The Holocaust

 Why was Germany hit the hardest during the depression?

Germany was one of the countries that were hit the hardest because of the great depression. The great depression is an economic depression in the 1930s and took place in the US. Germany was hit the hardest because they were forced to spend millions for reparations, which had caused their economy to crash. This had happened since Germany was then forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles and since they had become responsible for the cost of material that has caused Germany’s economy to collapse. As a result of the wall street crash in the US, Germany had to pay the loans they borrowed from the US. Forcing them to spend about billions of dollars and that there was huge unemployment in Germany of 67% while the US was about 57%. Germany couldn’t pay for the loans because Germany was in an economic disaster and when they told the US, unfortunately, they thought that Germany was bluffing so they sent 60,000 soldiers to their land.

Why did Germany have to agree to sign the Treaty of Versailles?

Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was signed between The Ally forces and Germany in 1919 after World War 1. The Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for starting the war and imposed harsh penalties in terms of loss of territory, massive reparations payments (rounding up to $132 billion) and demilitarization. This was to make peace and if Germany didn’t sign it, The Allies would probably be a huge threat to them or would try and convince them to sign it. If they hadn’t, Germany would’ve lost anyway since they had already lost about 6 million soldiers and artillery etc in World War 1. Germany complained bitterly, but The Allies did not take any notice of their complaints. Germany had very little choice but to sign the Treaty As a result of this Germany had to accept the guilt for starting the war.

How was New Zealand affected by the depression?

In New Zealand, the effects of the great depression weren’t very apparent. But at a certain amount of time, it had started affecting them. The export prices had begun to plummet falling by  45% at around 1933. This had become devastating since that we are very dependent on agricultural exports. A series of unemployed riots rocked Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in the first six months of 1932. The government tried to ease Depression conditions through unemployment relief schemes, which often required men to travel long distances for small pay.