unit 3

• On the surface the Nazis improved the life of German workers but the reality was more complex
• Unemployment

  Significantly reduced. By 1939 only 35,000 out of 25 million were unemployed
• Wages were frozen at 1938 levels. As prices rose, families struggled to live
• Workers were expected to pay a voluntary tax, the Winter Relief


  The SA pressurised families to pay 3% of their earnings
• Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF)


  The trade unions came under its control in 1933
• Notable functions of the DAF


  • Strength through Joy: Very cheap holidays, theatre tickets and leisure activities were offered to workers. Activities nearly always involved some sort of political lecture.
  • Reich Labour Service: Set up to tackle unemployment it offered cheap labour for big state projects like building motorways.
  • Volkswagen scheme: Workers could pay 5 marks a week until they owned a car. No one ever received a car.
• Women's lives changed as the Nazis encouraged women to stay at home and be wives and mothers
• Nazi views on women

  They thought women should stay at home, not smoke and not wear makeup
• Women were encouraged to have more children who would grow up to be new Nazis
• Loans were given to encourage marriage

  The loan repayments were reduced by 25% for each child the couple had
• Honour Cross for German Motherhood medal

  • Bronze for 4 children
  • Silver for 6 children
  • Gold for 8 children
• Impact of Nazi policies

  • Marriages increased from 516,000 in 1932 to 772,000 in 1939
  • Births initially rose but had declined again by 1939
  • The number of women in employment increased
• The impact of Nazi policies was not totally successful
• Young people indoctrination to follow Nazi ideas


  • Through school
  • Through youth organisations
• Nazi control of education


  • Controlled teachers through the Nazi Teacher League
  • Tightly controlled the curriculum and what was taught
  • E.g. Biology taught Nazi racial ideas
• Nazi youth organisation


  • The Hitler Youth
  • Boys activities prepared them for the military
  • Girls activities focused on preparing them for motherhood
• It is difficult to know the impact of the Nazis on young people
• Attendance at youth organisations was high
• We don't know how much the young people believed in the Nazi ideas
• The Nazis were obsessed by race
• They believed some people were stronger than others
• They thought that humans could be divided into distinct races of people with similar features
• Scientists now think this is completely wrong
• Aryan peoples

  The best race according to the Nazis, from Northern Europe
• Due to Nazi racial ideas, the persecution of Jews got increasingly worse from 1933 to 1939.

  • Jews were physically excluded from society and faced anti Semitic propaganda in German media.

  • There was a lot of anti Semitic laws. These started out excluding Jews from legal systems but increased in severity. In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws removed Jews as German citizens and banned marriage and sex between Jews and non-Jews.

  • In 1938 Jews were widely attacked on Kristallnacht where 267 synagogues were burned, 7500 Jewish businesses smashed and 91 Jews murdered.
• Ubermensch

  Super humans, the most superior group of Aryans were the Nordic group who had blond hair and blue eyes
• Untermenschen

  Sub-humans, according to the Nazis, including gipsies, Slavic people, black people and notably the Jews
• The Nazis believed in horrific myths about the Jews to justify their hatred
• Myths about Jews

  • Blaming them for the failure of WW1
  • Saying they were all Communists
  • Saying Jews dominated Germany
• None of these myths were true