Nazi Youth - forisobel



Background to Nazi Youth

The War and Weimar regime did not alter Germany's schools much. The system was traditional and did not encourage much questioning. Focusing on academic subjects and less on arts. The distribution of power in society and traditional authorities were seen to be part of the God-given order of society. Thus education was one of the traditional institutions left intact by the 1918 Revolution. The youth were not taught to question the order of things. Learning a series of facts, place names, battles etc. History focused on areas where Germany was victorious. They learnt that Versailles was a disgrace and would one day be rectified. They taught much about the Greek and Roman empires and Medieval History. School was tough with a lot of work set.

Values encouraged joining hiking clubs and singing sentimental songs. Desire to be alone seen often to be "unGerman" or "unmasculine".

Parents and school had a great deal of control over young people's lives. The days were controlled and young people were not encouraged to take initiative.

Nazi Education

Education in the Third Reich was intended to indoctrinate its youth so completely in the principles and ethos of National Socialism that the principles and ethos of what the Nazis called the "New Order" would become totally accepted as the natural order of things. Hitler realised that the older generation would be more likely to have formed their own opinions and therefore question the values of the ideology. He openly stated his aim to have the values of the youth "consciously shaped according to the principles which...have shown themselves to be correct...National Socialism" (the words of a Nazi Teachers' League official in 1937).

The actual organisation of the state education system did not change fundamentally.

□ Education Centralised: 1934 Law took control of education away from the Lander and centralised it under the Reich Ministry of Education and Science. They adapted the system to suit Nazi needs.

□ The Teaching profession was "reconditioned". Politically unreliable individuals were removed and special training courses were arranged for teachers who seemed unconvinced by the new arrangements.

□ The NSLB: National Socialist Teachers' League: Had increasing influence. By 1937 it included 97% of all teachers.

□ Curriculum and Syllabus: These were adapted. More emphasis on Physical Education. 15% school time given to it. Games teachers had more status in school hierarchy. German Biology and History were the focus of the academic curriculum. German language and literature were to increase a consciousness of being German and encourage a martial and nationalistic spirit. On the reading list of 14 year olds was "The Battle of Tannenberg" which was quite brutally specific in its description of battles and pushing values of iron will and brutality. Biology was a way to deliver Nazi racial values which included, racial classification, population policy and racial genetics. History stressed German greatness and suggested the fate for German growth and expansion in future.

Elite schools were created for those considered the best of Germany's youth. These were aiming at future political leadership.

- 21 Napolas (National Political Educational Institutions)

- 10 Adolf Hitler schools.

- 3 Ordensburgen (for boys of college age)

They emphasised physical training, para-military activities and political education.

Hitler Youth

It was however the youth movements which were to have the real influence in developing the majority of German youth. There was already a long tradition of youth organisation in Germany. In 1933 Hitler Youth only made up 1% of the total. However in the next 6 years its structure and membership grew remarkably.

Hitler saw the potential for youth in a committed force behind him. They could be moulded. Young Germans were the Key.

By 1939

• 90% of Aryan children in Germany belonged to Nazi youth groups.

• They started at 6 years old.

• At 10, boys were initiated into the Junvokk.

• At 14 they enter the HJ (Hitler Jugend) or Hitler Youth.

• Girls joined the Jungmaedel and the BDM (The Bund Deutscher Maedel) or the League of German Girls.

Numbers of boys and girls aged between 10-18 in the various Nazi youth movements increased from around 200,000 in 1932 to over 7 million in 1938. (girls in BDM and JM made up over 3 million). Only 2 million children did not join any of these movements.

Hitler said: "These young people will learn nothing else but how to think German and Act German....they will never be free again, not in their whole lives".

Every child said "Heil Hitler" up to 150 x a day. It was required by law and even if meeting a friend on the way home from school. If your parents do not say "Heil Hitler" when you return home from school they are breaking to law and can be denounce. One story during German occupation of Holland of a boy who refused to say "Heil Hitler" and was arrested (14 years old). His mother was called and given a choice...either they punish the boy or arrest his father. She agreed for them to punish the boy, but when she picked him up at the end of the day she was picking up his body. Even evening prayers were to finish with "Heil Hitler".

"Heil" actually means salvation and used to be used for relations between man and God. It comes from the word "holy".

The Blockwart was a man whose job was to be a Nazi Guardian of areas. He checked up on the behaviour of residents. Flags waving down the street. Windows had red banners and swastikas.

The law insists on it. Only Jews were exempted from this as they were not seen to be true Germans. They were not seen as part of the nation and so were to have no National events.

Hitler demanded that the youth grow up "violently active, dominating, intrepid, brutal youth".

This was aided by:

➢ The Media.

➢ Hitler Youth.

➢ Schools.

➢ Society as a whole.

Nazi youth groups: Emphasis on sports and on discipline and political indoctrination. Paraphernalia and symbols, pomp & mysticism. Very similar to religious rituals. They had a test of courage after the first 6 months.

All children taught to be tough. To be emotional or tearful or soft were seen as weaknesses. German girls taught to grow up to serve men and be mothers of the fatherland. Makeup was frowned upon and so was dieting. No really frilly clothes.

Children were taught that they were from a tribe, a race which was especially valuable.

They learnt of German women who let themselves be hitched onto carts to fight the Romans. They learnt that Germans had dealt the Romans a destructive blow in 9 AD.

The Weimar constitution did not really catch on partly because no one seemed to be in charge. Hitler used that yearning for a leader. The Hitler youth with its hierarchy and stress on authority and obedience was a way to avoid chaos.

Girls education was different from boys. Went to school until 14 but no homework and no textbooks. Minimal education in all areas except childbirth.

A geography class: A teacher talks of Germany's deserved place in the world. He compares Germany's pure race with Czechoslovakia which he points out has a mix of races. He claims that Poles were not a race at all. He argues that other countries were going downhill due to racial sins. America is one as it is a melting pot. He argued that Democracy is a bad thing, a wasste of time, dominated by Jews and will be defeated by the Fuhrer.

How successful was Nazi youth policy?

It is very difficult to assess the success of any educational system.

The teaching profession felt its status to be under threat. The anti-academic ethos and indoctrination alienated many. Standards in traditional academic subjects did fall. Ironically this was particularly seen in the elite schools where physical education dominated. The activities of the Hitler youth movements went against much of the academic education.

However the focus on team work and extra curricular activities could be commended in comparison to other European countries where this provision was poor. However, the organisations grew too quickly and leadership was sometimes poor. Many adolescents resented the military discipline. The propaganda and newsreels show comaraderie and youthful exuberance but new research does show that not all of German youth were won over by 1939. Oppositon to the regime and alienation from it did increase markedly in the war years.

Women

Twentieth Century Changes for German Women

The first quarter of the C20th had brought some major changes in the lives of women. One of the effects was more women in the workplace and an increase in educated women. This was the case in all industrialised nations but particularly in Germany which had industrialised at a fast pace just before World War I.

The population growth of Germany had slowed down. In 1900 there were 2 million live births a year, by 1933 this had fallen to less than 1 million.

Female employment 1900-1933 had also increased by at least a third. Contraception was accepted as was the desire of women to have a job or vocation other than children. Economic difficulties after the First World War meant many women had no choice but to stay in the factories.

After the War there were 1.8 million women of marriageable age outnumbering men due to casualty figures in the war. Many wives also had invalided husbands.

Nazi Regime

The Nazi ideology was in complete contrast to these trends which had been affecting women.

It opposed the equality and freedom of women socially and economically.

A Nazi anti-feminism developed. The inferiority of women was implied in the propaganda and ideology. It was implied not openly stated. Nazis claimed that they saw women as different rather than inferior. They believed women's place was in the home.

There was not a single woman Nazi deputy in the Reichstag even before 1933. A Party regulation of 1921 excluded women from all senior positions within its structure.

The desire was to have a growing population in order to have military national strength.

By having a growing population they would be encouraging Lebensbraum in Eastern Europe as they would need more living space for the growing population to move to.

Education

Girls were encouraged to be mothers to soldiers and the fatherland.

If an unmarried woman was willing to have children, the State would rear and educate it.

Girls were not to be educated in the same schools as men. Boys were taught military science, military geography, military ideology, Hitler worship.

Every girl was to learn the duties of a mother before she is 16, so she can have children. No real focus on Mathematics, art, drama or literature.

Hitler devoted 30 pages of Mein Kampf to the education of boys. He has only 7 lines for the education of girls.

• The Role of Women in Nazi Germany (rd sheet)

The Law for the Encouragement of Marriage 1933

All newly married couples received 100 marks loan. When first child born kept a quarter, on second child they kept a half and if they had four children they kept all the money.

1943

The law further developed to encourage people to have children.

All single and married women up the age of 35 who do not already have four children were obliged to produce four children by racially pure German men. It made no difference whether the men were married. Every family that already had four children must set the husband free for this action.

This law did not however come into effect.

The Three Ks

Kinder/ Kirche, Kuche

Children, Church, Cooking. This is how Hitler summed up his view of Women's role in Germany.

Losing Jobs

Within months of Hitler coming to power many women doctors & civil servants were sacked from their jobs. Then women lawyers & teachers were dismissed. By 1939 there were very few women left in professional jobs.

Middle class professional women were affected largely by this 1933-36.

Women in other sectors were encouraged to leave their jobs due to financial inducements & Party pressure. After June 1933 interest free loans of 600 Reichmarks were made to young women who left their jobs to get married.

Labour exchanges and employers were advised to discriminate positively in favour of men.

Women's employment actually increased 1932-37: 4.8million- 5.9million it actually fell from 37% to 31% of the total.

By 1937 economic necessity did mean that some of these Nazi ideological convictions may suffer. Rearmament and conscription after 1935 meant there was a shortage of labour. The Nazi economy was growing. The relative decline in female labour therefore was reversed.

From 1937-1939 Female employment increased 5.9 million- 6.9 million (31%-33% of the total).

The government ended the arrangement where women who withdrew from the labour market could qualify for the marriage loan scheme (see below)

Political Arena

Women could join various Nazi organisations like the National socialist Womanhood (NSF) or the German Women's Enterprise (DFW). However these were merely tools by the Nazi party for anti-feminist propaganda. So when the NSF began a campaign for more opportunities for women its organisers were discredited by the party.

Social Values

Women were not free to do as they liked, even at home. The Nazi party tried to stop women following fashions. Make up and trousers were frowned upon. Hair was to be word in a bun or plaits, not dyed or permed. Slimming was discouraged as it was not seen as good for childbearing.

Childbirth

Every 12th August (Hitler's mother's birthday) the Motherhood Cross was awarded to women who had most children. The Honour Cross of the German Mother was awarded in the following materials respectively - bronze, silver and gold, awarded for four, six and eight children. This was coined in the Nazi slogan "I have donated a child to the Fuhrer".

The enforcement of anti-abortion laws; the restriction of contraceptive advice and facilities; improved maternity benefits; and family allowances; and the one-quarter marriage loan turned into a straight gift by the state for each child born.

Extensive propaganda campaign. This glorified motherhood and a large family.

The birthrate did increase between 1933-1939. It again slowly declined after 1939. It is difficult to see exactly if the Nazi policy did directly lead to this increase in population.

Lebensborn (Homes for unmarried mothers)

These were set up and called "The Spring of life". A white flag with a red dot in the middle would be flown over them. They were maternity homes and brothels. An unmarried woman would go there with the aim of becoming pregnant and would be introduced to a 'racially pure' SS man. This was an attempt at social engineering.

This Eugenic policy (to create a "purity" of race) was an attempt in their eyes to not only increase the quantity of the German population but the "quality". It aimed to limit the reproduction of people with heredity diseases or behavioural problems like alcoholism. By 1939 375,000 people had been forcibly sterilised.

The Nazi Church

Religion did badly under Nazi rule.

Once the Cardinal Innitzer (Archbishop of Vienna) preached an anti-Nazi sermon in 1938.

Young men belonging to the SA and HJ turned up and vandalized the church bashing it to pieces. They stole valuables. A priest was thrown out of the window and both his legs were broken.

Both Protestant and Catholic churches were treated in this way.

A new Nazi Church was set up "The National Reich Church" was set up in 1936.

It banned the printing and sale of the bible in Germany. Only Orators of the Reich were allowed to speak. All religious objects, crosses etc were removed from all churches. Only the words "Mein Kampf" with a sword to the left could be inscribed on the altars.

Contradictions between Theory and Practice

The labour shortage meant women did end up going back into the labour market.

the start of war also meant that women were affected.

Early German mobilisation was badly organised and inefficient. There was no conscription of female labour but more women automatically did go to work. This work was often arduous and combined with families at home. The suggestion to introduce subscription of women was opposed by many Nazis including Hitler and demonstrated the many contradictions of their own ideology.

"It has always been our chief article of faith that a woman's place is in the home-but since the whole of Germany is our home we must serve wherever we can best do so" By one of the NSF officials and demonstrates this contradiction.

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