Flag of the
Nazi Party
Nazism
(or
National Socialism
;
German
:
Nationalsozialismus
) is a set of
political beliefs
associated with the
Nazi Party
of
Germany
. It started in the 1920s, but the Nazi Party gained power in 1933 and started carrying out their ideas in Germany, which they called the
Third Reich
. They stayed in power in Germany until 1945, when they lost
World War II
.
Nazism is a
far-right
,
fascist
ideology that is heavily inspired from the works of
Oswald Spengler
. The Nazis believed that only the Aryan (German) race was capable of building nations and other races, notably the Jewish race, were agents of the corruptive forces of
capitalism
and
Marxism
, both of which the Nazis opposed. They considered the Aryan race the 'Master race', which meant that they thought that the Aryans were the most biologically evolved of humans. They adapted
Charles Darwin's
theory of evolution
and applied it to humans, the practical application of this was called
eugenics
.
Adolf Hitler
, the leader of the Nazis, wanted to a create a country where all Aryans were treated equally. They spent heavily on poorer people and began several huge government programs to help Germany deal with the unemployment and economic crisis caused by the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
and the
Great Depression
which followed it. Some Nazis, such as
Ernst Rohm
, wanted the reforms to go further and called for a revolution, eliminating economic classes in Germany and for the government to take control of major businesses. Many of these Nazis were murdered on Hitler's orders during the
Night of the Long Knives
because they were a threat to his leadership of the Nazi Party.
In a September 18, year 1939 editorial,
The New York Times
reacted to the signing of the
Molotov?Ribbentrop Pact
by declaring that "Hitlerism is brown communism, Stalinism is red fascism" The editorial further opined:
The world will now understand that the only real 'ideological' issue is one between
democracy
, liberty and peace on the one hand and
despotism
, terror and war on the other.
[1]
The Nazis blamed the Jewish people for Germany's defeat in
World War I
. This is known as the Stab in the Back Myth. The Nazis also blamed the Jewish people for rapid inflation and practically every other economic woe facing Germany at the time as a result of their defeat in World War I. For this reason, the Nazis not only viewed the Jewish people as inferior to them, but as oppressors of the Aryan people who were creating inequality. The Nazis' tactic of lazily albeit effectively blaming the Jewish people for all of Germany's problems is a
propaganda
tactic known as
scapegoating
and was used to justify the great atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jewish people.
[2]
To implement the racist ideas, the
Nuremberg Race Laws
(created in 1935) banned non-Aryans and political opponents of the Nazis from the
civil-service
. They also forbid any
sexual contact
between 'Aryan' and 'non-Aryan' persons.
The Nazis sent millions of Jews, Roma,
and other people
to
concentration camps
and
death camps
, where
they were killed
. These killings are now called
the Holocaust
.
The word
Nazi
is short for
Nationalsozialist
(supporter of the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
) in the
German language
. This means "
National Socialist German Workers' Party
".
Adolf Hitler
, the leader of Nazi Germany, wrote a book called
Mein Kampf
("My Struggle"). The book said that all of Germany's problems happened because Jews were
making plans to hurt
the country. He also said that Jewish and
communist
politicians
planned the
Armistice of 1918
that ended
World War I
, and allowed Germany to agree to pay huge amounts of money and
goods
(
reparations
).
[3]
In November 1923, the Nazis tried to overthrow the democratic German government that had been set up after WWI. Nazi thinking emphasises conflict and violence, and believes that these are the best way to sort out political problems. The Nazis had therefore set up their own private army, called the
Sturmabteilung (SA)
which were sometimes known as the 'Nazi stormtroopers' or simply the 'brownshirts'. Many political parties had their own private armies at this time in Germany to guard their events and meetings from the private armies of other political parties. The attempt to take power is referred to as the Munich Putsch or Beer Hall Putsch and was crushed after less than 24 hours.
After the Putsch, Hitler was imprisoned for six months and the Nazi Party briefly banned. It was allowed to exist again in if it promised to only be democratic. The Nazis agreed, but made it clear that if they took power in Germany, they would turn Germany into a dictatorship. The Nazis believed in something called the Fuhrer Principle, which means that they believe that all groups should be organised like armies, with absolute loyalty shown to the leader of the group. They wanted to apply this principle to Germany. They disagreed with democracy, because they believed that it divided groups which made them weaker.
The Nazis performed very badly in elections until the early 1930s, where they became exceptionally popular. This can be partly explained by a massive increase in poverty in Germany caused by the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
, and Nazi promises to rebuild German strength and pride. However, this is not the only reason for the Nazis coming to power, because it still took more than three years for Adolf Hitler to become
Chancellor of Germany
after the Crash.
On the night of the 27 February 1933 and 28 February 1933, someone set the
Reichstag
building on fire. This was the building where the German
Parliament
held their meetings. The Nazis blamed the
communists
. Opponents of the Nazis said that the Nazis themselves had done it to come to power. On the very same day, an emergency law called
Reichstagsbrandverordnung
was passed. The government claimed it was to protect the state from people trying to hurt the country. With this law, most of the
civil rights
of the
Weimar Republic
did not count any longer. The Nazis used this against the other
political parties
. Members of the communist and
social-democratic
parties were put into prison or killed.
The Nazis became the biggest party in the parliament. By 1934, they managed to make all other parties illegal.
Democracy
was replaced with a
dictatorship
. Adolf Hitler became leader (
Fuhrer
) of Germany, and had the power to make any laws he wanted.
Nazi was Hitler's standard during his run as
President of Germany
Life in Nazi Germany (1934–1945)
[
change
|
change source
]
The Nazis changed Germany to fit their ideas of what a country should be like. They created a
totalitarian state
, which is a country where the government tries to have total control over ordinary people's lives.
In schools, several subjects were changed to fit a Nazi interpretation. History was taught to emphasise German military victories and blames Jewish people and Marxists for defeat in WWI. Children were also taught racial hygiene lessons, where pseudo-scientific racist principles taught to them. In 1936, all German children had to be members of the
Hitler Youth
which was a Nazi version of the
Scouting movement
, and was designed to prepare them to be soldiers in wars against other races.
People who opposed the Nazis were seen as traitors. The Nazis created a very effective
police state
, led by
Heinrich Himmler
and his deputy
Reinhard Heydrich
. They were in charge of an organisation called the
Schutzstaffel (SS)
that took control of all of the police forces in Germany. The SS also set up a new secret police organisation called the
Gestapo
which hunted down people who wanted to protest against the Nazi government. Enemies of the Nazis were regularly tortured, put in
concentration camps
or executed.
As the German leader (Fuhrer) of Nazi Germany, Hitler began moving Nazi armies into neighboring countries. When
Germany attacked Poland
,
World War II
started. Western countries like
France
,
Belgium
, and the
Netherlands
were
occupied
and to be treated by Germany as
colonies
. However, in
Eastern countries
, such as
Poland
and the
Soviet Union
, the Nazis planned to kill or
enslave
the
Slavic peoples
, so that German settlers could take their land.
The Nazis made
alliances
with other
European
countries, such as
Finland
and
Italy
. Every other European country that allied with Germany did it because they did not want to be taken over by Germany. Through these alliances and invasions, the Nazis managed to control much of Europe.
In the
Holocaust
, millions of Jews, as well as Roma people (also called "Gypsies"),
people with disabilities
,
homosexuals
, political opponents, and many other people were sent to
concentration camps
and death camps in
Poland
and Germany. The Nazis
killed millions
of these people at the concentration camps with
poison
gas. The Nazis also killed millions of people in these groups by forcing them to do
slave labor
without giving them much food or clothing. In total, 17 million people died, 6 million of them being Jews.
In 1945, the
Soviet Union
took over
Berlin
after defeating the
German army
in
Russia
. The Soviet
Red Army
met the
American
and
British armies
, who had fought right across Germany after
invading Nazi Europe from Normandy
in France on June 6,1944. The Nazis lost because the
Allies
had many more soldiers and more money than them.
During the invasion of Berlin, Hitler
shot himself
in a bunker with his new wife,
Eva Braun
. Other Nazis also
killed themselves
, including
Joseph Goebbels
just one day after Hitler named him as his successor. The Nazis
surrendered
after the Red Army captured Berlin.
After the war, the Allied governments, namely the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, held
trials
of the Nazi leaders. These trials were held in
Nuremberg
, Germany. For this reason, these trials were called "the
Nuremberg Trials
." The Allied leaders accused the Nazi leaders of
war crimes
and
crimes against humanity
, including
murdering millions of people
(in the
Holocaust
), of starting wars, of
conspiracy
, and belonging to illegal organizations like the
SS
(called, "
Schutzstaffel
", in German). Most Nazi leaders were found
guilty
by the court, and they were sent to jail or sentenced to death and
executed
.
There has not been a
Nazi
state since 1945, but there are still people who believe in those ideas. These people are often called
neo
-Nazis
. Here are some examples of modern Nazi ideas:
- Germanic peoples
are superior to all other races of people.
- Many neo-nazis change "germanic" to "all white people".
- They
speak against Jews
and sometimes other races. For example:
- They say that
the Holocaust did not happen
, and that it was made up by the Jews.
- They say that Hitler was right to blame Jewish people for Germany's problems after World War I;
- They tell people to
hate
Jewish people and other groups of people.
- They believe that Jews have too much power in the world.
After the war, laws were made in Germany and other countries, especially countries in Europe, that make it illegal to say the Holocaust never happened. Sometimes they also ban questioning the number of people affected by it, which is saying that not so many people were killed as most people think
who wrote this?
There has been some
controversy
over whether this affects people's
free speech
. Certain countries, such as Germany,
Austria
, and
France
, also banned the use of Nazi
symbols.
It is also banned to make a Nazi pledge position on a popular media source to stop Nazis from using them.