The deputies were now elected to the German Parliament or Reichstag on the basis of equal and universal votes cast by all adults including women.
Q.14 Who was called the November Criminals? Why?
Ans. November Criminals were those people who supported the Weimar Republic. These people included mainly the Socialists, Catholics and Democrats. They were called November criminals as the supporting of Weimar Republic started in November.
Q15. Who became easy targets of attack in the conservative nationalist circles? What were they mockingly called?
Ans. Those who supported the Weimar Republic, mainly Socialists, Catholics and Democrats became easy targets of attack in the conservative nationalist circles. They were mockingly called the “November Criminals”.
Q16. What did Hitler do when the First World War broke out?
Ans. When the first World War broke out, he enrolled for the army, acted as a messenger in the front, became a corporal and earned medals for bravery.
Q17. What was German Workers’ Party renamed as by Hitler? What was the party also known as?
Ans. Hitler took over the German Workers’ Party and renamed it as National Socialist German Workers’ Party. This party also came to be known as the Nazi Party.
Q18. What did the Nazis do to demonstrate the support for Hitler?
Ans. Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings to demonstrate the support for Hitler and instill a sense of unity among the people.
Q19. What all were part of the Hitler’s spectacle of power?
Ans. The Red banners with the Swastika, the Nazi salute and the ritualized rounds of applause after the speeches were all part of this spectacle power.
Q20. What is meant by Wall Street Exchange? What happened to Wall Street Exchange in 1929?
Ans. Wall Street Exchange was the name of the world’s biggest stock exchange located in USA. The Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929. The Wall Street Exchange affected USA the most because German investments and industrial recovery were totally dependent on short-term moans, largely from the USA.
Q21. What change did the Enabling Act brought in Germany?
Ans. The Enabling Act established dictatorship in Germany. It also gave Hitler all the powers to sideline Parliament and rule by Decree.
Q22. What did the new security forces included that were created when the Enabling Act came into power?
Ans. The new security forces included the Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service (SD), apart from the already existing regular police in green uniforms.
Q23. What reputation did the Nazi state achieved?
Ans. The extra-constitutional powers of the newly organised forces gave the Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal state.
Q24. What happened with the people of the Nazi state after it was declared as the most dreaded criminal state?
Ans. People were detained in Gestapo torture chambers, rounded up and sent to concentration camps, deported at will or arrested without any legal procedures. The police forces acquired powers to rule with impunity.
Q25. What quick successes did Hitler acquired even in foreign policy?
Ans. Hitler pulled the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan- One people, One empire and One leader.
Q26. Who were considered at the top and bottom in the Nazi society?
Ans. Blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were considered at the top while Jews were located at the lowest rung.
Q27. Who was Charles Darwin?
Ans. Darwin was a natural scientist who tried to explain the creation of plants and animals through the concept of evolution and natural selection.
Q28. What idea did Herbert Spencer added to Charles Darwin’s ideas?
Ans. Herbert Spencer later added the idea of survival of the fittest. According to this idea, only those species survived on Earth that could adapt themselves to changing climatic conditions.
Q29. What was the other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to?
Ans. The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology was related to the geopolitical concept of Lebensraum or living space.
Q30. What was Hitler’s believe in Lebensraum or living space?
Ans. Hitler’s ideology was 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.
Q31. What type of people did the Nazis wanted in their society?
Ans. Nazis only wanted a society of pure and healthy Nordic Aryans. These Nordic Aryans were considered ‘desirable’.
Q32. What was the Euthanasia Programme?
Ans. Under the Euthanasia Programme, Helmuth’s father along with other Nazi officials had condemned to death many Germans who were considered mentally or physically unfit.
Q33. Who were considered ‘racial inferiors’?
Ans. Gypsies and blacks living in the Nazi Germany were considered as ‘racial inferiors’ who threatened the biological purity of the ‘superior aryan’ race. They were widely persecuted.
Q34. What was done with the Polish children who looked like Aryans?
Ans. Polish children who looked like Aryans were forcibly snatched from their mothers and examined by ‘race experts’. If they passed the race tests they were raised in German families and if not, they were deposited in orphanages where most perished.
Q35. How did Hitler think to establish a strong Nazi society?
Ans. Hitler thought that a strong Nazi society could be established only by teaching children Nazi ideology.
Q36. At the age of 14 what did all the boys of Nazi Germany had to do?
Ans. At 14, all the 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, Gypsies, communists and all those categorized as undesirable.
Q37. What were boys and girls taught in Nazi Germany?
Ans. Boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steel hearted. While girls were told to become goof mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children.
Q38. Why were all the mothers of Nazi Germany not treated equally?
Ans. All mothers of Nazi Germany not treated equally. Those who bore racially undesirable children were punished and those who produced racially desirable children were awarded.
Q39. What was done to encourage women to produce more children?
Ans. To encourage women produce more children, Honour Crosses were awarded. A bronze cross was given for four children, silver for six and gold for eight or more.
Q40. What were done to those who maintained contact with the Jews, Poles and Russians?
Ans. Those who maintained contact with the Jews, Poles and Russians were paraded through the town with shaved heads, blackened faces and placards hanging around their necks announcing ‘I have sullied the honour of the nation’.
Q41. What were the Gas Chambers called and how they looked form inside?
Ans. The Gas Chambers were labelled as ‘disinfection-areas’, and looked like bathrooms equipped with fake showerheads.
Q42. What was done to the Orthodox Jews?
Ans. Orthodox Jews were stereotyped and marked. They were shown with flowing beards wearing kaftans, whereas, in reality, it was difficult to distinguish German Jews by their outward appearance because they were a highly assimilated community.
Q43. Write a short note on Pastor Niemoeller.
Ans. Pastor Niemoeller, a resistance fighter, observed an absence of protest, an uncanny silence, amongst ordinary Germans in the face of brutal and organised crimes committed against people in the Nazi empire.
Q44. Who was Charlotte Beradt?
Ans. Charlotte Beradt secretly recorded people’s dream in her diary and later published them in a highly disconcerting book called the Third Reich of Dreams.
Q45. After the war, what did the Jews wanted the world to remember?
Ans. The Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the Nazi killing operations also called the Holocaust.
Q46. Where are the memory of the Holocaust still alive in today world?
Ans. The memory of the Holocaust lives on in memoirs, fiction, documentaries, poetry, memorials and museums in many parts of the world today.
Q47. The memories of the Holocaust were tribute to whom?
Ans. The memories of the Holocaust were tribute to those whose resisted it, an embarrassing reminder to those who collaborated, and a warning to those who watched in silence.