Life in Nazi Germany

    Cards (27)

    • Hitler wanted to indoctrinate the youth so that they would continue the Nazi rule and be the next generation
    • Nazi education:
      • Wanted girls to grow into wives and mothers (taught cooking, sewing)
      • Wanted boys to grow into workers and soldiers (military training)
      • PE was 15% of school time
      • Nazi views such as racial superiority, Hitler's power and Nationalism
      • Teachers were forced to join Nazi Teachers' alliance or be fired
    • Nazi youth groups:
      • Hitler Youth - physical training in camps, military training to build an army, training in Nazi ideology e.g racial purity
      • 1936 - Hitler Youth made compulsory
      • League of German Maidens - trained to be housewives, taught Nazi ideology e.g only marrying Aryans
    • Youth group success:
      • Millions joined
      • Many children enjoyed the camaraderie
      • However, many hated the military aspects and joined other youth groups
    • Women in Nazi Germany:
      • Nazis wanted to undo the progress of the Weimar Republic
      • They wanted women to have traditional domestic roles
      • Kinder, Kuche, Kirche
    • Women and work:
      • Women bribed with bonuses and loans to leave work
      • 1933 - women banned from professional posts
      • Discouraged from university
      • However, in 1937, Germany ran out of workers and had to let women go back to work
      • As a result, women workers increased to 14 million in 1939
    • Women's lives:
      • Organisations such as Women's front and Reich Mothers Service
      • Supposed to wear traditional clothing
      • Encouraged to keep fit and not smoke
    • Increasing birth:
      • Mothers Cross - a prize given out at different levels for women who had more children
      • Marred couples were given a 'marriage loan', of which a quarter was paid back for each child they had
      • Abortion and contraception were banned
      • Non-Aryans were forced to be sterilised
      • Lebensborn programme - gave benefits and homes to women who had children with SS men
    • Results of Nazi Women's policies:
      • 1936 - 30% more births than in 1933
      • 1939 - 21% more marriages than in 1933
    • Economy in 1933:
      • 25% were unemployed
      • Economic depression had ruined trade, business, and production
    • The Four Year Plan:
      • Plan to change the economy to make Germany ready for war in four years
      • Arms spending increased by 22.5 billion marks and army grew from 100,000 to 900,000, between 1933 and 1939
    • Ways Nazis reduced unemployment:
      1. National Labour Service (RAD)
      2. Rearmsment and Conscription
      3. Public works
      4. Invisible unemployment
    • National Labour Service (RAD):
      • All 18-25 men had to join for 6 months
      • They built roads and buildings
      • However, conditions and pay were poor
    • Rearmament and Conscription:
      • The Nazis began this, which broke the TofV
      • 1935, conscription introduced for 18-25 men
      • The army grew to 1.4 million
      • 1935 - 72,000 workers in aircraft construction
    • Public works:
      • 'Autobahn' project to build new motorways - by 1935 125,000 men employed in this
      • Nazis spent 38 billion marks per year by 1938 on public infrastructure
    • Invisible unemployment:
      • Women, Jews, and people in concentration camps weren't counted in statistics
      • Soldiers and part-time workers were counted as full-time
      • This was to skew statistics to make the Nazis look better
    • Results of economic policies:
      • Nazis claimed that they had fixed unemployment and it had dropped from 4.8 million to 300,000 by 1939
      • However, the Nazis manipulated and cheated the system to be able to announce statistics like this
    • Nazis tried to help workers through organisations like:
      • German Labour Front (DAF)
      • Strength Through Joy (KDF)
      • Beauty of Labour
    • German Labour Front (DAF):
      • Replaced Trade Unions
      • However, it increased working hours and didn't change pay
      • It took away workers' rights to leave their job or ask for higher wages
    • Strength Through Joy (KDF):
      • Ran social activities such as holidays and camps for workers
      • Promised to help workers pay for a car in installments, however all thus money went to rearmament
    • Beauty of Labour - Campaigned to improve facilities for workers
    • Did Nazis benefit workers?:
      • More workers, more wages, better conditions, fulfilled Hitler's promises to them
      • Price of goods increase negated wage increase, workers rights were lost, working hours increased
    • Nazi racial beliefs:
      • German is the 'master race'
      • They wanted a pure Aryan state, created by breeding Aryans and destroying minorities
    • Persecution of disabled:
      • Forcibly sterilised (400,000 by 1939)
      • Young people and children with disabilities were euthanised
    • Persecution of homosexuals:
      • 1935 - laws against them
      • Arrested and sent to concentration camps
    • Persecution of gypsies:
      • Deported and sent to concentration camps
      • Threat to 'racial purity'
    • Persecution of Jews:
      • Only 1% of population was Jewish but Hitler wanted all of them gone
      • 1st April 1933 - boycott of Jewish businesses
      • Sept 1935 - Nuremburg laws stated that they weren't citizens and couldn't marry Aryans
      • 9 Nov 1938 - Kristallnacht: Nazis 'taking revenge' for a murdered Nazi by killing 100 Jews, destroying 191 Synagogues and attacking Jews/their property
      • After Kristallnacht, 20,000 Jews sent to camps
      • 1939 - all Jews sent to ghettos