Life in Nazi Germany

• 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