Aspects Of Life 1933-1945 Flashcards
What were Nazi aims for their policies regarding women and gender?
-women should fulfil their natural role of nurturing so should be skilled in preparing nutritious food and keeping their homes safe and clean to ensure that their ‘racially pure’ children had the best start in life.
-no political role : allowing women to vote and become members of Reichstag was as damaging to Germany as ToV was.
-expected to be beautiful : women had a duty to keep having babies and be sexually attractive. Certain types of beauty were seen as dangerous and women needed to still look natural
What was female emancipation?
A Jewish conspiracy to stop Aryan women fulfilling their natural roles as guardians of the race
What was the Nazis slogan for women?
Kinder, Kuche, Kirche : children, kitchen, church
How what the nazis attitudes to women?
They were not anti-women and just wanted women to take up their ‘traditional’ role of homemaker and child bearer in an attempt to arrest concerning surrounding a declining birth rate.
How did the Nazis increase the birth rate of healthy, Aryan children?
-published advice on ‘assortative mating’ which would help women choose the right partner to ensure the best outcomes for the ‘race.’
-increase family allowances
-contraception restricted
-nazi propaganda glorified mortherhood
How did the nazis encourage marriage in preference to employment?
-the law for the encouragement of marriage (July 1933) provided a RM 1,000 loans to all newly married couples, 1/4 of loan written off after birth of child
-men should marry ‘stupid women’ as they were less likely to interfere with the husband’s life and work because they would be unable to understand it
How did the nazis get women to accept nazi ideals of beauty and behaviour?
-ABC of National socialism (1933) demonstrated characteristics of an ideal aryan woman as being natural, no drinking or smoking, body should be physically suited to child bearing, dress in german style ; Gretchen Braids
-to enforce the natural look : tanning parlours, deodorant, hormone cream for larger breasts
-pornography accepted
Why had Nazi policies towards women changed?
By 1937, they were adapted due to economic necessity.
What was introduced which led to an increasing shortage of labour?
Introduction of conscription and the rearmament boom
What happened to female employment between 1937 and 1939?
It increased from 5.7 million to 7.1 million and increased from 31 to 33% of the workforce.
What law was passed in 1937 for unmarried women?
Unmarried women had to do a ‘duty year’ involving work in factories or farms.
How did the Nazis feel about women in war service?
Reluctant to mobilise women into war service because it conflicted with their ideology and it might affect morale.
What was the impact of war on women in work?
-despite dislike from Hitler, as men left for war, proportion of women in the work force rose from 1/3 to just over 1/2
-sacked at the beginning as their work was seen as ‘non-essential’ then women returned to industrial work. New regulations allowed mothers breaks to breast feed
What was the impact of war on women as colonisers?
-women employed to clear and decorate Polish farms so German families could move in
-women sent to new territories as teachers and nurses to nurture German population
-wanted to discourage marriage between German men and Polish women as they wanted them to marry ‘racially fit’ brides
What was the impact of war on women’s social/domestic life?
-Nazi propaganda = women should keep house tidy and clean and keep children safe and make the most of rations
-families broke up as women could gain attention of SS and Gestapo by accusing husbands of political crimes
-nazi women groups helped women in areas that had been boned by setting up emergency field kitchens to feed survivors and also helped look after orphans and reunite families that were separated due to war
What happened to female NSDAP membership in the war years?
Rose from 16.5% - 34.7%
What was the impact of nazi policies towards women?
-contradictory and ultimately a failure
-women were not consistently excluded from the workplace
-regime could not stop young adult women already employed in the consumer goods industry and the necessity to employ women because of the growing labour shortage
-despite efforts to encourage marriage, divorce rate rose steadily
What was Nazi racial ideas?
-Hitler and the Nazis wanted a racially pure Germany
-aryan race needed to be purified as racial mixing with ‘degenerate’ races threatened to contaminate and ultimately weaken the Herrenvolk (master race)
-those who did not conform to racial stereotype or their appearance/lifestyles challenged nazi ideas including natural born Germans should be eliminated
What did the Nazis do to remove legal and political rights?
-Jews forbidden to own phones or buy new phones
-curfew imposed on Jews
-sexual relations forbidden between races
-special debt. Set up in the Gestap: Reich Central Office for the combat of homosexuality and abortion