Name:______Date: ______Period: ______
The Rise of Fascism
Throughout the 20th Century, Fascist leaders came to power in various countries, including Germany, Italy, Soviet Union, Japan, and Spain. Through document analysis, students of free nations will be able to learn what life is like in a society without freedom.
Fascism is a political system in which the state has all the power. All citizens must work for the country and the government. A dictator or another powerful person is the head of such a state. He uses a strong army and a police force to keep law and order. He is often a strong, authoritarian leader who is, at the beginning, admired by many people. Fascism first appeared after World War I when Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy. In Germany of the 1930s Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism rose to power. Fascism also appeared in Japan, Spain and Argentina.
Fascist governments control the way people live. Those who criticize the government or do not obey are punished. They must leave the country, go to prison or are often executed. Fascist leaders want to make their state strong and powerful. They claim that only the strongest and fittest in the population can survive. With the help of a strong army they go to war and expand their territory. School teachers show children that only the state is important. Pupils must exercise to stay healthy. Young organizations are often created in which children admire the state and learn slogans and songs. They are trained to march and follow the beliefs of the ruling party. Fascist governments try to give all people work, mainly in the industries they need. They build roads, hospitals and industries which help themrise to power. In fascist countries no other political parties are allowed. The government controls newspapers, radio and television. There is no freedom of speech.
Fascism became a strong movement during the first part of the 20th century for many reasons. Most states had no experience with democracy because they were ruled by a king or queen. After World War I many people were disappointed and angry because the war destroyed a lot of their country or because some of their land was taken away from them. Italians were not satisfied with the way other countries treated them after World War I. Benito Mussolini emerged as a powerful leader who promised the people that he would bring back pride and make Italy a well-respected state again. He created his own private army with their own uniforms. Mussolini’s followers were aggressive and started fights with other citizens and regular soldiers in the streets. Finally, in 1922 Mussolini became dictator of Italy.
Germany was one of the big losers of World War I. It lost a lot of its land. The winners of the war made Germany give up most of its weapons and the government had pay for the destruction that occurred during the war. The country was poor, its economy was ruined. In the 1920s and 30s a new party emerged: the National Socialist Workers’ Party became powerful. By 1933 the Nazis were the strongest party in Germany. Their leader, Adolf Hitler, dissolved parliament, took over power and made Germany a fascist state. In the following years he built up a strong police force and the largest army in Europe.
Hitler was called the Fuehrer. He claimed that the German people were better, stronger and more intelligent than any other people. Other groups, especially Jews and Romanieswere considered to be inferior. Hitler believed that Germany could survive only if it got rid of these weak people. In the course of the war the Nazis killed over 6 million Jews and invaded most countries in Europe. When Germany was defeated in 1945 the fascist government fell apart.
Spain was another fascist country in Europe. General Franco led a nationalist movement in the Spanish Civil War, in which he got help from Italy and Germany. After winning the war Franco became dictator of Spain and ruled the country until he died in 1975. In Argentina Juan Peron led a fascist movement that lasted for a decade and in Chile a military group under the command of Augusto Pinochet held on to power for almost two decades.
- What is fascism?
- Other than Italy, what other countries were governed by fascist leaders?
- Describe how living in a fascist country is different from living in a democratic country.
- Describe how Mussolini controlled the country of Italy.
- Describe Hitler’s actions in Germany.
Document 1
“The Fascist Decalogue” was written in 1934 to describe the goals of Fascism.
Source: Michael Oakeshott, ed., The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe (American Edition), Cambridge University Press
1. Based on “The Fascist Decalogue,” state one role of citizens under the government described in this document.
2. After reading the document, what are two examples of “The Fascist Decalogue” that represent governmental control over its citizens?
Document 2
3. Examine the above photograph. List three examples that demonstrate Hitler’s extraordinary power and rule over Germany.
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Document 3
. . . On the night of May 10, 1933, thousands of Nazi students, along with many professors,
stormed universities, libraries, and bookstores in thirty cities throughout Germany. They
removed hundreds of thousands of books and cast them onto bonfires. In Berlin alone, more than twenty thousand books were burned. The book burnings were part of a calculated effort to “purify” German culture. Since April 12, the Nazi German Student Association had been purging libraries, working from lists of books deemed “un-German.” The authors of some of the books were Jews, but most were not. . . .
Source: Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Little, Brown and Co.
4. According to Michael Berenbaum, what was one way the Nazi Party attempted to control the thoughts of the German people?
Document 4
. . . The Hitler Youth movement was formed for the express purpose of creating loyal subjects to the state. By 1935, over three million boys and girls aged 10 and older were enrolled. “We were born to die for Germany” was one of their popular slogans. In addition to a strenuous physical fitness program, they received training in the use of weapons and heard lectures on Nazi ideology.
Source: Chartock and Spencer eds., Can It Happen Again?, Black Dog & Leventhal
5. According to the editors of Can It Happen Again?, what was one method used by the Nazi Party to influence the thinking of the young people of Germany?
Document 5
In this excerpt Horst Krüger, a German author and prisoner of war, describes his reaction to reading a
newspaper account of Hitler’s death. He is reflecting on the state of the press while Hitler was in power.
. . . When I first began to read the newspapers, he was already in power. I knew nothing but a subservient [obedient], bellicose [hostile], boastful press. I always felt it was a proven fact that Hitler had also conquered and occupied the German language, and my parents had always told me, “What you read in the papers isn’t true, but you musn’t say so. Outside, you must always act as if you believe everything.” The German language and lies had become one and the same thing to me. Home was the only place where you could speak the truth. What you read in the papers was always a lie, but you weren’t allowed to say so. And now I was holding a newspaper that was in German and that did not lie. How was it possible? How could language and truth
coincide? How did it happen that you could believe something you saw in print? It was the first free German paper of my life. . . .
Source: Horst Krüger, A Crack in The Wall: Growing Up Under Hitler, Ruth Hein, tr., Fromm International Publishing Corporation
- According to Horst Krüger, what was one impact of the Nazi government on German society?
Document 6
Hitler and Nazi Germany
Still more pernicious was the way in which an ever increasing number of people were tortured or executed without trial or sentence for no worse crime than unorthodox opinions or "impurity of race." This development took place before the eyes of the entire German people. What, then, of concentration camps? When they were established, people might have believed in good faith that they were needed for the "restoration of public order and security," to quote Article 48 of the Constitution. However, when the Nazis had firm control of all effective power--the police, the armed forces, the civil service--after all political opponents had totally disappeared from public life, after elections had "proved" that 98 percent of the people favored Hitler--why were concentration camps still kept up? Why were they even increased in number?
. . .It was not due to either negligence or accident that concentration camps continued to exist past the time when people no longer had any reason to fear the "Red danger." They formed a well¬ calculated part of the system. To quote Hitler:
Terrorism is an effective political tool. I shall not deprive myself of it merely because these simple-minded bourgeois "softies" take offense. These so-called atrocities render it unnecessary for me to conduct hundreds of thousands of individual raids against mutinous and dissatisfied people. People will think twice before opposing us, if they know what awaits them in the camps.
-- from “Life in the Third Reich” by Hannah Vogt, in Hitler and Nazi Germany ed. Robert G.L. Waite; Holt, Reinhart and Winston 1965
- Why were people in the Third Reich being tortured and executed?
- Why did the Nazis establish the concentration camps?
- How did the Nazis prove they had massive support?
Document 7
Hitler stood unmoved...The audience was breathless under his spell. This man expressed their thoughts, their feelings, their hopes; a new prophet had arisen- many saw in him already another Christ, who predicted the end of their sufferings and had the power to lead them into the promised land of they were only prepared to follow him. Every word he said was true. They had won the war-yes. Been deprived of the reward for their heroism by a number of traitors-yes.Had suffered incessantly ever since-yes. Been enslaved, suppressed, exploited-yes, yes, yes. But the day had arrived when they would free and revenge themselves.
Excerpt from Restless Days: A German Girl's Autobiography (1935)
10. Provide one example that illustrates Hitler’s control over the people of Germany.
11. According to the document, to who do the people of Germany compare Hitler to?