Nazis

Cultural  

1. A German political party of the twentieth century, led by Adolf Hitler. The Nazis controlled Germany from the early 1930s until the end of World War II. The party's full name in English is National Socialist German Workers' party; Nazi is short for its German name. Despite the word socialist in its name, it was a fascist party, requiring from its members supreme devotion to the German government — the Third Reich (see fascism and socialism). The Nazis rose to power by promising the people that Germany, which had been humiliated after World War I, would become powerful again. The Nazis opposed communism and free intellectual inquiry. Desiring to form a master race that would rule the world, they fought the influence in Germany of peoples not of “pure” descent. Their power was particularly directed at controlling Jews (see also Jews) in Germany and in the countries that Germany conquered in war. After depriving Jews (see also Jews) of their property and confining them in concentration camps, the Nazis employed the Final Solution of killing them in large numbers; an estimated six million Jews lost their lives (see Holocaust). Also marked for extermination were the mentally and physically handicapped and “enemies of the Reich” such as Slavs, communists, Gypsies, homosexuals, Christians (see also Christian) who resisted the government, and defenders of intellectual freedom. The Nazis fought World War II to spread their principles worldwide but were defeated. Twenty-two of their leaders were convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials. A great number of symbols (see also symbol), images, and names are associated with the reign of the Nazis, including the swastika emblem; the stiff-armed salute; the greeting “heil Hitler”; the goose-step march; mass political rallies; concentration camps, such as Auschwitz and Dachau; and Hitler's aides Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goering, and Heinrich Himmler.

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Example Sentences

It became synonymous with German military power, producing the Big Bertha gun during World War I, and later building tanks and U-boat components for the Nazis.

From The Wall Street Journal

After France fell to the Nazis in the 1940, my late maternal grandfather, Paul Basset, abandoned his law studies to join his older brothers Gabriel and Louis in French North Africa.

From The Wall Street Journal

The artist died in 1943, not at the hands of the Nazis but by finally succumbing to the stomach ulcers that plagued him his whole life.

From The Wall Street Journal

A new German tribunal started work on Monday on resolving disputes over cultural property seized by the Nazis, a move the government hopes will streamline the process for outstanding claims.

From Barron's

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1937, his family fled to Singapore when the Nazis invaded.

From Los Angeles Times