Nazis Views On Women

Question 1

The ideal women would have:

Answer 1

Have many racially pure children for
Germany and Hitler.
❑ Be plain and simple in appearance.
❑ Be educated in domestic duty and
motherhood.
❑ Follow the motto Kinder Kirche Kuche –
Children, Church, Kitchen.
❑ Have no part in politics or the workplace.
❑ Be prepared to marry a ‘pure Aryan’
male.
❑ School text books for women were
re-written to educate them on proper roles for women.

Question 2

The role of women

Answer 2

It was key to Hitler, that Germany increased it population of ‘pure Aryan stock’. For women this meant even more restrictions on their personal life:
❑ Couples had to provide birth certificates and family history documents before being married to prove their Aryan history.
❑ It was expected that a German woman should marry.
❑ Divorce and birth control was not officially banned, but
very difficult to obtain and would be looked down on.
❑ Women with jobs were pressured to leave.
❑ As early as 1933, women were expected to give up their
professional job in teaching, law and working for the
government once married.
❑ Even the appearance of a woman was restricted to more
traditional forms of dress – a complete reversal from the Weimar 1920s.

Question 3

Sterilization of women who were seen as unfit?

Answer 3

From January 1934 it was estimated that 400,000 people were sterilized.

The reasons for sterilization varied:
❑ Feeblemindedness - a vague term which could include just opposition.
❑ Blindness
❑ Insanity
❑ Alcoholism
❑ Genetic brain disorders
❑ Deafness
❑ Criminality – again could be used to remove opponents of the Nazis.
Many of the operations took place in Mental Health Hospitals called Asylums. Patients were lied to about the nature of the operation.

Question 4

Describe in 2 ways in which women’s lives in Germany changed.

Answer 4

1.
The lives of women in Nazi Germany changed politically, by 1932, 112 women had been elected to the Reichstag. But as the Nazi’s consolidated their power women were removed from politics. In 1934 Hitler even refers to politics as “masculine affairs.”
2.
Another way the lives of women changed in Nazi Germany was a return to the traditional role of mother, in Weimar Germany the role of women had become more liberal with as many as 5000 becoming doctors. Hitler rewarded women with the Mothers Cross for bearing children and Goebbels even stated in a speech in 1933 “her most glorious duty is to give children to her people and nation.” They would have to leave work once they had children to become fulltime