Status of Women, Treatment of Minorities, and Religious Groups
Slide 2 Role of Women in the Third Reich Women played a vital role
in Hitler's plan to create an ideal German Community
(Volksgemeinschaft) Hitler believed a larger, racially purer
population would enhance Germany's military strength and provide
settlers to colonize conquered territory in eastern Europe The
Third Reich's aggressive population policy encouraged "racially
pure" women to bear as many "Aryan" children as possible Slide 3
Role of Women in the Third Reich This policy took its most radical
form in 1936 when SS leaders created the state-directed program
known as Lebensborn (Fount of Life) In an extension of the SS
Marriage Order of 1932, the 1936 Lebensborn ordinance prescribed
that every SS member should father four children, in or out of
wedlock Lebensborn homes sheltered illegitimate offspring and their
mothers, provided birth documents and financial support, and
recruited adoptive parents for the children Slide 4 Role of Women
in the Third Reich The state encouraged births, whether through
wedlock or not: Restrictions on entry into certain jobs Marriage
loans Family income supplements for each new child Bestowed the
Cross of Honor of the German Mother on women bearing four or more
babies Increased punishments for abortion In the end, women were
needed in the workplace, while men were needed at the front Slide 5
Role of Women in the Third Reich The National Socialist Women's
Union and German Women's Agency used Nazi propaganda to encourage
women to focus on their roles as wives and mothers Besides
increasing the population, the regime also sought to enhance its
"racial purity" through species upgrading Laws prohibited marriage
between "Aryans" and "non-Aryans" while preventing those with
handicaps and certain diseases from marrying at all; some deemed
unfit were sterilized Slide 6 Role of Women in the Third Reich
Girls were taught to embrace the role of mother and obedient wife
in school and through compulsory membership in the League of German
Maidens However, rearmament followed by total war obliged the Nazis
to abandon the domestic ideal for women The need for labor prompted
the state to prod women into the workforce (there was a
compulsory-service plan for all women) and even into the military
(the number of females in the German armed forces approached
500,000 by 1945) Slide 7 The Reichskonkordat (Reich Concordat )
Treaty between the Holy See and Germany negotiated during its
transition into Nazi Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by
Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli (who later became Pope Pius XII)
on behalf of Pope Pius XI and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen and
President Paul von Hindenburg on behalf of the German government
respectively. Since when can one make a pact with Christ and Satan
at the same time? Albert Einstein referencing the Reich Concordat
Priests giving the Hitler salute at a Catholic youth rally in the
Berlin-Neuklln stadium in August 1933. Nazi Treatment of Minorities
and Religious Groups Slide 8 The treaty sthe political activity of
German Catholic clergy. This contributed to a decrease in the
previously vocal criticism of Nazism by the hierarchy of the
Catholic Church in Germany, after September of 1933 when the treaty
was ratified. From a Roman Catholic church perspective it has been
argued that the concordat prevented even greater evils being
unleashed against the Church. Though some German bishops were
unenthusiastic, and the Allies at the end of World War II felt it
inappropriate, Pope Pius XII successfully argued to keep the
concordat in force. It is still in force to this day. Slide 9
Almost immediately after signing the Concordat, the Nazis
promulgated their sterilization law - the Law for the Prevention of
Hereditarily Diseased Offspring - an offensive policy in the eyes
of the Catholic Church. Days later, Nazis began to dissolve the
Catholic Youth League. Clergy, nuns and lay leaders began to be
targeted, leading to thousands of arrests over the ensuing years,
often on trumped up charges of currency smuggling or "immorality".
Priests were watched closely and frequently denounced, arrested and
sent to concentration camps. The Fate of Catholic Clergy and
Resisters Otto Neururer Austrian Roman Catholic priest and martyr.
He was the first priest to die in a Nazi Concentration Camp and was
beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996 He advised a girl not to
marry a divorced man of questionable morality. The man was a
personal friend of the Nazi Gauleiter (party leader) of Tirol.
Neururer was arrested on the charge of "slander to the detriment of
German marriage" and sent to Dachau Concentration Camp and later to
Buchenwald Slide 10 Saint Maximilian Kolbe's (1894-1941) story,
although well known, bears repeating. He was a Franciscan, a
seminary professor and a publisher of religious materials. When the
Nazis invaded Poland, he sheltered 1,500 Jewish refugees in
iepokatanow, a community he had established twelve years before.
Early in 1941, Fr. Kolbe was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. To
deter potential escapees, whenever a prisoner escaped the camp
commandant would select ten prisoners at random and sentence them
to death. Franciszek Gajowniczek, who had a wife and children, was
one of ten prisoners so condemned. Father Kolbe volunteered to take
Gajowniczek's place. Kolbe endured two weeks in a punishment cell
without food or water until he was killed by lethal injection on
August 14, 1941. Gajowniczek survived Auschwitzand lived to attend
Fr. Kolbe's canonization in Rome in 1982. Slide 11 The Catholic
Church in Poland was especially hard hit by the Nazis. In 1939, 80
percent of the Catholic clergy and five of the bishops of the
Warthegau region had been deported to concentration camps. In
Wroclaw, 49.2 percent of the clergy were dead; in Chelmno, 47.8
percent; in Lodz, 36.8 percent; in Poznan, 31.1. In the Warsaw
diocese, 212 priests were killed; 92 were murdered in Wilno, 81 in
Lwow, 30 in Cracow, thirteen in Kielce. Seminarians who were not
killed were shipped off to Germany as forced labor. Of 690 priests
in the Polish province of West Prussia, at least 460 were arrested.
The remaining priests of the region fled their parishes. Of the
arrested priests, 214 were executed, including the entire cathedral
chapter of Pelplin. The rest were deported to the newly created
General Government district in Central Poland. By 1940, only 20
priests were still serving their parishes in West Prussia. Poland
Slide 12 Mass meeting of the German Christian Movement 13 Nov.1933
A radical wing of German Lutheranism and the main Protestant branch
supporting Nazi ideology, the German Christian Movement reconciled
Christian doctrine with German nationalism and anti-Semitism Slide
13 Nazi Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups Believed that
Jews: Blood was tainted and therefore subhuman Didnt work, but
lived off the country Evaded military service Egoistic Are
corrupting Germany morally Are corrupt in business Used people to
achieve their ends (to make a life) Wanted to dominate the globe
Slide 14 Nazi Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups Germany
was a police state where political opponents were arrested and
imprisoned by the SS or the Gestapo Under the command of Heinrich
Himmler, the SS were responsible for suppressing hostility to the
regime at home and organizing concentration camps The Jews were a
particular target of SS hostility Slide 15 Nazi Treatment of
Minorities and Religious Groups Jews were the long-standing targets
of Hitlers hatred and an obstacle in his design for a new Germany
As early as April 1933, Jews were excluded from: Holding public
office Joining the civil service (Career Civil Service Act) Being a
teacher, doctor, journalist, being an officer in the armed forces
Slide 16 Nazi Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups The
Nazis also set up the first concentration camp at Dachau to hold
200 Communists In 1934, Jewish newspapers could no longer be sold
in the streets In 1935, Jews were deprived of their citizenship and
other basic rights (Nuremburg Laws) Jews were also prevented from
marriage with Germans (Blood Protection Act) Slide 17 Nazi
Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups In 1936, the Nazis
boycotted Jewish- owned businesses Jews no longer had the right to
vote in Germany In 1938, on Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken
Glass) Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria 30,000
Jews were arrested Slide 18 Nazi Treatment of Minorities and
Religious Groups Jews: Were forced to carry identification cards
and Jewish passports were marked with a J Had to wear the Star of
David Could no longer head businesses Could not attend plays or
concerts Were moved to Jewish schools Were forced to hand over
drivers licenses and car registrations Slide 19 Nazi Treatment of
Minorities and Religious Groups In 1940, Goring ordered Heydrich to
begin the enslavement of all Jews in the German occupied
territories In 1941, corps of SS men known as Einsatzgruppen
accompanied the Wehrmacht (unified armed forces of Germany) into
the USSR to eliminate Jews and other undesirables Slide 20 In
January 1942 at the Wannsee Conference, the Final Solution to the
Jewish Question was considered. The primary goal of the meeting was
to: 1. Place the Final Solution in the hands of the SS totally
outside the purview of any other agency. 2. Determine the scope of
the deportations and arrive at definitions of who was Jewish, who
was Mischling, and who (if anybody) should be spared List of Jewish
populations by country used at the Wannsee Conference in 1942.
Slide 21 Slide 22 Nazi Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups
Shortly afterward, the first gassings began by use of cars Later,
gas chambers were built at Death Camps (Auschwitz- Birkenau),
Belzec, Chelmo, Maidenek, Sobibor, and Treblinka) In 1944, the
camps were threatened by the advance of the Red Army. The Germans
forced the prisoners to march to the interior of Germany Six
million Jews died in the Holocaust Jews also died of hunger in
ghettos Slide 23 Auschwitz Slide 24 Slide 25 Nazi Treatment of
Minorities and Religious Groups The T-4 or euthanasia program was
set up to oversee the identification and elimination of defectives
and the sterilization of those weaker members of society who might
pass on hereditary diseases Handicapped, mentally disabled,
homeless were included It was responsible for 70,000 deaths Slide
26 Nazi Treatment of Minorities and Religious Groups 5 million
others were killed besides the Jews, including: Sinti and Roma
(gypsies) Poles Soviet POWs Mentally or physically disabled
Homosexuals Blacks Jehovahs Witnesses Political dissidents Trade
unionists Priests and clergy Slide 27 Memorials Miami, FL San
Francisco, CA Harrisburg, PA Slide 28 Baltimores Holocaust Memorial
was built to resemble a train which is how Jews were taken to the
concentration camps. It was built in response to a teacher who told
the Baltimore Jewish Council that his class didnt believe in the
Holocaust Slide 29 This flame, memorializing Kristallnacht, is also
at the Baltimore Holocaust Memorial. Its located on the corner of
Water and Gay Streets Slide 30 Warsaw Ghetto Memorial Slide 31
Berlin Holocaust Memorial Slide 32 Translation Why is a Catholic
obliged to vote for the parliamentary list of Adolf Hitler? Because
in the National Socialist state intrinsically and through the
Reichskonkordat 1. The Faith is protected, 2. Peace with the Church
is assured, 3. Public morality is preserved, 4. Sunday is hallowed,
5. Catholic schools are maintained, 6. The Catholic conscience is
no longer burdened, 7. A Catholic has equal rights before the law
and in the life of the nation, 8. Catholic organisations and
associations, insofar as they exclusively serve religious,
charitable and cultural purposes, can operate freely. Therefore a
Catholic is obliged on 12 November [1933] to vote thus: Referendum:
yes Parliamentary election: Adolf Hitler
