Page 66 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

In source ‘B’ he was comparing Germany’s size to that of Russia (area wise) and wanted
Germany to become a world power of similar size.
 What do you think Mahatma Gandhi would have said to Hitler about these ideas?
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
Ans. Mahatma Gandhi would have told Hitler to drop the idea of aggression against other nations
from his mind, as violence begets violence.

3.1 Establishment of the Racial State
l Nazis came into power and quickly began to implement their dream of creating an

exclusive racial community of pure Germans. They wanted a society of ‘pure and healthy
Nordic Aryans’.
l Under the Euthanasia Programme, Helmuth’s father had condemned to death many
Germans who were considered mentally or physically unfit.

l Germany occupied Poland and parts of Russia, captured civilians and forced them to
work as slave labour. Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. Hitler hated
Jews based on pseudoscientific theories of race.
l From 1933 to 1938, the Nazis terrorised, pauperised and segregated the Jews, compelling
them to leave the country. The next phase, 1939-1945, aimed at concentrating them in
certain areas and eventually killing them in gas chambers in Poland.

3.2 The Racial Utopia
l Genocide and war became two sides of the same coin. Poland was divided, and much
of north-western Poland was annexed to Germany.
l People of Poland were forced to leave their homes and properties. Members of the
Polish intelligentsia were murdered in large numbers, and Polish children who looked
like Aryans were forcibly snatched from their mothers and examined by ‘race experts’.

Activity (Page no. 63)

Q. See the next two pages and write briefly:
 What does citizenship mean to you? Look at Chapters I and 3 and write 200 words
on how the French Revolution and Nazism defined citizenship.
Ans. For me, citizenship means the right to live freely in the country where I am born or the
country where I desire to live. The French Revolution defined citizenship in a way which
was different from the way that the Nazism defined it. The French people thought that all
men have equal rights as they are born equally. The rights of a citizen includes liberty,
security, owning of property and resisting oppression. Also they believed in the freedom
of speech & expression. They believed in the rule of law and that no one can be above it.
However, the Nazi definition of citizenship was quite different, from French Citizenship. It
was defined with the perspective of racial discrimination against all except the ‘pure Nordic
Aryan’. So they said that Jews and ‘undesirable’ population would not be considered as
citizens of Germany. These people were given very harsh treatment like death in the gas
chamber or deportation to concentration camps. Many of them were forced to flee to other
countries because of this injustice.
 What did the Nuremberg Laws mean to the ‘undesirables’ in Nazi Germany? What
other legal measures were taken against them to make them feel unwanted?
Ans. The Nuremberg Laws meant that the ‘undesirables’ had no rights to live along with the

History Class IX H-57