Nazi Germany - Women and Children

?
  • Created by: Erin W
  • Created on: 04-06-17 17:08

Women

  • Three Ks - Kinder, Kirche, Kuche (Children, Church, Cooking).
  • Expected to be loyal to the Nazi movement and obedient to their husbands.
  • Nazis wanted birth-rate to increase as part of their ai to create a great German nation.
  • "The mission of women is to be beautiful and bring children into the world" - Joseph Goebbels.
1 of 7

Lives of Women

  • Women were forced from jobs - especially those married or in professions such as law or medicine.
  • Newley married couple given 1000 mark loan - 25% of loan was dismissed for each child.
  • German Motherhood Medal - those with over five children.
  • Childless couples were encouraged to divorce.
  • 1935 Marriage Law - Jews and Aryans not allowed to marry.
  • Women sterilised if seen as 'unfit' - 350,000 by 1939.
  • Lebensborn (Spring of Life), unmarried mothers encouraged to live in special houses where Aryan ** officers were available to have children with them.
2 of 7

Children

  • Nazis saw indoctrination of young people as the future of the country.
  • The earlier the indoctrination, the more likely they were to conform - indoctrination started young.
  • Boys - future soldiers and leaders.
  • Girls - future wives and mothers.
  • "The whole purpose of education is to create Nazis" - Nazi Minister of Eductaion.
3 of 7

School

  • Hitler picture and Nazi flag in every classroom.
  • Jewish teachers were fired and Jewish children slowly excluded form the classroom.
  • Teachers encouraged to join NSLB (National Socialist Teachers' League) - by 1939 97% had joined.
  • History - children were taught about great German military victories and how Jews had always been Germany's enemy.
  • Geography - children taught that the land lost under Versailles should be taken back for living space.
  • Biology - children taught about purity of Aryan race (eugenics).
  • PE - took up 15% of timetable. Girls needed to be fit for motherhood, boys needed to be fit for war.
  • Special schools were set up for children identified as possible future leaders.
4 of 7

Life Outside School

  • Hitler Youth Movement - made compulsory by 1939.
  • Teenage Boys - Hitler Youth.
  • Teenage Girls - League of German Girls.
  • After-school activities and weekend meetings/camps - boys and girls learned about their future roles.
  • Hiking in the mountains, learning skills e.g. first aid.
5 of 7

Successes and Failures

  • Most young people conformed - pressure to fit in.
  • Standard of education went down - indoctrination rather than good teaching.
  • Some set up rival groups - The Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth listened to jazz, didn't join youth groups, smoked, and even wrote anti-Nazi slogans on walls and attacked Hitler Youth members.
6 of 7

Successes and Failures

  • Birth rate did go up - not as high as the decade before the Nazis came to power.
  • Marriage rates were going up - levelling off by 1935.
  • Women discouraged from working - rate went up closer to war as women were needed in arms factories.
7 of 7

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all Nazi Germany resources »