Page 74 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

Activity
(Page no. 71)
Q. Why does Erna Kranz say, ‘I could only say for myself’? How do you view her
opinion?
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
Ans. She said this because at that time, she personally felt that the economy was being revived.
However, since she was not able to see the conditions of others at that time, being too
young to go out and see what was happening elsewhere. Her opinion may be correct as
far as she was concerned, but as she had no idea about what was happening in the other
parts of the country. So, it is difficult to say whether others felt similarly.

5.1 Knowledge about the Holocaust
l The war ended and Germany was defeated. While Germans were preoccupied with their
own plight, the Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they
had endured during the Nazi killing operations – also called the Holocaust.
l When they lost the war, the Nazi leadership distributed petrol to its functionaries to
destroy all incriminating evidence available in offices.
l Holocaust live on in memoirs, fiction, documentaries, poetry, memorials and museums
in many parts of world today.
l It was only after the war ended that people came to know about what had happened.
The Jews wanted the world to know about the atrocities and sufferings they had endured
during the Nazi killing operations. They just wanted to live, even if it was for a few
hours, to tell the world about the Holocaust.

Activity
(Page no. 74)
1. Write a one page history of Germany
 as a schoolchild in Nazi Germany
 as a Jewish survivor of a concentration camp
 as a political opponent of the Nazi regime
Ans. As a Schoolchild in Nazi Germany: I have been conditioned to behave in a particular
manner since I was three years old. First I was given a flag to wave, to show my
patriotism. I was told that men’s and women’s roles in life were totally different. We
were told that the fight for equal rights of men and women was a thing of the past as it
would destroy our society today. We boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and
steel hearted, while the girls were told that they had to become good mothers and rear
pure-blooded Aryan children.
The girls had to maintain the purity of the race, distance themselves from Jews, look
after the home, and teach their children Nazi values .They had to be the bearers of the
Aryan culture and race. I had to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler, proclaiming him as
the savior of the nation. I have been told that after finishing school, I will join the Hitler
Youth Organization. This will be followed by military service, which is compulsory.
As a Jewish Survivor of a Concentration Camp: Thanks to the Lord for saving my
life. I am happy to have survived three years of torturous life in the concentration camp.
Of course, I am now very weak and ill, but I am still alive. So many of my friends,
relatives even family members died before my eyes due to the bad treatment meted out
to them in the camp. They were regularly beaten, left to starve and worked in very harsh
conditions. Many of them were sent to the gas chambers and l was always afraid of my

H-62 History Class IX