question_answer

Write short notes on the following:      (a) The Anschluss        (b) Anti-Semitism

Answer:

(a) After the First World War, Austria was reduced to' a very small state having primarily a German speaking population but they were forbidden to unite with Germany. In 1938, German troops occupied Austria completing the Anschluss (union) with Germany. The addition of Austria enlarged Germany's population, territory and resources. It also increased Hitler's influence in Europe. Strategically, Germany had now penetrated the heart of Central Europe and reached a common border with its ally Italy. (b) The Nazis used Anti-Semitism as an instrument of state policy and Hitler's Special Forces, the SS, felt the elimination of Jews was their duty in the countries occupied by Germany during Second World War.  Anti-Semitism was not a new phenomenon in Europe as Christians have long blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus Christ and state sponsored persecution for centuries received the support of the Catholic Church. In his days as a struggling artist in Vienna, Hitler came under the influence of anti-Semitic propaganda. In Hitler's Germany, Jews were barred from employment and were forced to wear bands with the Star of David. They were publicly humiliated and prohibited from engaging in arts and sports. In May 1933, massive bonfires were lit on the streets of Berlin into which books written by Jewish intellectuals were thrown. In 1935, under the Nuremberg Law, the Jews were deprived of their citizenship. In November 1938, Hitler ordered an attack on Jewish homes, shops and synagogues. This operation is infamous in history as Krystolnocht (the night of crystal). The 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question' was put into effect from 1942 and set in motion the Holocaust which constitutes the most shameful episode in human history leading to the slaughter of 6 million Jews. The world outside was not fully aware of this barbarous side of Nazi rule and did not take a sympathetic view of the rise in the number of applications for emigration to their countries. Even during the war, when intelligence reports were available on the large-scale murders of Jews by gassing and other means in the concentration camps, the U.S.A. refused to carry out special commando operations or air raids to destroy such camps.