Women in Nazi Germany Flashcards

1
Q

What did Hitler believe about the family structure?

A

It should be a traditional one: Men to be in charge and go to work; women to stay at home and nurture the family

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2
Q

What did Hitler mean by the “natural order”?

A

Men at work; women at home with the kids.

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3
Q

How did Hitler want to use families?

A
  • To increase the population size
  • To ensure the population was pure Aryan
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4
Q

Hitler thought women’s lives should revolve around the three ‘Ks’. What were they?

A

Kinder, Kuche, Kirche

(Children, Kitchen, Church)

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5
Q

What was a woman’s primary responsibility?

A

To have children

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6
Q

Why did Hitler want women to stay at home?

A

1) so they could focus on having more Aryan children
2) he needed their jobs for unemployed men

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7
Q

How did Hitler discourage young women from working?

A

At school, their training was how to be a housewife

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8
Q

Between 1900 and 1933, what had been happening to birth rates?

A

They had been falling because more women had been seeking careers

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9
Q

How did the Nazis encourage marriage?

A

Marriage loans of 1000 marks, and they were allowed to keep 250 marks for each child they had.

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10
Q

How did the Nazis reward women for having children?

A

With the Motherhood Cross

bronze - 5 children
silver - 6 children
gold - 8 children

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11
Q

How did the Nazis support working families?

A

They introduced weekly welfare payments that increased for each child

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12
Q

Who provided classes for mothers in home-craft and parenting?

A

A Nazi organisation called the German Women’s Enterprise

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13
Q

What was the Lebensborn programme?

A

Some unmarried Aryan women were selected to sleep with SS men to try and create pure Aryan children

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14
Q

Approximately how many children were born through the Lebensborn programme?

A

Approximately 20,000

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15
Q

What happened to birth rates during the period 1933-39?

A

They increased from 15 per 1000 to 20 per 1000.

There was also an increase in children outside marriage

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16
Q

How were women expected to dress?

A

In a simple, peasant style: plain clothes, flat shoes, their hair in a bun.

There were not allowed make-up, to wear trousers or short skirts.

17
Q

Why was dieting discouraged?

A

Because it was thought thin women would have trouble giving birth

18
Q

When did the Nazis have to begin to change their policies towards women?

A

1937 (if you forget this, in an exam write: ‘in the late 1930s’)

19
Q

Why did the Nazis have to perform a u-turn on women?

A

The demands of industry - especially rearmament industries - could not be met by just men

20
Q

What was ‘the duty year’?

A

From the late 1930s, women were forced to do a compulsory year of work - normally on a farm or in a family home.

21
Q

When offered the chance, why did so few women rush back to work?

A

They were not attracted by the low wages and poor working conditions

22
Q

By the outbreak of the war, why was the Nazis’ policy towards women very confusing?

A

It wanted women both to work in factories etc. AND have children to increase the birth rate

23
Q

Although women were not allowed to join the German army, they were allowed to be auxiliaries (support) to the German armed forces. How many women were doing this work by 1945?

A

By 1945 there were nearly 500,000 female auxiliaries in the German armed forces

24
Q

What did the Nazis make it difficult to obtain in Germany?

A

contraception

25
Q

What was illegal from 1933?

A

Abortions - although later this was changed if mothers had a ‘defect’

26
Q

When famous actor, Marlene Dietrich, was pictured wearing trousers, what did a Nazi newspaper headline say?

A

“No true German woman wears trousers”

27
Q

What was the Marriage Law of 1938

A

A law that made divorce easier

e.g. if a man already had 4 children with a woman, he could divorce and re-marry so he could have more children with a new woman

28
Q

Where women allowed to be members of the Reichstag?

A

No

29
Q

How many female civil servants were sacked in 1933?

A

19,000

30
Q

Did Hitler’s policies win him support among women?

A

From many, especially in the working class, yes: they had disapproved of the moral decline of the 1920s and liked the Nazis’ stricter standards