1.4 Aspects of Life - Nazi Dictatorship Flashcards
Revision
What phrase regarding women did the Nazis adopt and why?
Kinder, Kuche, Kirche
appealed to conservatives
familiar
What was the Nazi feeling towards religion?
not thrilled - church membership competed with Nazi membership
Why did the Nazis heavily focus on increasing births?
declining birth rate when came to power
blamed on womens movement and Jewish sabotage
What was the SS Marriage Order?
31 December 1931
SS only allowed to marry Aryan women
What happened to women in the civil service?
30 June 1933
those with working husbands dismissed
What was the fitness-to-marry certificate?
18 October 1935
required to prove racial ‘purity’
What happened to women working in law?
excluded 1936
What was the Mother’s Cross?
award introduced 1939
awarded on Mothers Day
bronze - 4 children
silver - 6
gold - 8
What did the Nazis do to Mothers Day?
national holiday
on Hitlers’ Mother’s birthday
also honoured mothers of deceased soldiers
When was abortion banned?
26 May 1933
What happened to contraceptives?
banned along with birth control clinics
What were doctors required to do from 1935 on?
report all miscarriages
suspected abortions would be investigated by the police
What abortions were allowed and how many were there?
Eugenic abortions
1933-1939: 5000
Who were marriage loans provided to?
those with fitness-to-marry certificates
What was provided to help ‘suitable’ poor families?
grants
school fee payments
transport
Who determined the ideal image of a woman?
Bureau for Beauty
What was the ideal of a woman?
‘Natural’ beauty
though in 1930s shifted to be more glamourous
What were women expected to do to improve their ‘natural’ beauty?
tanning parlours
hormone cream for their breasts
Khasana cosmetics
How were prostitutes seen?
morally delinquent
What happened to prostitutes after the Reichstag fire?
‘moral police’ arrested thousands of those suspected
When were brothels reinstated?
1934
What happened to suspected prostitutes 1937-1938?
rounded up and sent for reeducation
Were women allowed to work?
some white blouse jobs continued but women were excluded from high levels
eg. skilled doctors became GPs or worked at maternity clinics
women could only teach at the Grundschule
What did WW2 propaganda push for women?
‘maternal instinct’ should call for them to help in the workforce temporarily
campaign not done with much effort
women in the workforce only increased 2% during the war
Who did the Nazis use for labour during the war instead of women?
foreign workers
prisoners of war
concentration camps
When were women allowed to join the armed forces and why?
October 1940
in auxiliary or clerical roles to free the men to fight
When and for which women did it become compulsory to join the armed forces?
all aged 18 - 40
though this was not rigorously enforced
What did the shortage of men lead to during WW2?
1944: women were trained to operate anti-aircraft guns
Did the structure of education change from the Weimar?
not for state schools
What did the Nazi curriculum emphasise?
physical fitness
men: fighting
women: childbirth
filled 15% of curriculum
What did University corporations become?
Nazi comradeship houses
What did all University students have to do?
join the Nazi Student Union
When did Napolas open?
20 April 1933
What was Napolas?
free elite boarding schools to train boys for government positions
When was the National Socialist Teachers League set up?
April 1929
What happened to teachers in 1933?
undesirable ones purged
When did the Nazis gain control of appointing teachers?
24 September 1935
How many teachers were in the National Socialist Teachers League and why?
97%
almost impossible to get a job otherwise
Did the Nazis value education?
no
anti-intellectual
only for indoctrination
What did the Nazis change some of the normal subjects to talk about?
History: rewritten, focused on Volksgemeinschaft
Biology: race and eugenics, motherhood for girls
Maths: angles as paths of bombs, sums as costs saved by disposing of undesireables
What further indoctrinated young people outside of school?
Hitler Youth
What were the categories within Hitler Youth?
Men:
Pimpfen (6-10)
Jungvolk (10-14)
Jugend (14-18)
Women:
Jungmadel (10-14)
BDM (14-17)
Glaube und Schoneit (17-20)
What did Hitler Youth first open in 1937?
own school
focused on physical education
taught racial purity, TofV unfairness and importance of having children
What did Hitler Youth encourage young people to do?
report teachers or parents not conforming to Nazism
What did the Nazis believe about Germans and culture?
they are the Kulturtrager (culture bearers)
corrupted by Jews and intellectuals
What happened in 1933 to books?
6 April - students began to collect unacceptable books
10 May - torchlight processions, 25,000 books burnt across 35 cities and big towns with press reporting
at Opernplatz 40,000 people watched Goebbels denounce their immorality
What did Goebbels set up to control culture?
22 September 1933
Reich Chamber of Culture
What did the Reich Chamber of Culture do?
all creative arts had to be registered
enforced strict guidelines
idealised realism: depictions of simple rural life
What happened to ‘degenerate’ art?
banned 1936
exhibited though in Munich 1937
What did Strength Through Joy do?
organised trips to theatre, opera, art galleries and museums
What did the 1936 Olympics do?
huge spectacle of German ability - won 89 medals
excluded Jewish athletes
What happened to festivals and holidays?
became increasingly militaristic with parades and propagandist speeches
Why did the Nazis have big building projects?
to create a powerful impression
decorated in swastikas
Olympic stadium could hold over 100,000 spectators from all over the world
Where and when were the Nazi rallies?
Nuremberg
August 1933-1938
When was the Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases enacted?
July 1933
What did the Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases mean?
sterilising mentally and physically disabled - extended to include Jews, Gypsies, criminals and black people
widened June 1935 to include abortions of the unfit
How many people were sterilised?
1934-1945: 400,000 people, 5000 of those died
What did the public know about the Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases?
lots - publicised in press and taught in schools
What did the SA enforce on 1 April 1933?
national boycott of Jewish businesses
What did the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service do?
excluded non-Aryans from the civil service
When was the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service passed?
7 April 1933
What influence did Hindenburg have over the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service?
made amendments to exclude WW1 veterans
this was overturned immediately after his death
When were the Nuremberg Laws passed?
September 1935
What did the Nuremberg Laws mean?
no citizenship for those with 5+ non-Aryan great-grandparents
marriage and sexual relations between German citizens and non-Aryans banned
How were Jews excluded economically in 1936?
Goering would not give them government contracts
reduced access to materials
How were Jews impacted economically in 1938?
banned from selling property > RM5000
could not leave the country and take money with them
When was Kristallnacht?
9-10 November 1938
What happened during Kristallnacht?
turning point of violence towards Jews
pogroms
200 deaths
30,000 arrests - sent to concentration camps
260 synagogues burned
How was Kristallnacht portrayed in the press?
spontaneous reaction to the shooting of Vom Rath (Nazi official abroad)
What was the punishment for Kristallnacht?
Jews fined RM1 billion for damages
warranted the immediate confiscation of property
When did all Jews have to add Israel or Sara to their names?
1 January 1939
How many Jews emigrated 1933-1939?
450,000
What was the ‘flight tax’?
30-50% of Jews wealth taken as they emigrated
How many Jews left Germany after Kristallnacht?
100,000
What made it even harder for Jews to leave Germany?
other countries set quotas or refused entry
When and why was the SS Einsatzgruppen set up?
1939 to find Polish resistance
What did the SS Einsatzgruppen do to Jews?
shot or burned inside Synagogues
1941 became mass murder - forced to dig their own graves and shot in them
How many Jews did the SS Einsatzgruppen kill?
2 million
When and where were the first ghettos set up?
October 1939 in Poland
What were ghettos like?
overcrowded
limited food, water, medical supplies and electricity
What did Strength Through Joy do with the ghettos?
ran trips there for Aryans to show the ‘depraved’ race
When were all Jews required to wear the Star of David?
1 September 1941
When did the first gassing in a death camp happen?
8 December 1941
When was the Wanesse Conference?
20 January 1942
What was the Wanesse Conference?
formed the plan for mass extermination of Jews
Heydrich: organised transport system to camps
gassed or worked to death at camps
How many Jews were murdered during WW2?
6 million
How many Polish Jews survived WW2?
3000 of the initial 3 million
What did the Nazis do to the ‘Rhineland bastards’?
racial hygienists examined suspected children
Gestapo enforced their sterilisation
How were gypsies initially treated?
no formal policy
What happened to gypsies in 1936?
ghetto camps established
What happened to gypsies in 1938?
all required to register with government and be examined by a racial biologist
What happened to gypsies in 1939?
forbidden to marry an Aryan without a special permit
deportation to East Poland
What happened to gypsies 1940-1945?
10,000s shot by SS
What happened to gypsies in 1942?
mass murder - gassed in concentration camps
How many gypsies died in Auschwitz?
21,000
When did the T4 Programme begin?
1939
What did the T4 Programme do?
killed ‘useless eaters’ in preparation for war
medical professionals required to report all children with down’s syndrome, ‘idiocy’ and ‘malformed limbs’ - granted a ‘merciful death’
‘hereditarily inferior’ adults transported to special clinics and killed
Did the public know about the T4 Programme?
not at first in order to evade legal process and save time
information gradually leaked and raised concerns
Bishop Gallen spoke out - called it murder
in order to retain support of the Catholic Church Hitler lied and announced its suspension, continuing just with more secrecy
What was said about the T4 clinics compared to what they were really like?
promised they were providing care and looking for a cure
instead:
killed with lethal doses of morphine or starved to death
6 clinics had gas chambers - killed 80,000 in 1941
