2. 2
Fascism and Nazism
• The rise of dictatorships
• The rise of fascism in Italy
• Italy under Mussolini
• Positive and negative aspects
• Germany between the wars (1919-1939)
• The nazis became popular
• The rise of the nazis
• Life under the nazis
• Economic programme
• The nazi ideology
• The holocaust
3. 3
Fascism and Nazism
• The rise of dictatorships
• Depression (poverty and need for leaders)
• Democracy was blamed for problems
• Communism was a threat
• France suspected Germany
• Disarmament failed (after WW1)
4. 4
Fascism and Nazism
• The rise of fascism in Italy
• People were poor and unemployed
• Economic crisis in the 1930s
• Farmers and workers were angry
• Mussolini and fascists started to control
the country
• Mussolini appointed Prime Minister
• New election system
• Mussolini → il duce
5. 5
Fascism and Nazism
• Italy under Mussolini
• He wanted glory for Italy
• No rival political parties
• From 1926 → no Parliament
• Fascist Grand Council
• Council of Deputies → no real power
• Corporate State
• Invasion of Abyssinia (=Ethiopia)
• Albania was attacked
7. 7
Fascism and Nazism
• Mussolini
• Negative aspects
• OVRA – secret police
• Jews were persecuted
• Revenge in Abyssinia
• Positive aspects
• Wheat harvest doubled
• Drainage of Pontine Marshes →
houses
• Houses, hospitals, schools, roads
and electrified railways
• Laateran Treaty- the Vatican
8. 8
Fascism and Nazism
• Germany between the wars (1919-1939)
• 1919 – Weimar republic
• Friedrich Ebert – first president
• Two houses
• Reichstag (Congress)
• Reichsrat (Upper House)
9. 9
Fascism and Nazism
• Problems of the Weimar republic:
• Society was divided – peace
treaties were unfair
• 1919 – Spartacist Revolt –
communists tried to take Berlin
• 1920 – Kapp Putsh – right wing
revolt
• 1923 – hyperinflation – money lost
its value – prices increased
• 1923 – Stresemann – new
chancellor – recovery started
10. 10
Fascism and Nazism
• Adolf Hitler's nazi party (National
Socialist German Worker's
Party) tried to take over Munich
– defeated – sent to prison
• Stredemann's efforts (he won the
nobel prize):
• Germany joined the League
of Nations
• Reparations were reduced
(58 years to pay)
• The 1929 Wall Street Crash made
his plans failed and Hitler came
back
11. 11
Fascism and Nazism
• The Nazis became popular:
• The military
• Middle classes
• Farmers
• Anti-semites
• People thought the government was weak
• The depression hit Germany hard
• January 1933 – Hitler was offered the post of
Chancellor
• March 1933 the Nazis became stronger in the election
• They controlled the mass media
• Opposition meetings were banned
• They used the “SA” to terrorise opponents
• The communist party was declared illegal
12. 12
Fascism and Nazism
• The night of the long knives
• Hitler was called the Führer
• Life under the nazis
• Germany was reorganised into Gaus
• The Reichsleiters advised hitler
• Goebbels was in charge of propaganda
• Himler was in charge of the SS
• Hitler – absolute power
• Everything was controlled
• Gestapo – could arrest anyone
• Jungrolk – children from 10 – taught to support Hitler
• Boys joined Hitler Youth
• Girls joined the League of German Maidens
• Women's role was to make families
13. 13
Fascism and Nazism
• Economic programme
• Huge plan of public works
• National Labour Service – men from 18 to 25
• No strikes – higher wages
• Big industries were supported (Thyssen,
Krupp, Volkswagen...)
• Country re-armed
• No unemployment
• Political programme: invasion of nearby
countries
14. 14
Fascism and Nazism
• The nazi ideology
• Germans were a super-race
• Jews were responsible for most problems
• Nuremberg laws – laws against them:
– They weren't German citizens
– Marriage with Jews was banned
– Star of David on their clothes
– No jobs for them
• Many Jews exiled – the world did
nothing
• The night of broken glass – Jews were blamed
• They were sent to concentration camps
15. 15
Fascism and Nazism
• The holocaust
• 1940 – Jews were sent to ghettos (Warsaw)
• Death camps were built (Mauthasen,
Auschwich, Treblinka...)
• Gas chambers
• Other people sent to Death Camps:
– Slavs
– Gypsies
– Black people
– Homosexuals
– The disabled
– Communists and others
• At the end of WW2 they tried to destroy evidence.
