Women and The Young in Nazi Germany

What we MUST cover Nazi policies towards young people and women; their importance to the Nazi state and party, including the nature and purpose of education in schools for boys and girls; the role and effectiveness of youth movements 1933–45, including preparation for war, charity work and military role in the war years. The emergence of rebel groups, for example the Edelweiss Pirates. The role of women within the family, society and employment, and changes to their role during the pre-war period and the war years: women’s contribution to the German Home Front 1939–45.

TASK ONE: Glue in the copy of Hitler’s aims.

TASK TWO: You have been given the image of two stick women. Your task is draw an annotate them with the following information: What women of Weimar were like (p71) What were the Nazi aims for women (p71) and the ‘Women’s appearance section on p72. You have TEN MINUTES.

TASK THREE Under the heading ‘Women and Employment’ write “From 1933 women were encouraged to give up their jobs, get married and have families. Those who were doctors, civil servants and teachers were forced to leave. Labour exchanges were encouraged to give first choice of jobs to men.” Explain why girls were discouraged from going to higher education. Use p72. Put the subheading “1933 Law for the Encouragement of Marriage” Explain what this and why it was introduced. Mention any other methods used to encouraged a high birth rate (medals, German Women’s Enterprise) Use p72. YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES

TASK FOUR Put the heading ‘Were the Policies towards women successful? Make a bullet point list of arguments for and against. You MUST include evidence (including statistics) from the sources. Use pages 72-73. Write underneath… “In 1937, with Germany rearming, women needed to be in the workplace. Marriage loans were abolished and a ‘duty year’ was introduced for women. To keep up with the need for more children, laws were changed to allow people to divorce if they could not have children. The Lebensborn programme chose selected unmarried Aryan women to have children by racially pure SS men.” TEN MINUTES

TASK FIVE Put the subheading ‘Women in WW2’ Nazi Germany presented a contradiction regarding women especially during the war; while women were expected to work and help the war effort through serving refreshments at railway stations to servicemen and evacuees or supporting the Red Cross work or collecting scrap metal. However, they were still expected to have children although many did not want to due to the pressure of the war. Women taken from conquered territories were forcibly sent to work in Germany. When the war began to go badly in 1943, the Nazis tried to mobilise (get to work in munitions factories) women aged 17-45 who did not have children, but only a million took up employment opportunities. Many tried to evade the call up by pretending to be pregnant or ill.

What we MUST cover Nazi policies towards young people and women; their importance to the Nazi state and party, including the nature and purpose of education in schools for boys and girls; the role and effectiveness of youth movements 1933–45, including preparation for war, charity work and military role in the war years. The emergence of rebel groups, for example the Edelweiss Pirates. The role of women within the family, society and employment, and changes to their role during the pre-war period and the war years: women’s contribution to the German Home Front 1939–45.

YOUNG PEOPLE: TASK SIX You have been given an A3 piece of paper which is split in two. You need to annotate the images to reflect the information on pp.74-79. It is split into categories of Education and Youth Movement You have 15 minutes

TASK SEVEN Under the subheading ‘Youth Policies in WW2’ write… “After 1943, as the war turned against him, Hitler called on the Hitler Youth members to carry out duties such as collecting scrap metal and clothes for the troops, and charity donations for war widows and those made homeless by the bombing. Later, thousands of recruits, some as young as 15 joined up to fight. By the end, in 1945, boys as young as 12 were given weapons and ordered to fight, most notable in Berlin.”

TASK EIGHT Under the subheading ‘Were policies towards young people successful?’ write a BALANCED conclusion to answer this question.

What can Walt Disney tell us about Nazi Policy towards young people? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l14WDZCnz-w What can Walt Disney tell us about Nazi Policy towards young people?

What we MUST cover Nazi policies towards young people and women; their importance to the Nazi state and party, including the nature and purpose of education in schools for boys and girls; the role and effectiveness of youth movements 1933–45, including preparation for war, charity work and military role in the war years. The emergence of rebel groups, for example the Edelweiss Pirates. The role of women within the family, society and employment, and changes to their role during the pre-war period and the war years: women’s contribution to the German Home Front 1939–45.

What can you learn from Source A about Nazi views of women? (4)