So what was life like in nazi Germany for different groups? This page will give a brief rundown on the roles and suffering experienced by certain microcosms in Nazi Germany.
Women
Facts:
1. 2 years after Hitler was appointed, the number of females in university dropped by 70%
2. Hitler introduced a law known as the Reich Law of Encouragement for Marriage. Passed in 1933, this law promoted women to get married and upon marriage they were entitled to a loan of 1000 reichsmarks to start their family life. This scheme was made even more enticing as for each child couples bore, 25% of the loan would be considered to be repaid. Thus, if 4 children were born, the loan would be paid out in full.
3. A second policy which establishes the women’s role at home is the “Mother’s Cross”. This policy rewarded women for having children and added slightly more attractiveness to the prospect of staying at home. For 4 children, a women would be awarded a bronze cross, for 6 a silver and for 8 a gold cross.
4. working women were classed as “Staatsangehoriger” or a subject of the state. This meant that working women were viewed on the same grounds as Jews and the mentally unstable..
Historiography:
Historian Alison Thompson "Eugenics was central to the entire Nazi enterprise"
Historian Gisela Bock, women "enslaved economically and morally cannot exercise their freedom by being confined in the home and placed under the rule of their husbands"
Minority Groups
Roma People
The Roma people were racially undesriable due to their nomadic nature. They were not viewed to be "deutschblütig" or genetically apt to be part of society.
1. In 1938, Heinrich Himmler declared the campaign to clamp down on the Roma people as "the struggle against the Gypsy plague."
2. Dr. Joseph Mengele infamously used select Roma twins as subjects upon which to conduct some of the worst abuses of human rights through scientific experimentation.
Homosexuals
Homosexuals were persecuted due to the fact that they could not meet the Nazi ideals of procreation to multiply the Aryan race (obviously)
1. 15,000 homosexuals in all were captured during the nazi regime, rounded up and sent to concentration camps - many were castrated whilst en-route or at the camps themselves.
Disabled
The disabled were persecuted as they did not match the Nazi ideals of a strong and formidable race - a race so pure that its only imperfection could be its desperate attempt to attain perfection.
1. In 1933, the Law for the prevention of hereditary diseased offspring was passed. In the ensuing forced sterilisation campaign, 350,000 people were affected. These were individuals whom the state assumed would produce "inferior" offspring.
2. In 1939, the T4 killings to take place. In essence, these killings were a mass euthanasia for children with severe disabilities. Over 20,000 children were eliminated through these "mercy" killings.
Primary Source:
Hitler, "What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfilment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe."
Women
- Hitler once commented that the German women were to be "the eternal mothers of the nation" and this was definitely reflected in his policy
Facts:
1. 2 years after Hitler was appointed, the number of females in university dropped by 70%
2. Hitler introduced a law known as the Reich Law of Encouragement for Marriage. Passed in 1933, this law promoted women to get married and upon marriage they were entitled to a loan of 1000 reichsmarks to start their family life. This scheme was made even more enticing as for each child couples bore, 25% of the loan would be considered to be repaid. Thus, if 4 children were born, the loan would be paid out in full.
3. A second policy which establishes the women’s role at home is the “Mother’s Cross”. This policy rewarded women for having children and added slightly more attractiveness to the prospect of staying at home. For 4 children, a women would be awarded a bronze cross, for 6 a silver and for 8 a gold cross.
4. working women were classed as “Staatsangehoriger” or a subject of the state. This meant that working women were viewed on the same grounds as Jews and the mentally unstable..
Historiography:
Historian Alison Thompson "Eugenics was central to the entire Nazi enterprise"
Historian Gisela Bock, women "enslaved economically and morally cannot exercise their freedom by being confined in the home and placed under the rule of their husbands"
Minority Groups
- The holocaust is a haunting reminder of the brutality human beings are capable of exhibiting. However, the Jews were not the only group to suffer persecution during the Nazi race to "purify" the third reich with only German blood.
Roma People
The Roma people were racially undesriable due to their nomadic nature. They were not viewed to be "deutschblütig" or genetically apt to be part of society.
1. In 1938, Heinrich Himmler declared the campaign to clamp down on the Roma people as "the struggle against the Gypsy plague."
2. Dr. Joseph Mengele infamously used select Roma twins as subjects upon which to conduct some of the worst abuses of human rights through scientific experimentation.
Homosexuals
Homosexuals were persecuted due to the fact that they could not meet the Nazi ideals of procreation to multiply the Aryan race (obviously)
1. 15,000 homosexuals in all were captured during the nazi regime, rounded up and sent to concentration camps - many were castrated whilst en-route or at the camps themselves.
Disabled
The disabled were persecuted as they did not match the Nazi ideals of a strong and formidable race - a race so pure that its only imperfection could be its desperate attempt to attain perfection.
1. In 1933, the Law for the prevention of hereditary diseased offspring was passed. In the ensuing forced sterilisation campaign, 350,000 people were affected. These were individuals whom the state assumed would produce "inferior" offspring.
2. In 1939, the T4 killings to take place. In essence, these killings were a mass euthanasia for children with severe disabilities. Over 20,000 children were eliminated through these "mercy" killings.
Primary Source:
Hitler, "What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfilment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe."