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What Does the Word Nazi Come From

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Nazis

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.

QUIZ

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Words nearby Nazis

Nazi, nazify, Nazimova, nazir, Nazirite, Nazis, Nazism, Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, Nb, NBA, NBC

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use Nazis in a sentence

  • Even Democrats and Republicans can agree that Nazis are bad and Social Security is good.

  • One would be hard-pressed to find an earlier opponent of the Nazis than Dietrich von Hildebrand.

  • One of the clever things the Nazis did in the last days of the Weimar Republic was suspend freedom of the press.

  • Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, many old Nazis managed discreetly to trickle back to what they regarded as the Fatherland.

  • The Arabs offered the Nazis a haven, as well as a market for all their nefarious dealings in arms and black market currency.

  • Hall was assigned to the Revenger and, when the Nazis sank her, he spent some three days on a raft with a handful of survivors.

  • Gamburdo's brother has twice been heard to boast, while in his cups, that the Nazis are protecting his vast holdings in France.

  • Then the Nazis would start to complain that they were criminals who escaped from German prisons and claim them back.

  • He fully expects to be shot in the back the moment the Nazis realize who he is.

  • "Well, he said the Nazis were smart and clever guys," Dave pointed out.

What Does the Word Nazi Come From

Source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nazis