Carly Futoma

September 30, 2015

Mr. Kendall
Germany
When one feels extreme loyalty and devotion for their country it is called nationalism. In
many ways a country that has nationalism is seeking to achieve a form of political sovereignty. It
was when Adolf Hitler is appointed as chancellor in 1933 that Germanys nationalism and
sovereignty increases. After Germanys defeat in World War I, the whole country was waiting in
hope for an uplifting. Fortunate for their countrys power, Hitler introduced his fascist ideology
through the National Socialist German Workers Party that is called Nazism, Nazism was
characterized by intense nationalism, stressing the need for a "warrior society."1 It was Hitlers
control over his people that created nationalism to be a must, for the sake of this national identity
to achieve sovereignty.
In fact, the root cause of World War I revolved around nationalism. Countries around the world
were trying to become as powerful as possible, so competition and tension rose. Nationalist
competition between larger nation-states led to the new imperialism of the late 19th century and
the resulting military alliances.2 Nazis feard an attack from other countries, so they stressed the
duty of protecting their country at any cost. This involved convincing their society that the route
to success meant to have a pure country, a country with only the most powerful species. Hitler
was trying to lead Germany toward a goal of unifying the "Aryan people" of Europe and
eliminating Jews and other enemies of the state.3 They focused on eliminating Jews for the
1 Neel, Carolyn. "Nazism." In World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2001-. Accessed

September 28, 2015. http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/.

2 World History: The Modern Era, s.v. "nationalism," accessed September 28, 2015.
http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/.
3 World History: The Modern Era, s.v. "nationalism," accessed September 28, 2015.
http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/.

reason of using them as a scapegoat for their loss in the war which they were very bitter about. It
was because of such desperosity for sovereignty that the people of Germany bought into his plan,
willing to take any action needed.
Modern European anti-Semitism was a racist reaction brought about by the intensification of
nationalism.4 Hitlers dictatorship made it possible for his ideology of nazism to become spread
over the country, [he] used his profound oratory skills to manipulate the German people into
following his regimes propaganda.5 The brainwashed people of his country began to follow his

orders and his beliefs on how things had to be run to fix their country. His treatment of Jews,
making legal measures to expel the Jews from society and strip them of their rights and property
while simultaneously engaging in campaigns of incitement, abuse, terror and violence of varying
proportions6 are now clearly known as being inhumane and unjust but during this time period
Germans thought differently to come together in order to reach sovereignty. They believed that it
was their culture and ethnicity that was the strongest and that their country deserved the power it
once had, before the defeat in World War I. They knew because the camps and the measures
which led up to them had been prominently and proudly reported step by step in thousands of
officially-inspired German media articles and posters
For Jews to be eliminated and separated from the German society, they were sent off to
concentration camps. It was here that the mass murders of these people happened. The German
government and military was so strong because of Hitlers over nationalistic ideology which was
4 Neel, Carolyn. "Nazism." In World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2001-. Accessed

October 1, 2015. http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/.

5 "German Nationalism and Economic Growth." Motivations Behind The Holocaust. Accessed
October 01, 2015. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~ghost20j/classweb/ghost20j/Perpetrator
%20Motivations%20Behind%20the%20Holocaust%20German%20Nationalism.html.
6 "The Holocaust." Holocaust History. 2015. Accessed October 01, 2015.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/01/persecution.asp.

that made this plan successful. The Nazis contained a power that was uncontrollable, so much
that, About 5.8 million Jews, the victims of a racist illusion seeking to dominate the earth, had
been killed.7 To them, this was the only thing that was going to protect their country from Jews
completely destroying their economy which is what they feared the most seeing that they were
already struggling tremendously.
Nationalism always has a positive cognition because loyalty and devotion is known as a
favorable feeling to have for ones country. So in this case it is ironic to think Germany was
extremely nationalistic during the leadership of Hitler and the holocaust but it is true. At the time
what they were doing for this country they felt was needed so they proceed no matter what the
task was. The Nazis desired to deprive Jews of their citizenship and their economic and social
positions.8 And this was achieved been them for a long time until the end of World War I when
concentration camps were emptied and put to a stop. The sovereignty that Germany achieved
was remarkable because it did not only fulfill the anti-Semitic views that belonged in that
country but it was the uprising from their economic and social depression. So in this
circumstance, nationalism was used to attain sovereignty.

7 World History: The Modern Era, s.v. Holocaust, accessed October 1, 2015.

http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/.
8 Neel, Carolyn. Nazism. In World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO. 2001- Accessed
October 01, 2015. http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/