Study the Background information and the sources carefully, and then answer all the

questions.

You may use any of the sources to help you answer the questions, in addition to those
sources you are told to use. In answering the questions you should use your knowledge of
the topic to help you interpret and evaluate the sources.

1(a) Study Source A.

What is the message of this painting? Explain your answer, using details of the
painting. [5]

(b) Study Source B.

Why was this poster published? Explain your answer, using details of the poster
and your knowledge. [6]

(c) Study Sources C and D.

How different are Sources C and D regarding Hitler’s rule? Explain your answer. [6]

(d) Study Source E.

How useful is this source in helping you understand the economic situation in
Nazi Germany? Explain your answer. [6]

(e) Study Source F.

How far do you believe this source? Explain your answer. [7]
 Was Hitler’s rule beneficial to the Germans?

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Read this carefully. It may help you answer some of the questions.

By 1933 Hitler had risen to power in Germany. He introduced great plans to consolidate his
power and change Germany. He worked hard to revive Germany’s economy and solve its
unemployment problem. However, some argued that this came with a price and people lost
their freedom.

Source A: A Mexican painting on life in Germany, 1933.

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Source B: A poster published in the Westfälische Landeszeitung, a German newspaper
in 1939. It shows two maps of Germany. The top one represents Weimar Germany, the
bottom one, Nazi Germany.

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Treaty of
Versailles

Industries 1936 Olympics

Stadium

Tanks and
weapons

Source C: A historian’s view of Nazi Germany in 1952.

After World War I, Germany went into the depression because the nation was blamed for

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 starting the war. Hitler came and rescued Germany. Under the Nazi regime, the
relationships between the workers and factory owners improved, work breaks were
increased for workers, crime rates went down, health and family values advanced, cars
were made affordable to the working-class, new roads and bridges were built and
unemployment rates decreased.

Source D: Norman Thomas, an American writer, comments on the German

unemployment statistics

Under the Nazis there has been much ‘invisible unemployment’. The number of
unemployed Jews is great and is increasing, but they are not counted as unemployed.
There has been the wholesale discharge of women and of unmarried men under 25. None
of these are included among the unemployed in official statistics. Part-time workers are
counted as fully employed. The re-introduction of conscription has taken hundreds of
young men off the labour market.

Source E: Statistics on the number of unemployed in Nazi Germany, published in the

International Labour Review, 1939.

Source F: A German farm worker’s memories of harvest festivals in the 1930s. He went
on to work for the Agriculture Ministry between 1937 and 1945.

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 Thousands of people came from all over Germany to the Harvest Festival celebrations.
We all felt the same happiness and joy. Harvest festival was the thank you for us farmers
having a future again. I believe no statesman has ever been as well loved as Adolf Hitler
was at that time. Those were happy times.

Acknowledgements
Source A: David Williamson, The Third Reich
Source B: Paul Grey & Rosemarie Little, Modern World History
Source C: Ben Walsh, GCSE Modern World History
Source D: Ben Walsh, GCSE Modern World History
Source E: Josh Brooman, Germany: 1918-1945