Policy Towards Youth and Women

Question 1

What were the Nazi’s aims for young children?

Answer 1

1. Be obedient
2. Idolise the Fuhrer
3. Be physically fit
4. Sacrifice self for national good
5. Do everything possible to strengthen the health and racial purity of the German nation

Question 2

How did boys progress through Nazi organisations?

Answer 2

Childhood:
6-10: Pimpfen (Cubs)
10-14: Deutsches Jungvolk (Young German Boys)
14-18: Hitlerjugend

Adulthood:
Reich Labour Service (RAD)
German Labour Front (DAF)
German Students’ League
Wehrmacht (army)

Question 3

How did girls progress through Nazi organisations?

Answer 3

Childhood:
10-14: Jungmädelbund (Young Girls League)
14-18: Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls)

Adulthood:
18-21: Glaube und Schönheit (Faith and Beauty)
NS Frauenverk (National Socialist Women’s Organisation)

Question 4

How did the Nazis control the education system?

Answer 4

Teachers who were considered ‘unreliable’ were removed from the profession.

Schools were centralised under the Reich Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science.

Head teachers had to be members of the Nazi party.

A National Socialist Teachers’ League was established.

Question 5

Were teachers willing to join the National Socialist Teachers’ League (NSLB)?

Answer 5

Many were already sympathetic towards the Nazis and 30% had voluntarily joined the party by 1936.

All teachers were pressurised to join the NSLB and by 1937 97% had done so.

Question 6

What did the National Socialist Teachers’ League achieve?

Answer 6

Members had to attend one-month long training courses which stressed Nazi ideology and physical education.

It allowed Nazi local officials to keep records on individual teachers. Those who were insufficiently committed to National Socialism were dismissed.

Question 7

How was the curriculum changed to reflect Nazi ideals?

Answer 7

Greater emphasis on physical education which, by 1936 took up at least 2 hours per day.

History lessons focuses on German history and stressed nationalism and heroism.

German language and literature were studied to foster nationalist spirit.

Biology lessons reflected Nazi ideas on eugenics.

Religious education was pushed to the side and eventually removed as the subject did not uphold Nazi values.

Question 8

Which new types of schools were introduced to train the next Nazi elite?

Answer 8

NAPOLAs - National Political Education Institutions

Adolf Hitler Schools - run by the Hitler Youth

Ordensburgen - for boys of college age

Question 9

What was the objective of NAPOLAs and what happened within them?

Answer 9

For boys 10-18 to develop future leaders. Led by the SS.

There were 39 by 1943.

Provided a military-style boarding education with stress on physical education, manual labour and political training.

Question 10

What were Adolf Hitler Schools?

Answer 10

Free boarding schools for 12-18 year olds, selected on grounds of physical appearance and leadership potential.

Only 11 created.

Intended partly to rival the SS’s NAPOLAs.

Physical, political, and military training were even more dominant and many aspect of normal schools were abandoned.

Question 11

What were Ordensburgen?

Answer 11

Modelled on medieval chivalric orders where boys completed their training as future political and military leaders.

Students (Ordensjunkers) were housed in vast castles.

Question 12

How did higher education change under the Nazis?

Answer 12

Decrease in students: from 113,000 in 1933 to 57,000 in 1939, which demonstrated the Nazis’ anti-intellectual attitudes.

There was an increase in uptake by 1944 however due to a large increase in female students (who made up 11% of students in 1939 in comparison to 49% in 1944)

Question 13

Which organisation was set up for university lecturers?

Answer 13

Nazi Lecturers’ Association

All university lecturers forced to join the association in November 1933.

New appointees had to attend a six-week ideological and physical training camp.

Question 14

Which organisation was set up for university students?

Answer 14

German Students’ League

Students forced to join the group, but 25% seem to have evaded this.

Compulsory twice weekly sessions for ideological and fitness training.

Question 15

When was the Hitler Youth created?

Answer 15

July 4th 1926

Question 16

What was the aim of Nazis with their youth groups?

Answer 16

To indoctrinate the youth and combat the possibly negative influences of parents or the church

Question 17

How did activities for boys within youth groups compare to those for girls?

Answer 17

For both there was an emphasis on the greatness of the Fuhrer and German patriotism. Both also included physical training and marching practice.

In the boys organisations the emphasis was preparing them for a military life whilst with the girls this emphasis was put on domestic life and becoming mothers.

Question 18

What was the reception to Nazi youth groups?

Answer 18

Those from poorer backgrounds enjoyed the activities such as camping and sporting activities.

However, it became less successful with increasing focus on military preparation and discipline at the expense of the ‘fun’ activities.

Compulsory membership led to resentment by some and meant that the organisations contained a lower percentage of committed youngsters.

Question 19

In what ways did women’s treatment in Weimar Germany contrast that in Nazi Germany?

Answer 19

There was a shift in social attitudes and women had been freed of many old restrictions from the pre-war years.

Employment opportunities opened up and the birth rate fell.

Question 20

What trends in regard to women did the Nazis want to reverse?

Answer 20

Increased female employment in the non-agricultural sector.

Declining birth rate, partly due to wider access to contraception.

Question 21

What did the ideal German woman look like?

Answer 21

Aryan - Blue eyes and blonde hair

Broad hips for childbearing, yet athletic.

Wear no makeup, full skirts, and flat shoes.

Question 22

How did the Nazis reduce the number of women in employment?

Answer 22

June 1933: Interest-free loans offered to women to marry and give up work

1933: Women in top civil service jobs and medical jobs dismissed

1936: Banned from being judges + lawyers

Married women forbidden from entering many of the professions between 1933 and 1936

Education opportunities for girls reduced.

Question 23

How did the Nazis reduce availability of education for girls?

Answer 23

The number of girls allowed into higher education was limited in 1934 and further reduced in 1937.

Grammar school education was abolished for girls and they were forbidden to study Latin, which was a requirement for entering university.

Question 24

How much did female employment decrease?

Answer 24

Percentage of women in employment:

1932: 37%
1937: 31%

Question 25

How did the Nazis try to increase pure German births?

Answer 25

1. Financial incentives: marriage loans and birth grants
2. Improved maternity services
3. Awards e.g. Motherhood Cross
4. Penalties for the childless
5. Lebensborn programme

Question 26

How did the government dissuade/prevent couples from remaining childless?

Answer 26

Higher taxes on childless couples.

Tighter penalties on contraception and restrictions on contraception information.

Question 27

How did motherhood awards function?

Answer 27

Established in December 1938 and first awarded in May 1939

Awarded on mothers day/mothering Sunday (2nd Sunday in May)

3 tiers of Mother’s Cross:
Bronze - 4 children
Silver - 6 children
Gold - 8 children

Aim was to raise status and self-esteem of housewives

Question 28

What was the slogan of the propaganda campaign targeted at women to convince them to have more children?

Answer 28

“I have donated a child to the Fuhrer”

Question 29

Why did divorce become easier under the Nazis?

Answer 29

So that ‘unproductive’ marriages could be ended quickly - these were seen as worthless to the national community.

NOT to progress women’s rights.

Question 30

When was the Lebensborn programme founded?

Answer 30

December 1935

Question 31

What happened under the Lebensborn policy?

Answer 31

Stigma around single mothers - Lebensborn provided unmarried pregnant Aryan women medical care and a place to give birth away from peers in discreet homes to prevent them for seeking abortions and ‘wasting’ a valuable child.

The program assumed guardianship of unmarried mothers’ children and determined where they would be raised. Most times children born under the scheme were not released into their mother’s care but rather to adoption by ‘racially pure’ parents.

Encouraged Aryan women to have children with SS officers

Question 32

How did the Nazis attempt to increase ‘suitable’ marriagea?

Answer 32

1933: 600 RM marriage loan if unemployed (extended to women in work in 1937)

1935: Marriage Law required certificate of ‘fitness to marry’ before marriage license issued

Oct 1935: Blood Protection Law - marriage to Jews, black people, and Gypsies forbidden

1938: Marriage law extended grounds for divorce

1941: Couples found cohabiting after their marriage had been banned were sent to concentration camps

Question 33

Did the marriage rate increase?

Answer 33

1932: 516,000 marriages

1934: 740,000 marriages

Question 34

Why did policies towards women’s employment change in 1937?

Answer 34

Labour shortages due to push for rearmament

This trend continued into WWII when even greater labour shortages were faced.

Question 35

How did policies towards women’s employment change in 1937?

Answer 35

Women encouraged to work in factories and allowed to re-enter their professions - can be seen in the increase in female doctors

Question 36

How much did the amount of working women increase between 1937 and 1939?

Answer 36

1937: 5.7 million

1939: 7.1 million

Question 37

What did the Reich Mothers’ Service of the National Socialist Women’s League provide?

Answer 37

Encouragement for women to have more children

Preparation for becoming mothers/housewives - offered courses on pregnancy, housekeeping, child rearing, and racial hygiene

Question 38

What did the Mother and Child Relief Agency (branch of Reich Mothers’ Service) provide?

Answer 38

Medical care and financial support for pregnant women

Childcare in kindergartens