What was it like to live in Nazi Germany?

Question 1

What was school like for children in Nazi Germany? (Card 1)

Answer 1

• Most children would’ve been a strong supporter of Hitler
• Pupils would have an approved teacher who had been on a training course run by the National Socialist Teachers Alliance
• Learn about the history of Germany
• Students would feel outraged to find out how the German army was ‘stabbed in the back’ by weak politicians who had made peace
• Students would learn that the hardships during the 1920s were caused by Jews squeezing profits out of honest Germans

Question 2

What was school like for children in Nazi Germany? (Card 2)

Answer 2

• Convinced that loyalty to the Führer is right and good
• Biology lessons would inform pupils that they were special as a member of the Aryan race that is superior in strength and intelligence to the Untermenschen (sub-human Jews and Slavs)
• Couldn’t go to university
• Anti-Semitic maths questions
• Children were INDOCTRINATED with Nazi ideologies

Question 3

Example of a girl’s school timetable in Nazi Germany

Answer 3

8.00 German (every day)
8.50 Geography, History or Singing (alternate days)
9.40 Race Studies and Ideology (every day)
10.25 Recess, Sports and Special Announcements (every day)
11.00 Domestic Science or Maths (alternate days)
12.10 Eugenic or Health Biology (alternate days)
1.00-6.00 Sport
Evenings Sex Education, Ideology or Domestic Science (one evening each)

Question 4

What was the Hitler Youth? (Card 1)

Answer 4

• Boys probably would have been in the German Young People (Deutches Jungvolk) from the age of 10-14
• Girls had similar organisations called the League of German girls
• Then you would’ve moved on to the Hitler Youth (for boys) or the League of German Maidens (for girls)
• Marched in exciting parades with loud bands
• The youth would probably have been physically fit
• Leisure time would have also been devoted to Hitler and the Nazis

Question 5

What was the Hitler Youth? (Card 2)

Answer 5

• After years of summer camps, youth would be comfortable camping outdoors and if you were a boy you would know how to clean a rifle and keep it in good condition
• Girls would be taught sewing, cooking, domestic tasks, race and how to be a good German mother
• The Nazi youth movements were attractive because of the leisure opportunities and fun they offered
• All other youth organisations had been absorbed or made illegal
• By 1936 the Youth had around 6 million members

Question 6

What was life like at home for children in Nazi Germany?

Answer 6

• Children may have felt slightly alienated from their parents because they weren’t as keen on the Nazis as them
• Parents expected their children’s first loyalty to be to their family, but the Hitler Youth made it clear that your first loyalty is Hitler
• Children found it hard to understand why their parent’s complained about the Nazis
• Nazi inspectors regularly checked up on teachers and parents found this rather strange, but children found it normal

Question 7

What were the negative outcomes of the Hitler Youth?

Answer 7

• While many enjoyed the activities they tended to switch off when lectured about Nazi ideas
• By 1938 many Hitler Youth members saw the organisation as boring
• Despite all the lectures on health, diseases like diphtheria and scarlet fever increased in the 1930s
• Juvenile crime rose during the 1930s and 175,000 young people were convicted of crimes in 1939 alone

Question 8

What were Nazi attitudes to women?

Answer 8

• Hitler and most Nazis had a traditional view of the role of the German woman as wife and mother
• In the traditional rural areas and small towns, many women felt that the proper role of a woman was to support her husband
• There was resentment towards working women in the early 1930s, since they were seen as keeping men out of jobs
• Created a lot of pressure on women to conform to traditional roles

Question 9

What are some examples of prominent women in Nazi Germany?

Answer 9

• Leni Riefenstahl was a high-profile film producer
• Gertrude Scholz-Klink was head of the Nazi Women’s Bureau, although she was excluded from any important discussions

Question 10

What were opportunities for women like?

Answer 10

• Working-class girls and women gained the opportunity to travel and meet new people through the Nazi women’s organisation
• However, overall, women’s opportunities were limited
• Married professional women were forced to give up their jobs and discrimination against women applicants for jobs was encouraged

Question 11

What were the rewards for mothers that the Nazis offered? (Card 1)

Answer 11

• Nazis offered tempting financial incentives for married couples to have at least four children
• Mothers got a ‘Gold Cross’ for having eight children
• Posters, radio broadcasts and newsreels all celebrated the ideas of motherhood and homebuilding
• The German Maidens’ League reinforced these ideas, focusing on a combination of good physical health and housekeeping skills

Question 12

What were the rewards for mothers that the Nazis offered? (Card 2)

Answer 12

• The birth rate did increase from fifteen per thousand in 1933 to twenty per thousand in 1939
• Pregnancies outside marriage
• These girls were looked after in state maternity hostels

Question 13

What was the impact of WW2 on women in Germany? (Card 1)

Answer 13

• In the late 1930s the Nazis had to do an about-turn as they suddenly needed more women workers
• Many women struggled with both family and work responsibilities

Question 14

What was the impact of WW2 on women in Germany? (Card 2)

Answer 14

• German women were called to work in dangerous conditions in munitions factories because there was a massive demand for war supplies
• Nazi policy on women was still torn between their traditional stereotype of the mother, and the actual needs of the workplace