Life in Germany 1933 - 1945: Living under the Third Reich

Question 1

What were the three Ks?

Answer 1

• Kinder
• Kirche
• Küche

In English this means:

• Children
• Church
• Kitchen

Question 2

What did the Nazis want women to look like?

Answer 2

• Women should wear traditional clothes and no makeup / high heels
• Women should be strong and healthy, so slimming is frowned upon.

Question 3

How did the Nazis achieve their goal of making the ideal woman?

Answer 3

After Hitler became chancellor women were forced to leave their jobs as teachers, doctors and lawyers. Employers were made to favour men.

The government gave medals to women with children. Five children won bronze, six won silver and eight won gold.

Propaganda e.g leaflets, newspapers and films convinced women to follow Nazi ideals.

Local wardens would report women who were not following the Nazi ideal so smoking/fashionable women would have to hide.

The Nazi Women’s league used propaganda to get women to embrace the three Ks.

Question 4

What were the successes and failures of Nazi policy towards women?

Answer 4

Successes:
-The German birth rate increased between 1933 - 1939

-6 million people joined the Nazi Women’s League and other Nazi women organisations.

Failures:
-Number of employed women increased between 1933 - 1939 because of the good economy and because women had lower wages

-The majority of married Germans only had 2 children.

Question 5

What were the two aims of Nazis regarding young people?

Answer 5

• To control youth and make them loyal to the Nazi cause

- To train children to fulfill their roles. Girls as homemakers and boys as workers/soldiers.

Question 6

How were schools changed under Nazi Germany? (4 points)

Answer 6

• New subjects e.g Race Studies
• In History textbooks were written to make Jews / communists look evil and only German history was taught.
• Gender segregated study. Boys were taught science, military drill and maths whilst girls were taught subjects like needlework and domestic science.
• The curriculum would implicitly teach Nazi dogma e.g math questions encouraging murder of disabled.

Question 7

How did the Nazis use youth groups to gain support?

Answer 7

The League of German Maidens were taught how to clean, cook and raise children. They also did physical training.

Boys had the Hitler Youth which was based around military training. It had camping, war games, rifle training and cross country marching.

Question 8

What were the positives and negatives of Nazi youth groups?

Answer 8

Positives:

• Hitler Youth kept people happy and fit
• The groups encouraged bonding and friendships.

Negatives:
-1 in 5 Germans never joined

• Enraged Edelweiss Pirates -> they beat up Hitler Youth
• Focus on military drill and obedience put people off; this was made worse by wartime activities like collecting scrap.
• Parents didn’t like kids swearing allegiance to Hitler over them.

Question 9

How did attitudes to women change over the course of the Third Reich?

Answer 9

The Nazis only wanted working class single women to work but the war meant they had to let all women work in factories.

The agenda of the National Socialist Women’s Organisation switched from the three Ks to women being contributors to the war effort, meaning women worked in munitions factories, were taught how to feed families on rations and helped evacuate children.

Question 10

What were Nazi attitudes to the young?

Answer 10

They were expected to assist the war effort by helping with evacuation, fire fighting and child rearing.

Older members of Hitler Youth had military training but 13 year-old boys were used as soldiers by the end of the war.

Young people who didn’t join Hitler Youth became increasingly marginalised, especially opposition e.g Edelweiss Pirates.

Question 11

What was the goal of Nazi economic policy?

Answer 11

• To reduce unemployment

- To make Germany self-sufficient

Question 12

What were the two main economic policies?

Answer 12

Schacht’s ‘New Plan’ from 1933 - 1937 and Göring’s ‘Four-Year Plan’ from 1936 - 1940 reduced unemployment through the following methods:
-Huge construction projects for new autobahns, hospitals and houses.

• The re-militarisation of Germany created millions of jobs in ammunition factories and 1.4 million army positions.
• All men between 18 and 25 were forced to work.
• Women/Jews removed from employment registry so unemployment looked artificially lower.

Question 13

What were the three policies directed towards workers?

Answer 13

• The creation of the German Labour Front (DAF) to replace Trade Unions to negotiate rights for workers.
• ‘Strength through Joy’ organised holidays and leisure activities as happy workers work harder.
• The ‘Beauty of Labour’ scheme improved working conditions such as better lunches and toilets.

Question 14

What were the big problems with worker orientated economic policy?

Answer 14

• The DAF often supported employers who wanted lower wages and longer hours.
• ‘Strength through Joy’ was mostly cheap cinema tickets and theatre tickets.
• The ‘Beauty of Labour’ improvements had to be done in the worker’s spare time.

Question 15

Why did farmers support the Nazis?

Answer 15

Hitler guaranteed high food prices and security if they fell behind on rent.

Question 16

Why was Hitler actually bad for farmers?

Answer 16

Because of the work schemes many people left the countryside to work in the city which took away labourers for the farmers.

Question 17

How did the war affect economic policies?

Answer 17

Rationing was introduced in 1939 when war broke out. Shortages were not a problem for the first two years.

The war against the USSR meant Hitler restricted shops from opening and repurposed factories for the war effort.

By the end of the war there were extreme shortages of food.

A black market existed outside of the rationing system which was used by some Germans.

Many German citizens needed rehousing after the bombings. There were also looting and crimes in some bombed cities.

Question 18

What was the Nazi doctrine on race?

Answer 18

Aryans were the master race. This master race could be created through careful encouragement of breeding and eugenics.

Question 19

Who were the groups Nazi society hated? Why?

Answer 19

• The disabled/mentally ill as they thought it would be inheritable.
• Gypsies as they were not Aryan and moved around too often.
• Black people because of their skin colour. Marriages between blacks and Germans were banned and mixed race children were sterilised.

Question 20

What did the Nazis do to oppress Jews? Give a timeline.

Answer 20

1933: Jews and Aryans forbidden from playing together. Jews can no longer become judges, civil servants, teachers or lawyers.
1935: Nuremberg Laws. Jews can’t be German citizens and Jews cannot marry Aryans.
1938: Jews cannot be doctors, cannot run their own businesses. They also can no longer go to state schools, cinemas or swimming pools.
1938: Kristallnacht happens in response to a Jewish student shooting a Nazi diplomat. On the whims of Nazi leaders Jewish homes and shops are smashed up. Many Jews are arrested or sent to concentration camps in the following months.
1939: A curfew for Jews is introduced. They have to hand over jewellery and gold/silver to the police.

1939 - 1942: The Einsatzgruppen start to round up Jews in occupied territories and shoot them.

1941: Jews are sent to ghettos in major cities, many die.
1942: The Final Solution.

Question 21

What was the Final Solution?

Answer 21

As the Nazis realised Einsatzgruppen and ghettos weren’t efficient enough, they decided in 1942 at the Wannsee Conference to build concentration camps.

To do this they drew up a list of Jews for each country they invaded. When they arrived Nazi doctors would decide who was fit to work. Up to 2000 could be killed at the same time in one gas chamber.

The Nazis had killed 6 million Jews and 4 million Russian prisoners.