Success/ Failure of Nazi Policies on Women

During the war it was up to the women to replace the men that went off to fight, some women chose to take over the jobs while some chose to stay and take care of their family. The women were forced to work and and to have children but the government did not have any luck (“ War Impact on Life in Germany”). The German government was trying to increase the birth rate because they did not know how long the war was going to last and if they would need more soldiers. The women had to deal with so much stress everyday. Just watching their children going to school could have been the last time they every saw them. The fathers where only allowed to come home and visit twice a year.

Naziism had a huge impact on German youth during Hitler’s reign of power over the state. The life of a German child changed dramatically during the 1920’s and 30’s, especially for

Hitler had a very clear idea of women’s role; she was the centre of family life, a housewife and the mother. Their job was to keep the house nice for their husband and family – their lives should revolve round the three ‘ks’, church, children and cooking. This ideal was based around Hitler wanting to achieve his long held goal of Lebensraum to increase the German Aryan population. Strasser argues that ‘National Socialism intended to restore the natural order, and states that this was to accord women the respect they deserved as mothers and housewives’, therefore improving their status. However Carey argues that women’s position did not improve and “throughout the civil war

As the 1930’s came along, The Nazi’s set out a series of laws and regulations called ‘Nazi Laws’. One of the very first laws was ,”Laws against Overcrowding in German schools and universities”. This was a result of many children were looked down upon by Hitler and his Nazis as ‘racially inferior’. Letters from German Children to the editor of the Nazi tabloid Der Sturmer reveal a shameful potpourri Lettof and fanaticism against their Jewish classmates. The first punishment for the Jews and Gypsy children was to be presented in front of peers and downgraded by teachers as a lesson for the German children. Then all at once the children were restricted from all schools. Not long after the first act of public humiliation, the Germans invaded many Jewish neighborhoods, families and children were forced into overcrowded ghettos with scarce food resources and unhealthy living conditions . This was the Invasion of Poland, 1939. Jewish children died of starvation and little exposure to shelter, the great numbers of deaths caused by this were a mere indifference to the German officers. And because the food was such a high demanded resource, adults would send small toddlers between the crevices in the gates and over the walls to retrieve portions of food. This started a few of popular resistance activities, underground resistance was large. Sometimes if the Ghettos were run by Jewish relatives, certain ones could escape easier. Punishments would include

From 1933, the Nazis Party have aimed to create the policy of Volksgemeinschaft, this is a component focused on the heart of the people’s community based on traditional values of the German people. The German society underwent radical changes under the Nazi regime as Hitler introduced various policies that have had a substantial effect on 6 prominent groups: German women, youth, schools and universities and churches, working class and the Jews. The implementation of Hitler’s new policies in the period 1933-1939 can be assessed to have significantly effected and transformed Germany society socially and culturally.

“Many women did go to work during these years, increasing the female work force from 11 million to 18 million. The steep rise meant that more than one third of American women worked by 1945.” This changed the ideas of femininity because “their presence broke down stigmas and set motion the longer-term rise in working women in the United States.” In addition, this situation was magnified by the types of jobs that were available to women during the wartime. Jobs that were mostly available during this time were “blue collar” jobs which involved strength in doing them.

Many historians would disagree that the Weimar Republic aided in creating a dramatic improvement of the workforce for women. Before the establishment of the Weimar Republic in the late 1918, women did not traditionally take on a role in the workforce, but many were traditional housewives whose responsibility was to care for their families.’ However the number of women in the workforce increased after the establishment of the Weimar Republic and women developed a larger role for themselves in German society both socially and economically as they became involved workforce. As women joined the workforce, the Weimar Republic established some standards to ameliorate the labor force. The improvement in the labor force started with the mass increase of women in different career fields, but also because the welfare standard was not met as women faced harsh working conditions and discrimination. The Weimar Republic and its constitution helped improve the welfare and workplace environment while also allowing for women to have a widespread of job options. The Weimar Republic opened new doors for women in the workforce and also introduced a diverse age and status range of women; there were married, single, young and older women working. Therefore, the Weimar Republic on played a moderate role in improving the issues in the workforce for women.

Even though Germany was left in a period of struggle and economic weakness after WW1, Adolf Hitler would take a stand by creating a party that would help refine the structure of the economy. This party, when abbreviated, was called Nazi, would also create harsh laws and unrelentless punishment. Due to the Nazi party’s quick growth, there was an immediate impact on lifestyle and politics for the people of Germany. The long term impact brought forth by the consequences or legacy of the Nazi party included a population decrease and an increase in deaths. To make both of these impacts, Hitler had to overcome many hard challenges.

Boys were taught about military service and girls about housekeeping. Both did camping and other activities to unite with others and serve Germany together. Parents were encouraged to have many children such that more youths could join this scheme. Secondly Germans were also brainwashed into discrimination against Jews and other minorities via the media such that the atrocities against them were justified. They also, through broadcasts and newspapers (heavily censored by Nazis), rallies and march parties like the annual Nuremberg rally, developed pro-Nazi sentiments. Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Enlightenment & Propaganda, placed loudspeakers everywhere such that Germans all heard Hitler's speeches and controlled all forms of art. Hitler also promised law and order unlike in Bolshevism, economic expansion and a ‘Greater Germany' instead of one undermined by the Treaty of Versailles (he tore it up). Germans also took pride in the latest technological advancements in Germany and their state-of-the-art stadium for the 1936 Olympics, where they enjoyed a sterling performance, which Goebbels used to prove the notion of Aryan superiority. Thirdly religion was also controlled with all churches branching out from one central Reich Church that revered Nazi policies. Priests and nuns who disagreed were imprisoned. Hitler even had the audacity to suggest an alternative

This could be seen that this was a positive response to Nazi policy but it is more likely that it was due to the return to full employment and the end of the depression that had seen such a low moral throughout Germany. Nazi propaganda seems to have had some effect on women but not as much as the Nazi leaders had hoped for and this could be because the Nazi propaganda stressed that it was a woman's responsibility to have children as her duty to Germany and not as a personal choice, which could have put many women off the idea of having

In his speech to the National Socialist Women’s League on September 8th 1934, Hitler delineated the roles that German men and women should have in society. He proclaimed and he defined that a woman’s world should be limited to “just her husband, her family, her children, and her home”. The rights of German women were greatly repressed since Nazi ideology regarding gender was extremely traditionalist. For the National Socialists, women were to occupy traditional roles of support and care, all in service of creating a master race. For an “Aryan” woman living in Nazi Germany, “to be a wife and mother” should be her highest

The Third Reich is one of the most notorious eras of German History. Hitler's reign is remembered as tumultuous times filled with violence, bigotry, and racism. A male-controlled society, the Third Reich relegated women to secondary roles, forcing them into lesser jobs and making them primarily focus on the home. Many traditional studies of the Third Reich ignore women or merely acknowledge them superficially. Once women began to receive a place in the histories, it was only as laborers and mothers. The study of women during the Third Reich took time to evolve. This study focuses on showing the evolution of the scholarship of women during the Third Reich; it utilizes eight texts (one with two parts): four journal articles and four monographs

Women and children in the holocaust were different than the men’s for various reasons. The men had a greater chance of survival over the women because they were more often deemed “fit to work”. Also the Nazi’s viewed women as the ones who will give birth to the next generation of Jews so they exterminated them more often to maintain their ideology of a “pure Aryan world”. Women were also raped by the Nazis and they were also forced to work in brothels -which were 500 in number. At the beginning of the Nazi rule, 1933, Jewish children were limited to go to German schools. The children were made fun of in schools by other classmates and taught in biology they they were “racially inferior”. Disabled children were taken from their parents, labeled

In 1930 the Nazi introduced a series of laws to remove the civil and economic rights from jewish and other groups of people. The “Law against Overcrowding in German schools and universities was on of the first laws that affected Jewish students. It restricted the number of Jewish children in schools, it was not to exceed 1.5 percent of total number of students. Those children with Jewish var veterans and with non-Jewish parents were immediately kicked out. They were banned from public spaces and everyday things

The life in Nazi Germany was getting worse under the Nazi rule between 1933-1939. Hitler was using terror and violence to scare the residents of Germany. If anyone looked as if they wanted to over throw Hitler, or anyone who got in his way of becoming the leader was killed. Germans who challenged Hitler or policies he had were to be arrested and questioned under torture. Their punishment usually included enslavement in a concentration camp or execution. Hitler did offer a lot of good things to the people such as work to the unemployed, expansion to the army and even the ending payment of war reparations to the Allies and to tear up the Treaty of Versailles. (Sheridan, 2014)However there was still again no more privacy for the people and a lot