The biggest changes were in the lives of women and children:
Books of nursery rhymes were published which encouraged children to play with guns and enjoy fighting. Children's songs were about bloodshed, violence and anti-Semitism.
All schools were single sex and girls and boys were educated quite differently. Girls studied no foreign languages and the only maths and science they learnt was linked to cooking and childcare. This was all part of a deliberate plan to prevent women having careers. A woman could work until she got married, but she was then expected to give work up to become a housewife.
A woman's life was described as "Church, Children and Cooking". Women were discouraged from wearing make-up, smoking or buying expensive clothes. They were expected to allow their hair to grow and put in plaits or a bun. Physical fitness for all, both girls and boys was encouraged.
Women were expected to have at least four children. If they did they were given a medal every year on the birthday of Hitler's mother.
Photographs and posters showed the women looking after the children and the man going out to work and protecting the wife.
All children had to join Nazi youth organisations by 1939. The Nazis realised that it was very important for them to win over children. They joined at the age of five and stayed until eighteen. Boys joined the Pimpfen, then the German Youth and then the Hitler Youth. Girls joined the League of German Maidens.
Children took part in "fun" activities - camping, sports, outings; but they also had lectures about National Socialism and Nazi ideas. the meetings were in the evenings and at weekends. Girls found that they had little time for homework. This was to prevent them having a career. It also meant that children had little spare time to pick up ideas that the Nazis did not approve of. Children were used to control their parents by being encouraged to report what they did and said. Hitler realised that older people would be less enthusiastic about his ideas, so he made every effort to win the minds of the next generation.
Youth/Education:
This was an important area of control for the Nazis. They closely controlled what children learned at school – they were aiming to produce the next generation of Nazis. Many teachers were already nationalistic and accepted that they should teach Nazi ideas. Any that disagreed were sacked from their position. 97% of teachers joined the Nazi Teachers’ Association.
The Nazi Curriculum
The minds and bodies of young people were to be shaped to become Nazis. They did this by teaching certain subjects. The three most important were:
- Physical education was given 15% of school time, and some sports such as boxing became compulsory. This was in order to make boys fit for the SS or the army, and to make girls fit for having large families. Pupils had to pass an exam, and unsatisfactory performance could lead to expulsion.
- History – this concentrated on the rise of the Nazis, the injustices of Versailles and the evils of Communism and Judaism. History was important tot promote nationalism; Anti-Nazi books were burnt so Nazis printed their own pro-German books. Children were taught that they had never been defeated in World War I.
- Biology explained Nazi ideas on race and population control. Pupils were taught how to measure their skulls and to classify racial types; also that Aryans were superior and should not marry inferior races, such as Jews.
Nazi Youth
On September 1, 1939, Hitler's armies invaded Poland. Six years of war would follow with the full participation of the Hitler Youth eventually down to the youngest child.
At the onset of war, the Hitler Youth totalled 8.8 million. But the war brought immediate, drastic changes as over a million Hitler Youth leaders of draft age and regional adult leaders were immediately called up into the army.
This resulted in a severe shortage of local and district leaders. The problem was resolved by lowering the age of local Hitler Youth leaders to 16 and 17. The average age had been 24. These 16 and 17-year-olds would now be responsible for as many as 500 or more boys. Another big change was the elimination of the strict division between the Jungvolk (boys 10 to 14) and the actual HJ (Hitler Youth 14 to 18).
The war returned a sense of urgency to the daily activities of the Hitler Youth. The organization had experienced a bit of a slump after 1936 when participation had become mandatory. For many young Germans, HJ meetings and activities had simply become part of the weekly routine. The original mission of the HJ had been to bring Hitler to power. Victory in the war became the new mission and HJ boys enthusiastically sprang into action, serving first as special postmen delivering draft notices in their neighbourhoods along with monthly ration cards. They also went door to door collecting scrap metals and other materials needed for war.
Jews:
Hitler thought that the Jews were responsible for Germany's defeat in the First World War. Almost immediately after he came to power he began to attack them.
From 1933, Jews were put to increasing maltreatment in Nazi Germany. At first they were banned from some professions - medicine, dentistry, the civil service, for example. Also, their shops had sanctions imposed on them from time to time.
Then, in 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were read out - these made Jews second class citizens and stopped them from marrying non-Jews. They also lost the right to vote and had to use separate seats in buses and parks which were painted yellow.
In 1938, Jewish synagogues, shops and houses all over Germany were attacked. This was known as ‘Crystal Night’. It happened after a Nazi was murdered by a Jew in Paris. 30,000 Jews were arrested, although most were released soon afterwards. A fine of 1,000,000,000 marks was charged on Jews in Germany for the repair of the damage. From early 1939 Jews were banned from owning businesses and were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing.
Jews were forced out of Germany by the Nazis; many went to Britain, France and the USA. Once war broke out this became more difficult. Jews could not leave and were forced into Ghettos and then into Concentration Camps. Ghettos were areas of cities that were surrounded by fences. Jews were allowed out in the morning to work, but had to return before a curfew in the evening.
In 1941 Hitler invaded the USSR, where there were millions more Jews. Death Squads, "Einsatzgruppen", were set up to shoot Jews at will.
Finally the Nazis decided in January 1942 to set up Extermination Camps. This became known as the Final Solution. They intended to murder all of the Jews in Europe:
Altogether at least 6,000,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis, along with more than 1,000,000 gypsies and 4,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war. Many Germans were unaware of what was happening. Extermination Camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka were built outside of Germany. The true story was only discovered when the Allies advanced across Europe in 1945.
Many prisoners of war and Jews were worked to death in Concentration Camps, such as Belsen and Dachau in Germany. These were certainly known about and many German businesses used Jewish workers in their factories.
the evidence given at the trials of the camp commandants was horrific. Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, described how he tried to find the most efficient poison gas to kill the inmates of his camp, whom he thought were nothing better than vermin.
Survivors described how the fittest inmates were allowed to live to be used as slave labour. The old, sick and young were all murdered. Altogether between 6,000,000 and 12,000,000 people died.
This mass murder has become known as the Holocaust.
By Philip Ware
3B
