THE FAMILY IN THE THIRD REICH, 1933 - 1945 Lisa N. N. Pine PhD thesis Department of International History London School of Economics and Political Science University of London UMI Number: U084457 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U084457 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 T n e sfe s F~ 3S3Q British Library of Pc'i’icsl and Economic Science ABSTRACT The thesis is a study of Nazi family ideology and policy, and of the impact of the Nazi regime upon different types of family within German society. As such, it tackles an aspect of life in the Third Reich that has until now remained inadequately researched. This thesis advances the study of the subject by adding to existing knowledge, rather than by challenging the literature. It does not claim to answer every remaining question, but rather focuses in more detail on a number of specific areas. It considers the nature of Nazi family ideology, giving an overview of the eugenics movement and of Nazi policies towards the family. This is followed by a consideration of the dissemination of Nazi family ideals, by means of education and socialisation. Beyond these areas, the thesis does not deal with the ’average’ or ’ordinary' German family, but focuses on areas that are less well-trodden in the secondary literature. It considers the families at different ends of the spectrum in the Third Reich - the Nazi 'ideal' or 'model' family, the kinderreich family, and the 'undesirable' family that did not fit into the Volksgemeinschaft. For the latter, 'asocial' and Jewish families are the categories selected for discussion, the former representing the 'socially unfit', and the latter, the 'racially inferior' or 'alien'. The concluding chapter presents an overview of the regime's ultimate legacy for the family in post-1945 Germany, not least the effects of the Second World War. It also gives an overall assessment of the regime's family policy and a discussion of how the Nazi period fits into the framework of the history of the German family. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 4 Glossary of Abbreviations and Terms 7 1. Introduction 9 2. Nazi Family Ideology and Policy 30 3. The Dissemination of Nazi Family and Household Ideals through 80 Education and Socialisation 4. The Kinderreich Family 142 5. The 'Asocial' Family 179 6. The Impact of the National Socialist Regime upon Jewish Families 229 Conclusion 291 Epilogue 298 Bibliography 304 3 PREFACE My interest in this subject arose from research that I carried out for my MSc dissertation on Nazi and fascist film propaganda. My original plan for the PhD thesis was a study of the film divas of the Third Reich, such as Kristina Soderbaum. However, once I started reading about the role of women in Nazi society in general, I noticed a large gap in the secondary literature on the role of the family, and decided that this would provide the subject of a very interesting research project. In terms of sources, documents held at the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz have formed the foundation of much of this thesis, in particular from the files of the Nazi Women's Leadership, the NSV, the main archive of the NSDAP , the Hitler Youth, the Personal Office of the Reichsfuhrer SS, the Party Office of the NSDAP , as well as NSDAP printed sources. Documents from the Institut fur Zeitgeschichte in Munich have also been used - in particular, a lengthy manuscript by Robert Kaiser, the leader of the Reichsbund Deutsche Familie (RDF), which is an important document on Nazi family and racial policy, as well as many propaganda leaflets and pamphlets put out by the various Nazi organisations, including the Nazi women's formations and the NSV. In addition, the collection of school textbooks from the National Socialist period held at the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig have been used to examine how schools instilled new National Socialist moral codes and norms into children, thereby removing from parents their traditional role of imbuing their children with values and ideals. A number of newspapers and periodicals from the Nazi era have also been used, including the NS-Frauemvarte . Volk tmd Rasse . Neues Volk. Volkischer Beobachter and Das Schwarze Korps . as well as some medical journals, including Per Offentliche Gesundheitsdienst. In addition, the Staatsarchiv Bremen provided a wealth of 4 information on the Nazi treatment of 'asocial' families. Memoirs and testimonies have been used in the chapter on Jewish families, for which archival research was carried out at the Yad Vashem Memorial Foundation in Jerusalem and the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. I should like to express my gratitude to the British Academy for a three year studentship (1991-1994), as well as for additional funding for research trips to Germany and Israel. I should also like to thank the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig for giving me a scholarship to carry out my research there, and the University of Luton for providing finances for a research trip to New York. I should like to thank Michael Burleigh for his expert supervision, Donald Cameron Watt for encouraging me to embark upon this thesis in the first place and John Kent for his help in the final stages of this work prior to submission. I am grateful to the staff at the British Library of Political and Economic Science, the British Library, the Wiener Library, the German Historical Institute and the Royal Society of Medicine Library in London, the Institut fur Zeitgeschichte in Munich, the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz, the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig and the Staatsarchiv in Bremen, as well as the staff at the archives of the Yad Vashem Memorial Foundation in Jerusalem and the Leo Baeck Institute in New York for their assistance. Finally, a note of personal thanks to my parents, Rose and Michael Pine for their unfailing support; to my friends Pam Shatzkes, Effie Pedaliu and David Brauner, for their 5 willingness to discuss problems; and above all, to my husband, Andrew Fields, for his love and unstinting support. 6 GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS Anschlufi,; annexation of Austria in 1938 BDF Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine; Federation of German Women's Associations BDMBund Deutscher Madel; League of German Girls Blut undBoden; Blood and Soil DAF Deutsche Arbeitsfront; German Labour Front DFW Deutsches Frauenwerk, German Women's Enterprise Doppelverdiener; double-earner Fiihrer; leader Gau; principal territorial division of the NSDAP Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei); Secret State Police Glctube und Schonheit; Faith and Beauty Gleichschaltung, co-ordination or streamlining Grofifamilien ; large family (used pejoratively) Heimat; home, homeland Hilfswerk "Mutter und Kind" Mother and Child Relief Agency HJ Hitlerjugend, Hitler Youth Kampfzeit; time of struggle (of NSDAP until 1933) kinderreich; literally 'rich in children'. Term used to describe Valuable' families with 4 or more children. KPD Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands ; Communist Party of Germany KdF Kraft durch Freude, Strength through Joy Lebensbom; Well of Life Lebensraum; living space Machtergreifung , seizure of power Mischlinge; person of mixed ancestry, e.g. 'part-Jew' or 'part-gypsy' 7 NSDAP Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei: ; National Socialist German Workers' Party NS-Frauenschqft; National Socialist Womanhood NSKK Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahr-Korps; National Socialist Motor Corps NS-Lehrerbund; National Socialist League of Teachers NSV Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt; National Socialist People's Welfare RDF Reichsbund Deutsche Familie, Kampfbundfur erbtiichtigen Kinderreichtum; National Association of the German Family, Combat League for Large Families of Sound Heredity RdK Reichsbund der Kinderreichen; National League of Large Families RDH Reichsverband Deutscher Hausfrauenvereine; National Federation of German Housewives' Associations RM Reichsmark; unit of currency RMD Reichsmiitterdienst, National Mothers' Service SA Sturmabteilungen; Storm Troopers SD Sicherheitsdienst; Security Service (of the SS) SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands; Social Democratic Party of Germany SS Schutzstaffeln ; literally 'guard unit', Nazi elite formation led by Heinrich Himmler Volk; nation volkisch; racist-nationalist Volksgemeinschaft; national community Volksgenosse; national comrade Volkskorper ; body of the nation Volkstod; death of the nation Volkswirtschaft/Hauswirtschaft; National Economy/ Domestic Economy Weltanschauung, ; world view WHW Winterhilfswerk; Winter Relief Agency 8 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Although the Third Reich is an era of German history that has been intensively researched, the vast secondary literature on the subject still contains a number of gaps, which have become increasingly apparent as new areas of research have been undertaken. One of these gaps is the family. This introductoiy chapter gives a brief survey of the existing secondary literature and an overview of the history of the German family. A Survey of the Secondary Literature Most of the older standard histories of the Third Reich largely neglect social issues and do not touch upon the area of women and the family at all.1 Some of the general social histories of the period do mention the position of women and the family, but often rather superficially.2 It is within the context of more specialised accounts that a clearer picture of the position of women in Nazi society is given, although these often neglect the family.3 Important standard works on the history of the Third Reich that largely omit social policy and social issues include M. Broszat, The Hitler State: The Foundation and Development of the Third Reich (London, 1981); K.