Social Policies

1. Social Policies Matias & Hollie

2. Young people • The Nazis saw the young as important. They used them as tools. • They had to teach children to believe in the Aryan race. • If they wanted young men to fight for the ‘master race’, they had to teach them the military ideas of obedience, discipline and sacrifice. • Young Germans were taught to see the Fuhrer as a father figure • The Fuhrer demanded loyalty from his people

3. Education • Teachers were chosen and examined by the Nazis • The teachers would attended classes during holidays to get a better idea of the Nazi curriculum • 97% teachers joined the Nazi teachers’ association • Children were told that if a teacher said something that went against Hitler or the Nazis, they were to tell the authorities • The schools were provided with a curriculum that was provided by the Nazis • History- Celebration of Germany victories and failures of the Weimar (betrayal 1918) • Biology- Study of the different races • "No boy or girl should leave school without complete knowledge of the necessity and meaning of blood purity." -Hitler • Maths- Facts and figures on how to teach the disabled and how to look after them • Indoctrination and propaganda was a common practice in schools • Jews and communists were blamed for all disasters • Jewish children were not allowed to attend school after 1935 • The Nazis thought that the Jewish children would ‘contaminate’ the others • Students had little knowledge of the Nazi ideas • Not all the young men were brainwashed, some used the youth duties as an excuse to miss school • The Nazi education system had no universal effect on the young Germans

4. The Hitler Youth • Started in 1925 and by the end of 1933, people started joining voluntarily • Hitler believed that the future for Nazi Germany was in the younger generation • The youth provided fun activities for the young generation • Weekend trips, walking and sports • The youth produced magazines; The Youth and homeland, The German Girl • The Hitler Youth meant a chance to be able to join all kinds of fun organisations • Girls were offered a chance to escape the female role of looking after the children and the home • Many young Germans were not thinking of the Nazis when they joined the Hitler Youth...it was all about the chance to have fun • “I was not thinking of the Fuhrer when i gave the Nazi salute, but of games, sports, hiking, singing, camping and other exciting activities” - Marianne Mackinnon • Membership became compulsory in the 1930’s • This caused the people to become uninterested and made them not care • The discipline became more serious and stricter • When the war started, all leisure activities were stopped • Places where activities took place were bombed (football fields, club buildings) • The Youth members were drafted to war • Young members started to oppose to Hitler and created their own youth gangs

5. Opposition to the Hitler Youth • Three main opposition gangs • Edelweiss pirates, Meuten and Swing Movement • The Pirates would taunt and beat the Hitler Youth Patrols • These types of incidents attracted un-wanted attention from the authorities • BarthelSchink, 16, was hung after having one warning • The Meuten were similar to the Pirates • They were made up of middle-class citizens • There were around 1,500 members across various different groups • The Swing Movement was made up of the middle-class who rejected the German nationalist music and preferred to listen to jazz and swing music • Live performances were banned and the authorities were appalled by the Swing Movements dances • TheWhite Rose- 1942, a university resistance group who were executed in 1943 after handing out anti-Nazi leaflets • Juvenile crime increased from 16000 in 1933 to over 21000 in 1940

6. Women and Family Life • Nazis were anti-feminists • The Nazi slogan for family life was "Restoring the family to its rightful place" • The Nazis attitude towards women was ‘children, church and kitchen’ • The Nazis saw a natural distinction between men and women • Women were only there to reproduce and keep a home and family • Women were meant to keep to their ‘natural’ occupations • If women were to work, their jobs would only involve something that they had a ‘natural’ talent for, such as nursing or social work • Professions such as doctors, teachers, civil servants were taken from women...they were also not allowed to join the armed forces • The Law for encouragement of marriage- newly wed couples were provided with 1000 marks and were allowed to keep 250 marks for each child they had • Awards were given (gold medals) for women who had eight or more children • Strong restrictions were put on abortion , equality for women, homosexuality and prostitution • The younger generation were were able to adjust to the changes compare to the older generation • Parents were afraid that family talk from inside their homes would be made public • Mother and son relationships were effect greatly • Un married mothers received support from the Nazis

7. How successful were the Nazi policies towards women and the family • Girls were told that they had to join the Nazi Youth in 1936 • When girls were between the ages of 18 and 21, they were to join organisations such as Faith and Beauty • Some girls saw a future career in these groups • Some girls found that the Youth as a chance to gain self-confidence and a chance to hold leadership and responsibility • One Nazi policy was to create a racial pure society • Women were the main focus of this as the Nazis were worried about a failing birth rate • The birth rate in 1900 was 3.3 and by 1930’s it had risen to 14.7 • In 1933, the number of children per women was 1.6, in 1940 it rose to 2.4 but then dropped to 1.5 in 1945 • Certain measures were taken to improve the birth rate and the racial purity of Germans • Not all women benefited from these methods • Women who were either socialists, pacifist, Sinti, Roma or Jewish were sterilised as were the men • Between 1934 and 1939, 320,000 people suffered from this and between 1934 and 1937, 80 men and 400 women died from the operation • In 1937, after the war preparations started, a labour shortage occurred • The Nazis had to find a way to get the women to work again • The women refused to work, the only jobs provided were factory work and the women found this ‘unattractive’ • Between 1939 and 1944, the employment rate for women only rose from 14.6 to 14.9 million • This wasn’t enough to met the demands of the wartime economy

8. Bibliography • - Grey, Paul, and Rosemary Little. Germany 1918. UK: Cambridge Uni, 2000. Web. • - "Nazis Education." History Learning Site. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Nazis_Education.htm>. • - "How Did Nazi Rule Affect Germans?" Effect_on_Germans. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://www.johndclare.net/Nazi_Germany3.htm>. • - "Modern History." HSC Online. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://hsc.csu.edu.au/modern_history/national_studies/germany/2430/page65.htm>. • - "Holocaust History." German Resistance to Hitler. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005208>. • - "The Hitler Youth." History Learning Site. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/hitler_youth.htm>. • - "Hitler Youth." Spartacus Educational. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERyouth.htm>. • http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6Y-NXZmDcxU/TLFxooljOtI/AAAAAAAAMl0/KxJ2CxVXlug/s400/Hitler+youth+4.jpg • http://www.germaniainternational.com/images/hitleryouth01.jpg • http://www.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article153763.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/hitler-meeting-a-member-of-the-hitler-youth-pic-swns-55608218.jpg