G Life in Germany for different groups of people, 1933 - 1939

Question 1

Expectations of women in Nazi Germany

Answer 1

Women should adopt the traditional roles of mother and housewife. Hitler, however did not believe that women were somehow less important than men - he described their role as equally important.

Question 2

Specific laws that were passed / programmes that affected the lives of women…

Answer 2

1933: The law for the encouragement of marriage. This law gave women up to 1,000 marks - about eight month wages - if they got married. It also encouraged women to stay at home and for each child that was born, a quarter of the loan was wiped out. Therefore, four, was seen as the optimal number of children to have.
1938: Change in divorce law. This made it easy for a man to divorce a woman if she was not capable of having children.
The Mother’s Cross: This was an award given to mothers for the number of the children they could have. The bronze cross for four or five, the silver cross for six or seven, the gold cross for eight.
The Lebensborn (fountain of life) programme encouraged women to have children with SS guards in order to create the most genetically pure children possible for worthy German families. Women would recieve money and support in return.

Question 3

Key person: Gertrud Scholtz-Klink

Answer 3

Reich Women’s Leader from 1934 onwards. She set out to make German women “servants” of the State. She insisted all women’s organisations should join together as the German Women’s Enterprise and through the activities of the group, the Nazi message for women could be easily spread.

Question 4

The ideal appearance of a woman was…

Answer 4

Women should adopt a natural look and wear long skirts. A perfect hairstyle would be tied back hair or simple plaited hair. A woman should have endeavoured to stay strong so that hips would be strong enough to sustain lots of births. They were discouraged from dyeing their hair or even wearing make-up.

Question 5

Women were told to focus on what

Answer 5

the three Ks. Kinder, Kuche, Kirche.

Children, kitchen, church.

Question 6

Women in Employment

Answer 6

• 1933 - Women were banned from professional jobs such as teachers, doctors and civil servants.
• 1934 - By the end of 1934, about 360,000 women had given up work.
• 1936 - No woman could become a judge, lawyer or even do jury service.
• 1937 - Grammar schools for women, which prepared them for university, were banned. The number of female students in higher education was at 6,000 in 1939, compared to 17,000 in 1932.

Question 7

How did women feel about the Nazi Ideal?

Answer 7

Some women believed that the Nazi ideas actually did make them inferior to men and that the ideas harmed family and even degraded women. Some women did not like Getrud Scholtz-Klink and that she was a slave of the Nazi state that did not represent the true spirit of womanhood.

Question 8

Expectations of young people in Nazi Germany ( in classroom )

Answer 8

All young Germans should be brought up to be proud of Germany and the Nazi Party.
Boys and girls should be brought to be strong, healthy and fulfilling their gender roles.

Question 9

How the Nazis controlled the school curriculum

Answer 9

Bernhard Rust was made Education Minister in 1934 and he saw the purpose of education to “make Nazis”. All lessons were designed with this purpose in mind.

Question 10

How the Nazis controlled teachers

Answer 10

In April 1933, teachers began being sacked. All teachers had to swear loyalty to Hitler and political education courses set out the Nazi ideas, teachers needed to make clear that they supported.
Teachers were then expected to begin and end each lesson with a “Heil Hitler” and to decorate their classrooms with swastikas.

Question 11

Lessons for boys

Answer 11

Maths (with problem solving based around war scenarios).
Race Studies (with a focus on identifying the aryan race).
History (with a focus on the greatness of Germany and the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles).

Question 12

lessons for girls

Answer 12

Home economics (with a focus on cooking and cleaning).
Race studies (with a focus on how to identify the perfect choice for a husband).

Question 13

Expectations for young people (outside classroom)

Answer 13

Young people would attend youth groups and camps to demonstrate they were putting their duty to the country ahead of their private pleasures or pursuits. Eventually, attendance was made compulsory.

Question 14

Organisations for boys

Answer 14

6-10 year olds Pimpfe (Little Fellows)
10-14 year olds Deutsche Jungvolk (German Young People)
14-18 year olds Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth)

Question 15

Organisations for girls

Answer 15

10-14 year olds Jungmadel (Young Maidens)

14-21 year olds Bund Deutscher Madel BDM (League of German Maidens)

Question 16

Activities for boys

Answer 16

Character training - swearing oaths of loyalty from the age of 10 onwards.

Military training - map-reading and signalling. Endurance exercise in wintry weather.

Naval, Motor, Gliding and flying divisions of the Hitler youth.

Extra lessons on the heroes of Germany and learning how to report parents and teachers if they were suspected of betraying the Nazis.

Question 17

Activities for girls

Answer 17

Learning the importance of racial hygiene. The idea that they should keep the German Race pure by only marrying Aryan men.

Girls were trained to cook, iron and make beds.

Athletics to remain strong and ready for motherhood.

Question 18

The Nazi plan for the German economy

Answer 18

To reduce unemployment to 0%. This was because Hitler saw unemployment as a danger for the Nazis, because it would lead to support for the Communists and also because unemployment was a “waste of resources” for German society. Therefore, people were put to work, not matter what.

Question 19

What was the put in place for workers

Answer 19

Labour Service (RAD)
RAD provided public workers for repairing roads and draining marshes. From 1935, it was made compulsory for all young men to serve in the RAD for six months. 422,000 were in the RAD in 1935.
It was not popular with people as it was organised like an army. Rates of pay were very low and people complained of poor food and camps. Some men saw the RAD as a service rather than genuine employment.
Autobahn building
This began in 1933. It was an example of one of many public building schemes that were designed to create jobs in the construction industry. Spending on public works went from 18 billion marks in 1933, to 38 billion marks in 1938.
Rearmament
Lots of people were employed in making the army much bigger than it had been before it pretty much destroyed by the Treaty of Versailles. Lots of people were needed to build and create new weapons. Spending on the army was 3.5 billion marks in 1933 and 26 billion in 1939. By 1935, there were 72,000 just employed in the aircraft construction industry.

Question 20

What happened to employment?

Answer 20

Unemployment went down and wages did increase, but lots of people were not included in the overall fall of unemployment figures, such as women and Jews. This needs to remembered when considering how Hitler dropped unemployment by 4 million after 1933, a huge amount compared to other countries around the world at the time.

Question 21

‘Reducing’ employment figures - to what real extent?

Answer 21

1) Women and Jews had to give up work. These unemployed are not included in the figures.
2) By the middle of the 1930s there were about half a million ‘unemployed’ people in the labour service which weren’t included in unemployment figures.
3) By 1939, over 1.3 million were in armed forces. In normal peace times they would need normal jobs.
4) Prisons - Hundreds of thousands were put in prisons or concentration camps, making unemployment look lower.

Question 22

The Nazis and improvements in standard of living as part of changes in the economy - employment

Answer 22

Not everyone counted in the employment figures, for example Jews. Also, not everyone enjoyed their jobs, for example those in the Labour Service.

Question 23

The Nazis and improvements in standard of living as part of changes in the economy - Wages

Answer 23

In general wages got better, but it was better between 1936 and 1939 than 1933 and 1936. If you worked making weapons, then your wages rose quicker than in the Labour Service.

Prices of items went up so if you were a higher earner you ended up with more money, but lower earners got more money than previously but had to spend more on more expensive food.

Question 24

The Nazis and improvements in standard of living as part of changes in the economy - hours spent at work

Answer 24

On average, the working week went up from 43 hours in 1933 to 49 hours in 1939.

Question 25

The Nazis and improvements in standard of living as part of changes in the economy overall.

Answer 25

People had more money, but the circumstances of life had changed. Some jobs were not “real jobs”. People were just servants of the Nazi State.

Question 26

standard of living - The Labour Front (DAF)

Answer 26

The DAF replaced Trade Unions. It was in charge of the rights of workers in the workplace, working hours and what minimum pay could be.

It put working hours up by six hours and took away rights from workers but also limited what business owners could do. Basically, it made sure that business operated for the benefit of the Nazi State.

Question 27

standard of living - Strength through Joy (KdF)

Answer 27

The KdF provided leisure activities for workers to keep them happy. These included sports events, films and theatre shows. The most loyal workers could win holidays,

Hitler asked Porsche to design a Volkswagen car that the average German could afford. The KdF encouraged workers to give 5 marks a week and eventually they would get given the car. However, in 1938, the factory that made the car switched to making weapons, so no workers ever saw the car or got their money back!

Question 28

standard of living - Beauty of Labour (SdA)

Answer 28

This part of the KdF did make standards of living better. The SdA gave companies the opportunity to pay less tax, if they improved the conditions of workers facilities like toilets and canteens.

However, workers were expected to do the improvements themselves for no extra pay!

Question 29

Nazi scientific beliefs that linked to bad treatment of minorities - Eugenics

Answer 29

Eugenics

A popular belief from the 1880s that it was possible to breed a perfect human by selecting the “best” parents.

Question 30

Nazi scientific beliefs that linked to bad treatment of minorities - Racial hygiene

Answer 30

This took eugenics one step further. The Nazis believed the “best” parents came from one race, the Aryan Race. In schools it was taught that Aryans should only breed with other Aryans and laws were gradually put in place that forced this.

Question 31

Nazi scientific beliefs that linked to bad treatment of minorities - Hitlers own views

Answer 31

In Mein Kampf, in 1925, Hitler set out his own views on Race. He claimed that the Aryan Race were superior (Herrenvolk) and that other races, such as Slavs were sub-human. He also said Jews and gypsies were Lebensunwertes - which means unworthy of life.

Question 32

Persecution of minorities - Slavs

Answer 32

Who were they?

Europeans whose ancestors were from the east. By the 1930s, many Eastern Europeans lived in Germany.

How they were treated:

• School children were told Slavs were sub-human.
• The Nazis threatened to invade Eastern Europe for more living space.
• Slavs were persecuted less than some minorities.

Question 33

Persecution of minorities - Gypsies

Answer 33

Who were they?

The Nazi name for the Roma people. They travelled from place to place and did not pay many taxes. Nazis believed they posed a threat to racial purity.

How they were treated:

• After 1933, they were often arrested and sent to concentration camps.
• From 1936 they were put in seperate living areas and in 1938 banned from moving in groups.
• In 1939, there was mass deportation.

Question 34

Persecution of minorities - Homosexuals

Answer 34

Who were they?

The Nazis believed they had lower moral standards because of their sexuality.

How they were treated:

• In 1935 there were stronger laws against being gay which led to over 8000 gay people in prison by 1938.
• 5000 homosexuals died in Concentration Camps.
• Nazi laws encouraged the voluntary castration of homosexuals.

Question 35

Persecution of minorities - Disabled people

Answer 35

Who were they?

The Nazis believed they were a burden on society and weakened racial purity.

How they were treated:

• In 1933, they passed the law for prevention of hereditarily diseased offspring. This forced people to be sterilised if they were mentally ill, alcoholic or deformed.
• In 1939, the T4 programme began. This ordered the killing of any babies with severe mental or physical disabilities. Eventually it was expanded to include children up to 17 years old.

Question 36

Nazi treatment of Jewish people in a nutshell

Answer 36

Hitler believed that the destruction of the Jews was the most important thing for him to achieve as Chancellor. He wanted to see Germany cleansed of all Jews. This was despite the fact there were only 437,000 Jews in Germany, less than 1% of the population.

Question 37

Persecution of Jewish people time line - April 1933

Answer 37

The SA organised a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses.
Books by Jewish authors were publicly burnt.
Jewish civil servants, lawyers and teachers were sacked, and Jewish doctors and dentists could not treat Aryans.
Jews were not allowed to own farms.
Science lessons about race were introduced which taught that Jews were subhuman.

Question 38

Persecution of Jewish people time line - September 1935

Answer 38

Nuremburg Laws. Marriage between Jews and non Jews banned. Jews no longer classed as German citizen under Reich Citizenship laws.

Question 39

Persecution of Jewish people time line - 1934

Answer 39

Jewish shops were marked with a yellow star.

Jews had to sit on separate seats on buses and trains. Many councils banned them from public spaces.

Question 40

Persecution of Jewish people time line - 10th November 1938

Answer 40

Kristall Nacht. Jewish houses, shops, businesses, synagogues destroyed.

Question 41

Persecution of Jewish people time line - 1938

Answer 41

Jews were ordered to register all wealth and property.
They could no longer practice as doctors or lawyers, and Jewish businessmen could not have Aryan clients.
Jews were forced to change their first names: males would be known as Israel, females as Sarah.
Jewish children were forbidden to go to school and universities.
Kristallnacht - 9 November (The Night of Broken Glass). The SS organised attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in retaliation for the assassination of the German ambassador to France by a Jew. During Kristallnacht, 400 synagogues and 7,500 shops were destroyed. Jews were then made to clear up the destruction on their hands and knees and pay a fine of one billion marks to the government. The remaining Jewish property was then confiscated.

Question 42

Persecution of Jewish people time line - 1939

Answer 42

The Nazis, who had been encouraging Jews to emigrate from 1933 onwards, now started “forced” emigration. Göring set up the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung). 150,000 Jews were deported, but they had to pay a large “tax” before they could leave.
In March, there were mass arrests. 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps.