Topic 8: Nazi social policy and practice Flashcards
Why did the Nazis want to control young people?
The Nazis went to great lengths to control every aspect of young people’s lives both in school and out. They believed that of young people were brought up to believe in Nazi ideas, they would never rebel against the regime.
What was education like under the Nazis?
Schools
- Teachers had to join the German Teachers League and teach what the Nazis wanted, or be sacked.
- Every subject was used to put forward Nazi propaganda and beliefs. So, in History, students learned how badly Germany was treated after WW1.
- Textbooks were rewritten to present Nazi beliefs as facts.
- Race studies (‘Eugenics’), was taught. Students were taught that the Aryan race was superior to others.
- PE became very important to prepare boys for the army. Girls studied domestic skills such as cooking and sewing to prepare the, for their roles as wives and mothers.
- Students identifies as potential Nazi leaders were sent to special academies known as ‘Napolas’ (National Political Educational Institutions).
Universities
- Universities had to change their courses to reflect what the Nazis believed.
- Top university professors were hand-picked by the Nazis.
- Many lecturers were sacked, either for radical or political reasons. By 1939, over 3000 had been dismissed.
- All students had to train as soldiers for a month each year.
- The Nazis did not regard university education as particularly important, and fewer Germans attended University during the Nazi era.
What was the Hitler Youth Organisation?
As part of his campaign to indoctrinate the young with Nazi beliefs, Hitler set up the Hitler Youth Organisation.
The Hitler Youth (Boys):
- Could join for 6 years old.
- Age 6-10 attended ‘Little Fellows’
- From 10-14 attended ‘Young Folk’
- Joined the main ‘Hitler Youth’ from 14-18.
- By 1939 90% of German boys aged 14 and over were members.
- Went to meetings several times after school.
- Learned how to fight with knives and fire a gun.
- Went to special weekend camps every month.
- Hitler Youth encouraged competition, heroism and leadership.
The League Of Young Maidens (Girls):
- Could joins form 10 years old.
- Age 10-14 joined ‘Young Girls’.
- Age 14-17 joined the main branch - the ‘League Of Young Maidens’ (BDM)
- Also attended weekend camps, marches .
-They were taught how to keep fit, cook good meals and care for babies, to prepare for motherhood. Most emphasis on domestic skills.
Both boys and girls were encouraged to report their parents and teachers if they criticised Hitler or even made jokes about the regime/Nazis.
What were the differences between women in Weimar Germany and women in Nazi Germany?
The Nazis believed that the role women had to play in society was different, but equally as important, to the role of men.
Women in Weimar Germany:
- In the 1920s German women had many rights and freedoms tat women in other countries didn’t have. For example they could vote, and if they worked for the government, their pay was equal to men.
- Many women attended university and became lawyers and doctors.
- The birth rate fell as more women worked. In 1900 there had been over two million births per year. In 1933 there were under one million.
Women in Nazi Germany:
- The Nazis were worried about the declining number of births. They felt that a low birth rate and a smaller population didn’t fit with their plans to expand Germany’s territory and settle Germans in other areas of Europe.
- The Nazis felt it was a women’s patriotic duty to stay at home, have lots of children and support their husbands.
- Women should stick to the 3 Ks - Kinder, Kirche and Küche (children, church and cooking)
What were the Nazi policies towards women?
Family: Contraception and abortion were banned. generous loans were given to newly married couples to encourage them to have children. The Motherhood Medal was awarded to the women with the most children. Mothers with 8 children received the ‘Gold Cross’.
Work: Many female doctors, teachers, lawyers and judges were sacked. Working was discourages as it might hinder producing children.
Behaviour: In many cities, women were banned from smoking as it was considered ‘unladylike’. Wearing trousers or high heels was also frowned upon for the same reason. Slimming was discouraged because it might make it harder to get pregnant.
Organisations: The German Women’s League coordinated all adult women’s groups, and representatives travelled around giving advice on cooking, childcare and diet. The Nazi women’s Organisation was an elite female group dedicated to Nazi beliefs and ideas.
Sterilisation: The Nazis thought that some women were unfit to be mothers. The ‘Law for Prevention of Diseased Offspring’ allowed forcible sterilisation of women with a history of mental illness, hereditary diseases or antisocial behaviour (like alcoholism).
What were the impact of the Nazi policies of women?
- Thousands of women were prevented from following their chosen career path.
- The birth rate increase - around 970,000 babies were born in 1933, rising to 1,413,000 by 1939.
- When WW2 started in 1939, there was a labour shortage as men were joining the army. Thousands of women needed to work in factories for the war effort, taking on the joint role of main wage earner and mother. Unlike in Britain, women were still not called up to work.
Religion in Germany.
Most Germans were Christians. The Nazis and Christianity clashed because the beliefs and values of Christianity were very different from those of the Nazis. Traditional Christianity did not prosper under Nazi rule.
Germany’s Christians: There were two main Christian groups in Germany.
- There were around 20 million Catholics (around one third of the population).
- There were around 40 million protestants (around two thirds of the population).
The Nazis had to be careful with how they dealt with religion because it was an important feature of German society
What were the differences between Nazism and Christianity?
Nazism
- Nazis thought that strength and violence were glorious.
- Hated the weak and vulnerable.
- Believed some races were better (superior) than others.
- Hitler was a God-like figure.
Christianity
-Most Christians believe in love and forgiveness.
- Help the weak and vulnerable.
- Believe all people are equal in God’s eyes.
- Believe in God and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Why did some Christians support the Nazis?
- The Nazis believed in the importance of marriage, the family and moral values. Most Christians believe in the importance of these too.
- Hitler had sworn to destroy communism. This appealed to Christians because communism was anti-religious.
- Hitler promised to respect the Church.
The Nazis and the Catholic Church
- Hitler cooperated with Catholic leaders at first. A 1933 Concordat (agreement) with the Pope (head of the Catholic Church) said that the Catholic Church and Nazis would not interfere with each other.
- Hitler soon broke this agreement. Catholic priests were harassed and arrested and Catholic youth clubs and schools wee closed down.
- In 1937, the Pope issued his ‘With Burning Anxiety’ statement, read out in Catholic Churches across German. This said that the Nazis were ‘hostile to Christ and his Church’.
- The Nazis continued to persecute Catholic priests.
- In August 1941, Catholic Archbishop Galen (one of Germany’s best-known religious leaders) openly criticised the Nazis. He was put under house arrest until the end of the war.
The Nazis and German Protestants
- Hitler was admired by some Protestants, known as ‘German Christians’, who wanted to see their Church under Nazi control.
- Their leader, Ludwig Müller, became the first ‘Reich Bishop’ of the German Christians in September 1933. They often wore Nazi uniforms and used the slogan ‘the swastika on out chests and the Cross in out hearts’.
- Some Protestants were totally opposed to the Nazis, Pastor Martin Niemöller formed the Confessional Church, which openly criticised the Nazis.
- The Nazis arrested around 800 pastors of the Confessional Church.
- Niemöller was sent to a concentration camp and the Confessional Church was banned.
What happened to other religious groups?
- Jehovah’s Witnesses were pacifists who refused to serve in the army. One third of Germany’s Jehovah’s Witnesses were killed in concentration camps.
- Members of other groups - Salvation Army, Christian Scientists and the Seventh Day Adventist Church - were also persecuted.
- Jewish people suffered relentless persecution in Nazi Germany.
Persecution in Germany
Hitler believed that Germans were the ‘superior’ master race - Aryans - with the right to dominate ‘inferior’ races and groups of people. He feared that such groups would mix with Aryans and wanted to rid Germany of them. He had a particularly obsessive hatred of Jews.
Persecution of racial groups:
- The Nazis classed Jews, Gypsies, Slavs (such as Russians), black and Indian people as ‘inferior’.
- Hitler wanted to cleanse Germany of these people.
- The Nazis began to persecute and, later, murder member of these group. Over half a million Gypsies and over six million Jews from across Europe died in death camps in the years up to 1945.
Persecution of ‘undesirables’:
- ‘Undesirables’ was Hitler’s term for people with mental and physical disabilities and those who did not, in his view, contribute to society. He believed that they weakened Germany and he wanted to get rid of them to create a stronger nation.
- About 350,000 physically and mentally disabled people were forcibly sterilised by the Nazis. From 1939, the Nazis began to kill them. About 200,000 people, including 5000 children, were murdered in specially built ‘nursing homes’.
- Around half a million homeless people, beggars and alcoholics were sent to concentration camps in 1933. Many were worked to death. Thousands of prostitutes, homosexuals and ‘problem’ families were sent to the camps too.
What were some early Nazi policies against Jews?
Shops: From January 1934, all Jewish shops were marked with a yellow Star of David or the word Juden (German for ‘Jew’). Soldiers stood outside shops turning people away.
School: Jewish children were forced out of German state schools and ‘Eugenics’ (Race studies) was introduced in schools.
Work: From March 1933, all Jewish lawyers, judges, teachers (and later, doctors) were sacked.
Kristallnacht: In November 1938 Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses were attacked all over Germany and Austria. About 100 Jews were killed and 20,000 sent to concentration camps. Known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass).
Laws: The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 banned marriages between Jews and non-Jews. German citizenship was also removed.
How was persecution of Jews intensified after war broke out in 1939?
- Jews were rounded up in some of the countries under Nazi occupation and forced to live in ghettos in major cities, or sent to work in labour camps.
- Execution squads (Einsatzgruppen) went out into the countryside and shot or gassed Jews.
The death camps:
- At the Wannsee Conference in 1942, Nazi leaders planned what they called ‘a final solution to the Jewish question’: the mass murder of every Jew in Nazi-controlled territory.
- Heinrich Himmler, Head of the SS, oversaw the ‘Final solution’.
- Six death camps (or extermination camps) were to e built. They contained gas chambers to carry out the murders, and large crematoriums to burn the bodies.
- Jews from all over the German - occupied Europe were transported to these camps. In total, around 6 million were killed.
- The Nazis’ attempt to wipe out the Jewish race is commonly known as Holocaust.
- Thousands of Gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents, the disabled and any other groups whom the Nazis considered unfit to live were also killed in the camps.
