Page 65 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

l Cautious people, however, had no place in Nazi Germany. Schacht had to leave.

l By the end of 1940, Hitler was at the pinnacle of his power. Now he moved to achieve
his long-term aim of conquering Eastern Europe. Finally the Second World War broke
out.
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
l Hitler aimed at getting food supplies and territory. He invaded the Soviet Union in June
1941. It was a historic blunder as the Red Army inflicted huge defeat on Germany at
Stalingrad and steadily reached the heart of Berlin.

l Although unwilling initially to enter the Second World War, USA was forced by aggression
of Japan to enter the war. When Japan extended its support to Hitler and bombed the
US base at Pearl Harbor, the US was forced to enter it, with the allied powers.
l The war ended in May 1945, with Hitler’s defeat and in August US dropping atom bomb
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

3. THE NAZI WORLD VIEW
l Nazis are linked to a system of belief and a set of practices. According to their ideology,
there was no equality between people but only a racial hierarchy.
l The racism of Hitler was borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert
Spencer. The argument of the Nazis was simple: the strongest race would survive, and
the weak ones would perish. The Aryan race was the finest who retained its purity,
became stronger and dominated the world.

l The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to the geopolitical concept of Lebensraum,
or living space. Hitler intended to extend German boundaries by moving eastwards to
concentrate all Germans geographically in one place. Poland became the laboratory for
this experimentation.

Source A (Page no. 61)
‘For this earth is not allotted to anyone nor is it presented to anyone as a gift. It is awarded
by providence to people who in their hearts have the courage to conquer it, the strength to
preserve it, and the industry to put it to the plough… The primary right of this world is the
right to life, so far as one possesses the strength for this. Hence on the basis of this right a
vigorous nation will always find ways of adapting its territory to its population size.’
Hitler, Secret Book, ed. Telford Taylor.
Source B (Page no. 61)
‘In an era when the earth is gradually being divided up among states, some of which embrace
almost entire continents, we cannot speak of a world power in connection with a formation
whose political mother country is limited to the absurd area of five hundred kilometers.’
Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 644.

Activity (Page no. 61)

Q. Read Sources A and B
 What do they tell you about Hitler’s imperial ambition?
Ans. The two sources tell that Hitler’s imperial ambition was to expand the boundaries of
Germany till wherever they could possibly reach. He believed that an aggressive nation
will find methods to adjust its territory according to its population’s size.

H-56 History Class IX