1929
It seemed as if it was a dark and dreary day.
I was a young Jew who needed a job.
The Great Depression in America caused most people in Germany to lose or not be able to get a job.
The rain started to fall and it was like I could hear every single drop as it fell.
The economy was falling apart and I was falling apart with it.
I heard some people say is was the Jews.
I knew it wasn't true, but every time thought about it I thought more my opinion started to sway.
This couldn't have been true, but was I lying to myself?
Some people came and they said they could fix the economic depression, but I didn't listen much.
I finally started to realize that there was someone who could help us, but what he said was untrue.
He kept saying that everything
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~
January 30, 1933
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.
I am scared.
I could not believe that this happened.
Everyone believed that we were the problem.
There was no reason why.
Everything was our fault.
The money. That was the biggest problem.
He said that he would fix everything. work to the unemployed fixed failed businesses expanding the Army
He promised to bring order from chaos
He would make Germany strong again tear up the treaty of Versailles
But the sad thing was that this meant he had to deal with the Jews accordingly
All of these things ran through my mind and I thought about if what he said was true
I started to doubt myself, but I had to keep going.
It would be hard, but I could do it.
I went up the stairs of my small house and sat in the creaky bed and closed my eyes
~
September 15, 1935
I woke up on one of saddest days of my life
My husband in the bed next to me and I turn on the radio
They say there are new laws
It's illegal
They say that this is illegal
Marrying someone of “German blood” is illegal
I almost wanted to cry
I put my hands over my face
Thoughts kept running through my head
Was this really wrong?
It can't be wrong it just
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What if they saw that we were together?
So much was running through my head
There was no reason to do this
This innocent woman did nothing to deserve this
I heard the woman scream
She kept screaming, “NO, NO PLEASE!”
I knew there was nothing I could do
I was just a small Jewish woman
If anything I would just get hurt by the big man
We opened the door and ran inside then closed the door
What are we going to do?
We ran upstairs and waited for the storm to pass
I thought she was finished screaming
I heard the glass break in the downstairs
I started to sob into my hand
We were already very poor
And we were just going through the days with each paycheck
This wasn't going to be good
I knew that I needed to leave this place
“Pack your stuff.”
I said with a firm voice
I couldn't take this anymore
I knew we had to leave this place
~
January 20, 1942
I was finally here
I've been through much
I was finally here, but without my husband
He was lost within all of the commotions, but we found each
FDR's Response to the Great Depression. The stock market crash of 1929 set in motion a chain of events that would plunge the United States into a deep depression. The Great Depression of the 1930's spelled the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was the unlucky president to preside over this economic downturn, and he bore the brunt of the blame for the depression.
The traditional view of Franklin D. Roosevelt is that he motivated and helped the United States during the “Great Depression” and was a great president, however, as time has passed, economist historians have begun analyzing Roosevelt’s presidency. Many have concluded that he did not help America during the Great Depression but instead amplified and prolonged the depression. Jim Powell wrote about FDR economic policies and did an excellent job explaining Roosevelt’s incompetent initiatives. Roosevelt did not know anything about economics and his advisors made everything worse by admiring the Soviet Union.
As a society, we often judge people solely by what is said of them or by them; but not by what they did. We forget to take into account the legacy that one leaves behind when they sometimes fail at completing the current task. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the charismatic man who stood at the helm of American government during the most trying decade in our brief history, the 1930s, set out to help the “common man” through various programs. Many historians, forgetting the legacy of the “alphabet soup” of agencies that FDR left behind, claim that he did not fix the Great Depression and therefore failed in his goal. What this essay desires to argue is that those historians are completely right. Through his many programs designed to help the economy, laborers, and all people lacking civil rights, President Roosevelt did not put an end to the Great Depression; however he did adapt the federal government to a newly realized role of protector for the people.
One main cause for the Great Depression, is that there was extreme unemployment percentages. The highest reaching nearly 25% in 1933. One place, and people were specifically hit the hardest during the Depression, were the coal miners in Kentucky. “There were whole towns whose people had not a cent of income” (Doc.B). Many people had no way of making any income what so ever, and would have to revert to killing pets and other animals for a source of food. “Children were reported so famished they were chewing up their own hands. (Doc. B) Even in much bigger cities, like New York, there would be lines of hundreds to thousands of people, just standing, waiting to get a few pieces of bread, and water. Millions of Americans could no afford a place to live and had to create and live in Hoovervilles so much of the depression. (Doc A).
The Effect of the Great Depression on Hitler's Power There is no simple answer as to why Hitler became chancellor in January 1933. There are a number of causal factors which all contributed to his rise into power. Any of the factors, on its own, however, would not have resulted in his appointment. They are all linked in a web of causation and if any of the factors were missing, Hitler would not have been appointed chancellor. Of the factors I would say that the Great Depression was the most important.
To begin with, hardships suffered in Germany made German immigrants? journey to the U.S. difficult. Throughout Germany, in the 1700?s, worsening conditions of farm ownership became a common push factor for German immigrants. The decline of land conditions made growing crops, of any type, nearly impossible and what little land there was to be had was already owned. (German American) Also, many immigrants fled to America because of the many revolutions in the 1860's and the poverty that almost always follows war. Following the revolutions in German states in 1848, a wave of political refugees fled to America, and became known as Forty-Eighters. In one twenty year span in the late 1800's, Germany went to war at least seven times taking on neighboring countries such as: Austria, France, Belgium and Russia. Much money was spent on the war effort in Germany. People were taxed heavily just to buy bullets for the army. (German Immigration) Following these costly wars came the onrush of millions of German immigrants, only to find that another war had been brewing in America.
Unemployment plagued America throughout the 1930's. The stock market crash of 1929 changed the lives of Americans forever. This began the era that we know as The Great Depression. Within three years the low wages that Americans had been receiving just was not cutting it. Unemployment was reaching record numbers. It was 50 percent or more in many places. There simply were not enough jobs or money to go around. Depression was becoming a way of life. People were living out of their cars, cardboard boxes and moving in with relatives that were slightly luckier than they were.
During the 1920's America experienced an increase like no other. With the model T car, the assembly line, business skyrocketed. Thus, America's involvement in World War II did not begin with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Starting in October 1929, the Great Depression, the stock market crashed. It awed a country used to the excesses of the 1920's. These are the events that lead up to the crash.
ASSESS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF |THE GREAT DEPRESSION FOR GERMANY The Great Depression was an extensive crisis that began in the American Stock Exchange Crash of October 1929 when the New York Stock Exchange was hit with its worst fall in share prices to date and lasted until around 1932. The crisis spread all around the world because the bankrupt American banks stopped lending money to the other nations of the world and called in their previous loans. This in turn was extremely significant to all aspects of a newly recovering Germany in terms of its width, depth and nature of significance. It also had impacts on the building blocks of Germany in terms of Economy, the Social status of people and the International Relations between Germany and the rest of the world.
...After we consider all these points mentioned we begin to see how everything worked and connected to form one huge disaster for Germany. We start to see how all these things played a part, the reparations led to unemployment that led to no money that led to overprinting of money. How the huge consequence of the reparations led to the unsuccessful paying of it leading to the French invasion of the Ruhr which led to strikes and therefore no products to trade with. How the unstable Weimar government led to extremist parties that damaged the economy further and brought inflation to its highest. The effects were probably the worst, the starvation coupled with the disease epidemic that killed people off and the worthless tonnes of paper notes roaming around the nation. It all in all was a very bad time in Germany one that they always found it hard to recover from.
Severe economic problems arose in Germany essentially due to the punitive provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. “The German government began to print money to pay its bills.” (McKay, 872). In order to make up for the massive debt and reparations connected to the Treaty of Versailles, the government started to print loads of money. The influx of money across Germany due to newly printed bills caused prices to rise. Money became rather worthless with an abundance of it, which hurt many people’s incomes. Hyperinflation soon occurred, which put the economy in a weak position and further contributed to the downfall of the Weimar Republic.
As a result of this, the government began to print more to make up for what they didn’t have, but this caused the value to decrease as there was the same amount of demand but more money in circulation- i.e- hyperinflation. As Germany were failing to keep up with their payments, France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr- Germany’s most important industrial region- and took over the iron and steel factories, as well as coal mines and railways. The government ordered workers in the Ruhr to “passively resist” and go on strike against the French and Belgian. This caused disastrous consequences for Germany. As the Ruhr was such a rich area, the economy began to suffer from the lack of production.
the rain was pelting down on my head. My car had just broken down in
Many countries wanted to make themselves economically independent, because of the Great Depression, which had a huge impact on Germany, they no longer wanted to depend on others. Known as autarky, this desire caused major conflict throughout Europe, especially prior to WWII. In Germany, Hitler wanted to make Germany as self-sufficient as possible. During the 20th century, Autarky appealed to the people who were most impacted by the Depression by promising them hope for economic prosperity; however, this promise resulted in nations increasing the size and scope of their military and preparing for war.
Savings accounts, the result of years of hard work, were instantly wiped out. Inflation soon followed. hard for families to purchase expensive necessities with devalued money. I will be able to make it. Overnight, the middle class standard of living so many Germans families enjoyed was ruined by events outside of Germany, beyond their control.