The boys were educated to become German solider. There was a lot of stress on violence it was encouraged to beat smaller, weaker members of the army it was said to strengthen the inadequate. Most of the beatings were not heard of and untold because of embarrassment. The role of the male was to be in the part of the politics, war and work.
The girls were to be taught and educated in the home department, they were to learn how to cook, clean, sow and do house work as later in there life they would be expected to keep a good home and look after the children. Every genuine German woman was expected to have up to less than 3 children and woman with disabilities or wrong features would have been sterilized. The main role for a German girl to grow up to be like was to be able to;
- raise as many children
- look after the family
- be a good homemaker
- cook using left-over
The main purpose of the Hitler youth movement was create the next generation of perfect Aryan Germans, They believed that the children were the future and they needed to make sure that the children would help in the future in the Nazi party the children would then become self-disciplined and worship Hitler the way he wanted them to.
It wasn’t very common to see people opposing to the movement but certain groups would be tortured by the Gestapo or sent to concentration camps and maybe even killed.
In Germany (whilst Hitler was in power) women and men have very important roles but both very different too. Women were meant to be sensitive and good in the home also be able to bring up and look after the children. Where as women depended on their husbands to bring in money to the family. In life, women aimed to get married and to produce many Aryan babies, they were to be good wives and mothers. As Hitler wanted the Aryan race people who had blond hair and blue eyes were encouraged to make a pure Aryan family, there were financial advantages to it though such as birth grants.
Women who did not have a family would have to pay much higher taxes than women who had numerous amounts; this would make women who didn’t have a child want one. Only the Aryan race would be encouraged to have children those without the Aryan aspects could be sterilized or be forced to have abortions. Women would not be well educated on contraceptives anyway, Hitler tried to avoid any acknowledge on protected sex, it worked and millions fell pregnant, the number eventually began to fall. Babies that weren’t thought to be “undesirable” were sterilized so that the Aryan race would be continued.
In 1941 Hitler banned any gypsies, Jews or blacks to be aloud to marry,
If they were found cohabiting would be sent to a concentration camp.
As women were needed in the home education was not necessary. It was more common for the woman to have learnt skills on being a mother and a good wife. There was an extraordinary change in woman employment also it reduced dramatically. The nazi’s saw working women as morally wrong. Although women employment was frowned upon when there were shortages of workers women were called upon to take place until other workers were found. Women were banned of membership to the Reichstag; women were not given any sort of power. Hitler especially hated when women tried there hand at politics, they were not even meant to have the smallest position in German politics what so ever. Even thought in recent times we would call this being sexist women would tend to like Hitler as they found being a German woman being very gratifying. Generally the purpose of a German woman was to make as many Aryan babies as she could (she could then receive medals), women never tended to drift from this role.
During the 1930s there was very little opposition to Hitler and the Nazi regime. The regime became very popular as it gave all most every German what they wanted. The most important reason why there was very little opposition towards the regime because of the use of propaganda; this was the movement of certain ideas from the Nazi party using the media. It was called the stick and carrot method, it was used to make Germans believe that what the Nazi party was giving them what they wanted and needed. A lot of the time Germans assumed what the Nazi’s were doing was right but there were small groups of opposition. There were various reasons for people to be happy about the Nazi party to come into power as, in 1933 when Hitler came to power the economy was in a poor state and six million people were unemployed. When Hitler came to power more jobs were made and people became happier, most jobs came from the army and factories. Both Hitler and Gobbels were experts in propaganda. They thought that people had to be told what to think; also they believed that the media should be carefully controlled. Hitler was a very strong and charismatic leader. He was a very effective public speaker and told people what they wanted to hear. So after so many years of depression people felt Hitler was the leader who could make Germany strong and powerful again. There were six main forms of propaganda used:
- radio
- press
- special events
- art and culture
- film
- the environment
The ministry controlled radio stations, no foreign radio stations were transmitted to Germany, there were more radios per head than the USA, people were encouraged to listen to the radio, there was teachings of Hitler and only music composed by Germans were aloud to be heard.
The ministry also controlled information written in newspapers; they closed down two-thirds of german news papers and controlled what information what was written in them ones of the remaining.
Special events like the 1936 Olympics which were held in Berlin were also rigged by the nazi party, most medals were won by Germans, and gobbles also commissioned a special film called Olympia. It became a box office smash. This was mainly for German viewing because the film was more or less about German victory. Hitler was also orator and his speeches were also a form of propaganda that was used. Gobbels staged rallies, every year, the rallies were held at Nuremburg they bunt Jewish religious books.
The Reich chamber of culture was set up in September of 1933 and was headed by Gobbels, anyone who worked in journalism, radio, film, literature, theatre, music or the arts all had to belong to the chamber. Otherwise, they could not get there get there work published. People like Picasso were not aloud to have his paintings in German galleries because he was not German, this would have not been a good example on Germans it showed other places in the world were just as good as Germany .
Films came out, films about the Aryan race and the superiority of Hitler and the Nazi party also racist films like “The eternal Jew” which was made in 1940 it was a viscous anti-Jewish film. Also films were made about Nuremburg rallies such as “Triumph of the will” which was about the 1934 rally.
Germans were surrounded posters glorifying Hitler. Nazis built huge new buildings in Germany especially in Berlin this improved Germany and made Germans learn the only way to think was to love Hitler.
