Germany Unit 4 Flashcards
Nazi policies towards women?
Law For The Encouragement of Marriage : 1000 mark loan given to couples who married. Only applicable if woman stopped work. 1 child = 1/4 of loan paid off = free money
The mothers cross - Given to mothers like a medal.
- Bronze = 4 - 5 kids
- Silver = 6 - 7
- Gold = 8+ (Hitler youth had to salute you)
- 10 = Hitler as godfather, if boy, name him Adolf.
Lebensborn - Encouraged childbirth.
- Provided financial aid to women who had kids with SS men, who were genetically pure
- Women banned from professional posts in 1933, 360,000 give up work
- 1937 = Women grammar schools banned, number in higher education more than halved.
Effective?
- Some women didn’t agree with policies, felt they were degrading
Nazi policies towards boys (the young)?
The Hitler Youth - 6 million German boys
- Did different types of training :
Political - Had to swear to die for Fuhrer
- Had to report anyone disloyal
- Watched films and lessons about Nazi germany, that made Jews look bad
Physical - Camping and Hiking
- Sports competitions too
Military - Map reading, signalling etc
- 1.2 million boys are being trained with small arms in 1938
Character Training - Encouraged competition and ruthlessness
- Plunged into ice cold water
- long hard runs
- etc etc
Nazi policies towards girls (the young)?
The League of German Maidens - Very similar to HY
Political activities eg rallies
Physical and Character training, just like HY
However -
- No military training, more focused on being a housewife
- cooking, sewing, ironing etc
- Also taught ‘racial hygiene’
Nazi policies to control education?
Nazi control of teachers
- All teachers swear an oath of loyalty
- Had to join the Nazi Teachers League - 200,000 in League
Classrooms had swastikas and lessons began and ended with a Hitler salute
Nazi control of the curriculum
-New subjects like Race Studies
- Some subjects altered, eg maths has questions about the weight of bombs in a plane
- PE time x2 = Healthy mothers and soldiers
- Mein Kampf is mandatory now
- Everyone listens to speeches
- Boys and girls have different stuff
Nazi policies to combat unemployment?
The Labour Service (RAD) - (Do not confuse with DAF, and Strength Through Joy and all that)
- Provided paid work (public work) like draining marshes, planting trees and repairing roads
- 422,000 in RAD by 1935
However -
- Really not popular because…
- Very militant, had to wear uniforms, barracks, parades.
- Pay, food, and living quarters were bad
Autobahns
- 125,000 men working on 3,500km of road
- One of many public work schemes funded by Nazis
- Spending on public works increased massively from 18bn to 38bn
- These public works = jobs, money, better transport on the authobhans
- Problem = 38bn marks is not exactly sustainable = neither were the jobs
Re-armament
- Hitler thought rules in the ToV were stupid
- Conscription is now a thing, and its mandatory for all young people
- 1.3m men in army at start of WW2
- Effect = unemployment ‘reduces’
- Spending on defence and army goes up to 26bn
- People working in aircraft construction = 72,000
Invisible Unemployment
- Lots of initiatives didnt really reduce unemployment, they just hid it -this made some people ‘invisible’
Eg - Women and Jews forced to give up jobs = way less unemployment
- Part time work counts as employed now
- Nazis put people in prison
Nazi policies to improve workers standard of living?
Wages
- Rose, but so did prices
- low skilled workers didn’t gain anything
Hours worked
- from 43 (before Hitler) to 49 (1939)
The Labour Front (DAF) - (Don’t confuse with The Labour Service (RAD))
- All trade unions got banned way back in 1933
- Hitler creates a Nazi trade union
What they did -
- Protected rights of workers
- set out the length of the working week and pay levels
Problems -
- DAF could punish you if you did bad
- Workers couldn’t negotiate anymore
Strength Through Joy (KdF) - A division of the DAF
- Did lots of trips and activities for workers (‘Joy’)
- 35m members
- 11m went to theatre performances
- Encouraged people to put money in reserve to buy their Volkswagen (Created for the KdF)
- Factories started making arms = no cars or money back
Beauty of Labour (SdA) - A division of the KdF
- concerned with workplace facilities
- Showers, canteens, toilets and that kind of thing
- Gave employers tax breaks to fund building
However -
- Workers were expected to decorate themselves anyway
Nazi racial beliefs and policies?
Eugenics
- Came from Darwin’s evolution
- Became a school subject
- ‘Unsuitable’ parents rejected
- Then they got sterilized
Racial Hygeine
- Make germany as Aryan as possible
- Passed laws preventing mixed race marriage
- Taught people to keep the bloodline pure
Hitler’s Views
- This was all in Mein Kampf
- Aryan = superior
- Others (Slavs, Jews, black etc etc etc) were Untermunschen = sub humans
Anti - Semitism
Reasons Jews were attacked
- Their clothes and customs stood out
- Some were very successful, people were jealous
- German nationalists - looking to unite the newly formed Germany in 1870’s onwards - promoted german heroes and stories
- But attention to Germany’s ‘enemies’ was heightened
- Jews blamed for WW1, WSC, Hyperinflation
- Moderate germans got swayed by propaganda - turned a blind eye
Nazi persecution of minorities?
Slavs
- Were threatened with invasion by Nazis for Lebensraum
- not persecuted as much as others
Gypsies
- when hitler comes to power - gypsies were arrested as social nuisances
- 1936 - put in concentration camps - 600 gypsies to 2 toilets and no electricity
- 1939 - orders went out to prepare for all gypsies to be deported
Homosexuals
- Believed they weakened the Aryans and spoiled the purity
- 1938 - 8,000 in prison
- Released homosexuals were often sent to concentration camps (where 5,000 died)
- Nazi laws encouraged castration
Disabled
- 1933 - Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring
- You were sterilized if you were blind, deaf, alcoholic, deformed or mentally ill
- 400,000 sterilized
The T4 Programme
- Anyone up to 17 with severe mental or physical disabilities would be killed by overdose. 5,000 killed
Nazi persecution of Jews?
Started in 1933
- Propaganda
- Cant have government jobs
- Cant inherit land
1935 - cant join army
- separate benches in parks
Boycott of Jewish businesses
- April 1st 1933
- banners and graffiti on shops
Nuremburg Laws 1935
Reich Law on Citizenship
- Jews are now ‘subjects’, not citizens
- had to wear yellow star of David
Reich Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour
- No marrying Jews
Also Kristallnacht counts towards this
Events of Kristallnacht? - 9/10 November 1938
7 Nov - Polish Jew goes into German embassy in Paris - shoots someone at random for treating his parents badly
- This man is Nazi Ernst vom Rath
Next day - Goebbels puts out newspapers and propaganda to condemn the Jews
- SS,SA and Gestapo attack houses of Jews
9 Nov - vom Rath dies
- Hitler and Goebbels agree to turn this into a nationwide attack on Jews
- Police were told not to try to stop anyone
9/10 November
- Gangs and Nazis smash up Jewish shops
- SA and Hitler Youth are involved too
The Figures
- 814 shops destroyed
- 100 Jews dead
Aftermath
- Goebbels blames the Jews
- Got to pay 1 BILLION to pay for damages
- 20,000 sent to concentration camps
