Explain the Nazi policies towards Women

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Explain the Nazi policies towards Women

The Nazi’s had a very specific idea of how women should behave and look.

The Nazi’s wanted women to look very motherly and respectable. Josef Goebbels in 1929 said that ‘a woman is to be beautiful’. He then goes on to say that ‘a woman’s world is her family, her children and her home.’ This is also famously known as the three K’s; Kinder, Kirche, Küche.

 In a rule book written for the ‘League of German Maidens’, it states that women are not allowed to use make-up, smoke and has a duty to keep fit and healthy. Women in the Third Reich were expected to be ‘perfect’ wives. To be perfect they had to be young, healthy, undemanding, unemployed and never wear vanity items such as high-heels, jewellery or wear revealing clothing. Most importantly they wanted them to be pure Aryans, with pale skin, big hips, blonde hair and blue eyes. A woman like this was considered to have perfect genes to pass onto their children.

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Children were thought of to be the soul purpose of a woman. “The mission of a woman is to bring children into the world”. All the Nazi’s wanted women to do were to have children. However, they knew they couldn’t exactly force them to, so they brought out persuaders. Their first idea was marriage loans. Newly weds were given 1000 marks, which was the equivalent to about 9 months wages. When the couple had their first child, they were allowed to keep one quarter of the money. On the birth of the second, they were allowed to keep half. And ...

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