Nazi Germany:Ideal Families

By Sam Hillman

Anti-Semitism

• As a result 6 million Jews were killed so that Hitler could build his ‘perfect race’.

Hatred Of:• Jews (like previously mentioned)• Communism-merely thought of as a jew

inspired conspiracy.• Homosexuals-Disliked because of unlikely

ness to reproduce.• Criminals-Thought of as a nuisance in

society

• Gypsies

The Aryan race

• The Aryan race consisted of white, Christian Germans who had blond hair, blue eyes and were tall (everything Hitler was not)

Aryan Race Propaganda

Attitudes towards Women

• Women had no political role in the Nazi Party. Nazi organisations for women such as NSF (National Socialist Womanhood) concentrated on the propaganda message that the woman’s place was in the home, as summed up in the phrase “Kinder, Kuche, Kirche” (Children, Kitchen and Church).

Women Employment

• During 1933-6, women were forced to leave the top professional jobs and labour exchanges were asked to give the first choice of jobs to men. Interest free loans, equal to 4 months pay, were given to women who gave up their jobs to get married.

• From 1937, however, rearmament and then war meant that the German economy needed female workers again. The restrictions on women working had to be relaxed.

Population and race policy. Hitler’s racial ideas and his plans for military conquest meant that he needed both a bigger population and a “better” German race. Unfortunately for Hitler, contraception and employment for women meant that in 1933 the birth rate was falling. Nazi policies on children tried to reverse this decline and produce a perfect Aryan race.Women were encouraged to have large families. Pregnant women were said to be “bearing a child for the Fuhrer”. On Hitler’s mother’s birthday, August 12th, women were awarded motherhood medals, bronze for bearing four children, silver for six and gold for eight. In 1933, abortion was made illegal and the availability of contraceptives restricted. Family allowances were increased. The SS-run Lebensborn organisation looked after illegitimate babies and their mothers in homes. People with hereditary diseases, mental illness or alcoholism were forcibly sterilised - 375,000 by 1939.From 1935,the Nuremberg Laws banned marriages between Aryans and Jews.

In conclusion, Hitler’s policy towards women shows that, for all the idealistic praise in speeches

and in Nazi art, they were seen as no more than producers of the next generation of the German

master race.

Questions

4 mark

Explain how Nazi policy towards women in jobs changed between 1933 and 1945

6 mark

Explain Nazi policies to increase the birthrate

Thanks for watching By Sam Hillman-10p