The First World War left a deep imprint on European society and polity. It had a devastating impact on the entire continent.
(i) In society, soldiers were ranked higher than civilians. Trench life of the soldiers was glorified by the media.
(ii) Politicians and publicists laid great stress on the need for men to be aggressive and masculine.
(iii) Aggressive war propaganda and national honour occupied centre stage in the public sphere.
(iv) People's support grew for the recently established dictatorships.
(v) Democracy as a young and fragile idea could not survive the instabilities of Europe between the two World Wars.

(i) Hitler promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people.
(ii) He promised employment for those looking for work and a secure future for the youth.
(iii) He promised to weed out all foreign influences and resist all foreign conspiracies against Germany.

Nazi ideas found support in the army and the class of big landlords. They received the full backing of the industrialists who were alarmed at the growth of the socialist and communist parties.

What citizenship means to me:
(i) Universal adult franchise, one vote, one value.
(ii) Equality before law.
(iii) No discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or colour.
(iv) Freedom of speech, expression, and association.
(v) Rights against exploitation.
(vi) Equal opportunity.
(vii) Freedom to choose partner and profession.
(viii) Right to private property.
(ix) Right to constitutional remedies.
(x) Cultural and Educational rights and right to religious freedom.
How the French Revolution defined citizenship:
(i) Right to life.
(ii) Equality before law.
(iii) Freedom of speech and expression.
These were defined as natural and unchangeable rights.
(iv) End of society based on privileges.
(v) Equal distribution of burden of taxation.
(vi) Right to private property.
(vii) Eligibility of all for public offices.
(viii) Not all citizens had the right to vote. Only men who belonged to the highest bracket of taxpayers had the right to vote i.e., were 'active' citizens. Rest of the men and women were classed as 'passive' citizens.
How Nazism defined citizenship:
(i) Only pure Nordic Aryans, persons of German or related blood enjoyed citizenship.
(ii) Rest-say Jews, Gypsies, Blacks, disabled had no rights as citizens. They were subject to life of torture.
(iii) Interrace marriages, marital relationships were regarded as, crime.
(iv) Only pure Germans had a rlght to own property, enter government service and run businesses.
(v) It was based on extreme discrimination, on pauperisation, and ghettoisation of other races say Jews and finally annihilation. Jews were subject to mass killings in gas chambers.
(vi) The 'undesirable' had no freedom of speech, or association or to reproduce. Their life was worse than that of cattle.

(i) Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery to the economist Hjalmar Schacht who aimed at full production and full employment through state-funded work creation programs. This project produced the famous German highways and people's car the Vlkswagen.
(ii) Hjalmar Schacht advised Hitler against investing in rearmament. So he had to leave..Hitler chose war as the way out of the approaching economic crisis.
(iii) Resources were to be accumulated through the expansion of territory.
(iv) In september 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This started a war with France and England 
(v) In september 1940, a Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Italy, and Japan strengthening Hitler's claim to international power., 
(vi) Puppet regimes, supportive of Nazi Germany, were installed in a large part of Europe. By the end of 190, Hitler was at the pinnacle of his power.
(vii) Hitler moved to achieve his long-term aim of conquering Eastern Europe. He wanted to ensure food supplies and living space for Germany. He attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 but was defeated.

(i) Germany was turned into a police state. One party-one man dictatorship was established. Opposition parties and trade unions were disbanded.
(ii) Freedom of speech and expression was severely curtailed.Newspaper were suppressed and government controlled all radio stations.
(iii) Liberals, socialists and communists were either exiled or thrown into prisons
(iv) Of all, Jews were the worst treated. They were deprived of their rights, publicly humiliated, forced to live in ghettos and finally exterminated.
(v) Hitler despite the treaty of Versailles began to rearm and in 1936 marched the Rhineland. Lack of action on the part of the western powers emboldened Hitler and set Germany on the path of war. This finally engulfed the world in the World War,.

(i) Communication System:
(a) Nazi ideas were spread through .visual images, radio, posters, catchy slogans, and leaflets. In posters, 'enemies' of Germans were stereotyped m eked, abused and described as evil.
(b) Socialists and liberals were represented as weak and degenerate. They were attacked as malicious foreign agents.
(ii) Films: Propaganda films were made to create hatred for the Jews. The most infamous was "The Eternal Jew".
(iii) Stereotyping: Orthodox Jews were stereotyped and marked. Jews were referred to as vermin, rats and pests.
(iv) Code Language: To eliminate inferior races, Nazis never used the words 'kill' or 'murder' in official communications. They always used deceptive code language. Mass killings were termed 'special treatment'. For the Jews, it was the 'final solution', and for the disabled 'euthanasia'. Gas chambers meant for Mass killing were labeled "disinfection areas". They were very deceptive in looks. They looked like bathrooms and were equipped with fake showerheads.
(v) Nazism worked on the minds of the people, tapped their emotions, and turned their hatred and anger at those marked as "undesirable".

The term Genocidal War refers to the mass murder of selected groups of innocent civilians in Europe by Germany,during World War II.

Hitler and Goebbels committed sicide collectively in the Berlin bunker in April,1945.

Helmuth was an eleven year old German boy.He feared his mother would poison him because:
(i) In the spring of 1945 Helmuth overheard his parents discussing in serious tones.
(ii) His father a prominent physician, with Hitler, deliberated with his wife whether the time had come to kill the entire family or if he alone should commit suicide.
(iii) His father spoke about his fear of revenge from the Allies.He feared the Allies would do unto them i.e. Hitler's supporters, what they had done to the crippled and the Jews.
(iv) Next day Helmuth's father took Helmuth to the woods, where they spent their last happy time together, singing old children's songs.
(v) Later Helmuth's father's shot himself in his office.
(vi) Helmuth remembered that he saw his father's bloody uniform being burnt in the family fireplace.
(vii) All these events and what he had overheard, traumatised Helmuth.He reacted by refusing to eat at home for the next nine years because he was afraid that his mother might poison him.