Women in the Third Reich

Article 65

(Translated and excerpted from starved to death in concentration camps, Another Nazi leader, party member “Frauen im Dritten Reich,” by Renate or who died doing hard labor. Only the number two and president of the Reich’s Wiggershaus in Auf, Austrian femi- memories of the abuse and other horrors Tourist Bureau Hermann Esser, in- nist quarterly, No. 33, 1982.) people endured and a thorough mourn- structed women in the following way: ing for the terrible suffering of so many “Women belong at home in the kitchen As a result of the second wave of the innocent people will protect later gener- and the bedroom, they belong at home women’s movement, it is now generally ations from similar experiences. and should be raising their children.” accepted that women are in the best posi- What did Nazi ideology have to say And Adolf Hitler, who was Fuehrer of tion not only to study the social situation about women? Reading national socialist the German nation for twelve years, an- of contemporary women, but also to ex- writings, what stands out most clearly is nounced: plain women’s roles in the more distant an unbelievable contempt for women. In past. Indeed, the writing of history al- 1921, just two years after women got the What a man contributes in hero’s ways contributes to the defense or criti- vote, the Nazi party voted unanimously courage on the battlefield, a cism of the dominant order. In this way, in their first general meeting that “a woman contributes in her eternally historians’ neglect has further enforced woman can not be accepted to the party patient sacrifice, in her eternally in the minds of their descendants the leadership!” In fact, a woman was never patient suffering. Every child that marginal existence of women in past nominated by the NSDAP to serve in lo- she brings into the world is a battle centuries. cal or provincial parliaments, or in the which she undergoes for the exist- Girls who attended school after Reichstag. Joseph Goebbels, the State ence of her people. World War II certainly never heard of Minister for People’s Enlightenment and Lilo Herrmann in their history classes. Propaganda, explained the political dis- So it is not surprising that women Herrmann was a young woman and enfranchisement of women in the follow- who had no children were seen as “duds mother who, on June 20, 1938, was one ing way during his speech at the opening in population politics.” Families with of the first killed because of her brave of the exhibit “Woman” in Berlin: fewer than four children had not fulfilled and steadfast resistance to fascism. Nor their “duty to the people’s preservation did they hear of Hanne Martens, an ac- The National Socialist movement rate,” and woman who had many chil- tress and antifascist, whose skull was is the only party that keeps women dren received a “mother’s cross.” crushed by an SS man when she refused out of direct involvement in daily These are the symptoms of the bound- to be hanged naked. Nor of Martha politics… We have not kept her lessly controlling behavior of the Nazis Gillesen, who was shot in the head by SS out of parliamentary-democratic toward women. Why wasn’t National officers, after she, with the rest of her re- intrigues because of any disrespect Socialism widely rejected by women? sistance group, was tied up with barbed toward women. It is not because The German women’s movement had wire and given an injection in the we see in her and her mission been active for twenty years; by that time tongue, so that she could not scream. something less worthy, but rather there was a tradition of collective strug- Nor of Kaete Larsch, tortured to death, that we see in her and her mission gle for women’s rights. Since many when she would not betray others in the something quite different from the women had lost fathers, sons, or brothers resistance. Nor of the resistance fighter vocation which men have… Her and were alone, they were forced to live Johanna Kirschner, who was sentenced first and foremost, and most appro- very difficult, independent lives. in half an hour and condemned to death priate place is in the family, and Of course, women were not a homo- in June of 1944. the most wonderful duty which she genous group that acted and thought We could list thousands of women’s can take on is to give her country alike. Taking a close look at the many names: those who resisted and were sen- and her people children, children different ways in which women acted tenced and condemned in the so-called which carry on the success of the during the Third Reich, I generally dif- people’s court; or who were gassed, shot, race and assure the immortality of ferentiate four groups. First, there were abused to death, experimented on or the nation. women who sooner or later resisted the

1 Article 65. Women in the Third Reich

Nazis and their terrible deeds. Many had Many voted conservatively, so that the the German nationalists and the popu- to pay with their lives. They are, how- misogynist Center Party got a large per- lists of the Weimar Republic, who were ever, unknown—the heroines of history. centage of women’s votes, but not the also often misogynist. For hundreds of Then there were their adversaries: Nazis. years, the German people had been ac- women who allowed themselves to be We should not forget that women had customed to state elitism and authoritar- the tools of other people’s torture and just been granted the active and passive ian behavior. This is also one of the who for their part abused and beat peo- vote, and thus were not practiced in po- reasons why there was no violent wave ple, and killed them in terrible ways. litical matters. They were not able to rec- of protest from women collectively These women were most often dumb, ognize their own interests and to when the countless women’s unions young, arrogant and lured by the rela- represent them politically. Even for were dissolved, or forced to dissolve tively good standard of living provided those who had started leaving the home themselves, or when the decision that by the party. Since they often came from hearth, there hadn’t been enough time to only 10% of students at the university broken, authoritarian families, they often overcome their dependent intellectual, could be female was announced, or when misused the power that they had over de- social and economic status in the family women were forbidden to take up influ- fenseless victims. or in their professions. In the first years ential positions, such as that of judge or Between these two groups of women, of Nazi rule, they were driven back to administrator. there were the ignorant and those who their traditional domain, the family, and In western history, the struggle for just went along with things. Of course thus shut out of all social activities. Next women’s equality and recognition is these groups were also heterogeneous. In the eradication of unemployment be- very young. At that moment when the each group there were women from ev- came women’s burden, as many were women’s movement could have devel- ery social class. fired from their posts and jobs. Married oped on a broader level, it was destroyed. Among the ignorant women I count women who worked were denounced as The refined strategy of strengthening those who were totally apolitical (they “double earners.” and praising women in their traditionally usually remained apolitical after the war; Only a few women recognized that dictated roles of caring housewife and they did not learn anything). These were being shut out of the workplace and re- mother had a very strong effect on the the women who only thought about stricted to the home, with loans available unenlightened. Never before had women keeping their families alive; it didn’t only to those families where the mother been so directly addressed; never before matter what happened to their neighbors. didn’t work, and the awarding of privi- had their reproductive function received Even today, the “complete mastery of leges to families with many children so much recognition. Surely we should potatoes and their characteristics” is would serve only one purpose: the try to understand what drove the “fellow praised in German society “the art of strengthening of “national manpower”, travellers” and the ignorant women to gourmet potato dumplings” is admired, in other words, the “production of human accept the degrading roles assigned to and pages are devoted to the potato, and material.” In 1932, there was an average them by men. thus the “triumph of survival” is cele- of 59 births per 1,000 women, but by What came out of the ignorance and brated. When concentration camps are 1938 it was already 81 births. The slogan willing sacrifice of these women is only mentioned, it’s in a pithy aside: The was: “Give the Fuehrer children.” a part of our history. The other part is of- Americans “posted horrible pictures of The so-called “Fountain of Life” ten hidden from us. concentration camps on the walls.” Even (Lebensborn), an organization founded Immediately after the war, numerous today, such ignorance sends chills up in 1935 by the national leader of the SS, books were published by women who your spine. Heinrich Himmler, was concerned with told how the war affected them, of their The “fellow travellers” included the this “strengthened propagation.” There, terrible suffering, but also of their brav- so-called leaders of Nazi women’s orga- “racially worthy” girls were at the ser- ery and the courage of antifascist nizations, such as the blond-haired vice of SS men for the procreation of women. The books quickly sold and only woman, leader of the Reichs-women and Aryan children; here antifeminism and a few of them got a second printing. Yet eleven-time mother, Gertrud Scholtz- racism were bound up in the most intri- these books relate the horrifying details, Klink, and also the women who voted for cate way. The administrator of these without which our knowledge of the Hitler and fit in one way or another. breeding institutions said, in all open- murder of millions of people would be However, people’s belief that women ness, that the goal was the production of very superficial. Nanda Herbermann, for helped Hitler to power has no basis in human material: “Thanks to the ‘Foun- example, describes in her book The fact. tain of Life’, we’ll have 600 more regi- Blessed Abyss (which has been out of In the presidential election of 1932, ments in thirty years.” print for years) what she experienced in 51.6 percent of women voted for Hin- There are reasons why so many an imprisonment that came about for no denburg, 26.5 percent for Hitler. In the women were blind to the dangers of the obvious reason: second vote, 56 percent were for Hinden- misogynist and racist ideology of the Na- burg and 33.6 percent for Hitler. In both zis. For one thing, National Socialism In complete darkness, I felt a stool votes the number of men’s votes was was not so different from the attitude, which had been screwed into the about 2 percent greater than women’s. opinion and posture of the conservatives, floor. I heard the groaning and

2 ANNUAL EDITIONS

whimpering of the poor souls who house of death, it was always bit- these or any other weapons will ever be were next to me, above and below, terly cold. There I sat, barefoot in used;” in a world where we speak of the languishing in cell after cell in sol- the darkness, freezing in my deep- “balance of terror” and the “spiral of itary confinement. Some of them est soul. atomic retribution,” women resistance had lost their sanity. No wonder! fighters can be role models. With clear They raged and beat on the doors The horror that we read in these lines consciences, the women resistance fight- of their cells, sang crazy songs all should not make us turn away helplessly. ers of the Third Reich set themselves through the night. Still others sang Rather, the knowledge of the suppressed against an ideology that did not value hu- distorted old church songs in des- crimes and the unspeakable suffering man life; they fought bravely and confi- perate voices, like animals, until should give us the conviction, the anger dently for the old revolutionary goals: one of the wardens came and beat and courage we need in the fight against equality, justice and above all, humanity. them terribly—they even some- Naziism, which even now survives in our For this they were tortured and for the times locked dogs in the cells, so democracy and threatens us. The danger most part murdered. But our memories that the trained animals could at- of being mere objects of political pro- of them and their courageous deeds can tack the victims. Among those de- cesses still exists. The scorn and mock- help us to prevent similar events—in tained were some out of whom ery of pacifism, for example, has a whatever form they take—from ever be- dogs had bitten huge pieces of tradition. (“To be a pacifist shows a lack ing repeated in the future. flesh; some had lost half an ear, of character and disposition,” said Adolf others a piece of their nose, or their Hitler in 1923.) hand or whatever. Still others in In a world where they make the sta- the cell block were found covered tioning of neutron bombs appealing by with blood hard as ice. In this saying, “they reduce the chances that From the series Vitae, by Angelika Kaufmann