Edexcel GCSE History - 4. Life in Nazi Germany

nazi views on women

• Women should Stay at home to raise the family

• Women should adopt a ‘natural‘ look

• Birth rates should increase and all women should know housecraft

nazi policies towards women

• all womens organisations were merged to form the German Womens Enterprise

• Loans of up to 1k marks (8 months wages) were given as part of the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage

• Men could divorce their wives if they were infertile

• The mothers cross was awarded to mothers with 4(Bronze) 6(Silver) or 8(Gold) children

How effective were Nazi policies towards women

• Some german women were content to accept the policies towards them, however many women believed nazi ideas harmed the family

• The policies did have the desired effect as therer were less women in employment and the birth rate increased

Nazi views of the young

• Boys and Girls are equal but different

• Gaining support of the young could secure the future of Hitlers “Tausendjähriges Reich” (Thousand year reich)

Nazi Youth Groups For Boys

• 6-10: Pimpfe (little fellows)

• 10-14 Deutsche Jungvolk (German young people)

• 14-18: Hitler Jugend (Hitler youth)

Hitler Youth

• Political training

  • Oath of loyalty to Fuhrer

• Physical training

  • regional sports comps

• Military Training

  • practiced map reading and signalling + use of small arms

• Character training

  • activities stressed need for comradeship but also ruthlessnes

Nazi Youth Groups For Girls

10-14 : Jungmädel (Young Maidens)

14-21 : Bund Deutsche Mädel (League of German Maidens)

League of German Maidens

• included similar activities to the Hitler Youth like political activities and character buiding

• Alternatively to the Hitler youth Girls were trained to be a housewife

• they were also taught the importance of racial hygiene and that they should only marry german men

Did Nazi youth groups acheive their aims?

• Some young people were enthusiastic members while others disliked being forced into activities

• Some parents felt they were being undermined as the groups taught that loyalty should lie with the NSDAP over their families

Nazi Control of Teachers

• headteachers and teachers the NSDAP didnt approve of could be sacked

• All teachers had to swear an oath of loyalty

• by 1939 over 200k teachers had attended political education courses

Nazi control of Curriculum

• new subjects such as race studies added to curriculum

• traditional subjects were altered topush nazi ideas

• PE time doubled

• curriculum differed for boys and girls (girls learned home economics)

• Mein kampf made a compulsory school text

Unemployment in 1933

• In January 1933, 25% of all people eligible to work were unemployed

• unemployment was politically dangerous to hitler as if he coukd not help the unemployed they may begin to support the communist party

Labour service (RAD)

• provided paid work for the unemployed

• initially voluntary but became mandatory to do a six month service from 1935

• 422,000 in 1935

• unpopular

  • low rates of pay

  • very military style

Public works projects

• Autobahns

  • 7,000 mile dual carriageway network

  • 125,000 men employed building autobahns by 1935

• Other public works included

  • bridges, coastal walls and sports facilities

• created many jobs in the construction industry

Rearmament

• Hitler announced conscription in 1935

  • by 1939 there were 1.36 million men in the armed forces

• Hitler increased military spending as he needed more arms and equipment

  • 3.5 billion marks in 1933 to 26 billion in 1939

  • 4000 in air industry in 1933 to 72,000 in 1935

Invisible unemployment

• Jews and women weren’t counted on unemployment figures

• people in part time work were counted as fully employed

• high amounts of people in prisons and concentration camps made unemployment look lower

Changes in the standard of living

• wages increased but the price of food increased by a similar amount, negating the increase

• the length of the work week went from 43 hours (1933) on average to 49 hours (1939)

The Labour Front (DAF)

• replacement to trade unions

• DAF set out:

  • workers right

  • max working hours

  • min salary

• max working hours went up 6 hours

• DAF could punish workers who disrupted production

• workers lost right to negotiate with employers

Strength Through Joy (KdF)

• provided leisure activities for workers such as sports events, films and even foreign travel

• workers encouraged to give 5 marks a week to get their own car, although it never ended up coming

Beauty of Labour (SdA)

• campaigned for workers to get better facilities

• gave employers tax breaks to help with building costs

• however work usually had to be done by employees

Nazi Racial beliefs

• Eugenics (selective breeding) became a school subject

• reproduction by the ‘best‘ germans was encouraged

• Aryan race hailed as superior to all others

  • children were taugh aryans should only reproduce with other aryans

Slavs

• painted as untermenschen

• Nazis threatened Slavic countries to the east in search of Lebensraum

• slavs were persecuted less than other minorities

‘Gypsies‘

• Nazis believed they didnt contribute enough to society

• from 1933 some were arrested as ‘public nuisances’

• from 1936 some were forced to live in speical camps

• in 1938 they were banned from travelling in groups

• in 1939 orders were given to deport all ‘Gypsies’

Homosexuals

• Nazis Blieved they lowered moral standards

• in 1936 4,000 males arrested for homosexuality

• in 1938 8,000 were arrested

• Nazis encouraged castration

People with disabilities

• Law passed in 1933 which made it mandatory for the mentally ill, allcoholics, eplileptics and deaf or blind people to be sterilised

• From 1939 babies with severe mental or physicsl disabilities were killed with starvation or through drug overdose

• eventually juveniles up to 17 were included

Anti semitism

• Jews had different religions and customs that most other people

• There was heightened opposition to Germany’s ‘enemies’ after unification in 1871

• Jews were scapegoated after ww1

• Moderate germans were influenced by Nazi proaganda

Early persecution of Jews

• Nazi propaganda calling them Vermin and filth increased

• 1933: banned from all civil servant jobs and from inheriting land

• banned from the army in may 1935

• restricted in some public spaces

• Official boycott announced in April 1933

The Nuremburg Laws

• Jews lost citizenship and had to wear yellow stars

• they were banned from having relationships with Germans

• From march 1938 they had to register all of their posessions

• From july 1938 they had to carry identity cards

Kristallnacht - Buildup

• a 17 year old Jew shot a german in Paris

• Goebbels used the incident to stir up anti jewish sentiment in Germany

• Small scale violence against Jews by the SS and SA begin on the 8th

Kristallnacht

• Violence against Jews turned Nationwde

• gangs smashed and burned jewish property and attacked jews

• 814 shops, 171 homes and 191 synagouges destroyed

• 100 Jews Killed

• Jews fined 1 billion marks in the aftermath to pay the damage