The next text analyzed for this study is the first monograph read for the study, therefore, there is a lot of information that had not been previously discussed by the latter authors: Claudia Koonz 's 1987 text Mothers in the Fatherland. The author begins her text with a Preface where she discusses her interview with Gertrude Scholtz-Klink, the leader of the Women 's Labor Service. While this is not the first time in the study that Scholtz-Klink 's name appears, but Koonz 's discussion of the interview personifies Scholtz-Klink, rather than just make her a two-dimensional character in historical research. For the first time in this study, the reader can understand the reasoning some people (right or wrong) sided with the Nazi Party. The interview …show more content…
She specifically discusses Gertrude Scholtz-Klink throughout the text, but she superficially discusses other women of power in her text as well. Women in leadership positions remained subservient to male leaders in order to gain "short-term rewards and socialization with male superiors," according to Koonz, thus allowing them some sense of power, but still remaining proper women in the eyes of Hitler. Koonz also discusses female SS Guards and how most concentration camp victims found them to be worse than the men. Koonz touches on these women of power, but the majority of her text is concerned with the grassroots and common …show more content…
Koonz is able to challenge that stereotype and provide more background and fleshed out information about Jewish women during the Third Reich. According to Koonz, many Jewish women took a "wait-and-see" attitude when the Nazi party came to power because Germans from all backgrounds (including Jewish) were accustomed to secondary/lesser treatment of Jews already. She is also able to give the reader a better understanding of the confusion and perversion of the Third Reich. While Jews were being persecuted in the early 1930s, there was not a legal meaning for "Jew" until 1935,and Jewish women and children were sent to mass execution sites first because of the "chivalry" of Nazi
At birth, Horowitz became a “red diaper baby” by virtue of his parents being members of the communist party. As Horowitz grew up, he attended the communist’s school and communist’s summer camp. Horowitz grew up in an environment surrounded by communist`s. The book covers Amer...
(Weisel 22). This shows that the Germans thought nothing and had little to no respect for the Jews. The subject continues as they are split up by gender as an SS officer announces to a pack of Jews, Men to the left! Women to the right!” (Wiesel 27).
Gottfried, Ted, and Stephen Alcorn. Nazi Germany: The Face of Tyranny. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2000. Print.
Gerda Weissmann Klein’s personal account of her experiences during Germany’s invasion of Poland and of the Holocaust illustrated some of the struggles of young Jewish women at the time in their endeavors to survive. Weissmann Klein’s recount of her experiences began on September 3, 1939, at her home in the town of Bielitz, Poland, just after Nazi troops began to arrive and immediately enforce their policies on Polish Jews. On that night, which had only been the beginning for her and her family, Jews within Nazi Germany had already felt the effects of Adolf Hitler’s nationalist ideals for almost five years. From 1933 until 1939, when Weissmann Klein’s experiences began, “anti-Semitism was a recurring theme in Nazism and resulted in a wave of
The main purpose of the book was to emphasize how far fear of Hitler’s power, motivation to create a powerful Germany, and loyalty to the cause took Germany during the Third Reich. During the Third Reich, Germany was able to successfully conquer all of Eastern Europe and many parts of Western Europe, mainly by incentive. Because of the peoples’ desires and aspirations to succeed, civilians and soldiers alike were equally willing to sacrifice luxuries and accept harsh realities for the fate of their country. Without that driving force, the Germans would have given up on Hitler and Nazism, believing their plan of a powerful Germany...
Frida Scheps was a Russian-Jewish immigrant living in France. Her father was an Engineer who fled to Palestine to pave the way for Frida and her mother. Frida mentions in her testimony that a young sixteen year old boy, Adolphe tried to help them get their documentation; proven difficult because of increase of demand. Frida and her mother could not escape France prior to German’s occupation. Stuck in France, Ms. Scheps wanted to protect her child’s life by placing her in a Catholic covenant, Chateau de Beaujeu. Persecution of the Jews of France began in 1940, but by 1942, the Germans began rounding up Jews and shipping them to various death camps in Poland. An estimated 300,000 Jews lived in France prior to the invasion, between 19...
... context that shaped Heinrich Böll, it becomes apparent to the reader that these conditions have greatly shaped the themes and ideas discussed in Böll’s, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. Main issues such as the corruption and collusion of powerful institutions in society, especially the police, press and industrialists have come through, with emphasis being placed on the misogynistic and patriarchal society and the effects this has on the treatment of woman, shown by Katharina. Böll brings his awareness of they way in which power and status are connected to wealth into the text and greatly condemns the abuse of power by the dominant groups in society, “Böll had little faith in any moral renewal coming from political or ecclesiastical hierarchies.” . Böll believed that “the function of literature is to challenge the arrogant claims to totality made by all ideological systems” . By incorporating his own context into his work, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Böll leads the reader to a greater understanding of this time period in West Germany, at the same time undermining the dominant systems and causing the reader to question and carefully examine power structures in society.
For instance, throughout the book, she emphasises her point stating that women are not any different from men when it comes to violence, and they equally commit murder when given the opportunity in the right circumstance, but she refuses to acknowledge the male and female murder statistics. A modern statistical analysis which concludes, “Although women compromise more than half of the U.S population, they committed only 14.7% of the homicides noted during the study interval. In contrast to men, who killed non-intimate acquaintances, strangers, or victims of undetermined relationship in 80% of cases.” Although Hitler’s Furies is useful for learning the role women played in the Third Reich, it is a one-sided book with an agenda. Hence, it is not a book to be recommended for using as an academic source when examining the role of women in the Third Reich without prejudice.
Gesink, Indira. "Fascism, Nazism and Road to WWII." World Civilizations II. Baldwin Wallace University. Marting Hall, Berea. 3 April 2014. Class lecture.
“’Is my mother a communist?’ Staring. Straight ahead. ‘They were always asking her things, before I came here.’ … ‘Did the Fuhrer take her away?’ … ‘I knew it.’ The words were thrown at the steps and Liesel could feel the slush of anger stirring hotly in her stomach. ‘I hate the Fuhrer’ she said. ‘I hate him.’” (115)
Since the “new woman” ideal was unrealistic for many women, many could feel that they were not strong modern woman. Hitler and the Nazi party targeted that insecurity by boosting the importance of the role of a mother in Germany. Only by following the tradition lifestyle of a woman could they ever be equal with men in their contribution to the Nazi movement. Elsbeth Zander, a Nazi activist and leader of the German Women’s Order, addresses the role of women in 1926, where she explains the important impact of motherhood in Germany. Zander explains, “We women must, through our quiet, honest work, inspire the German male to do noble things once more!.” Which when analyzed critically, this quote truly means that women should be the behind the scenes of the movement, caring for the household and being strong in their soul, not actions. Propaganda supporting Nazi’s defination of womanhood was common, such as the “Healthy Parents- Healthy Children!” poster from 1934 Germany. The visuals of this poster, with an Aryan woman dressed femininely is shown happily with her many children and husband is in direct contrast to the visuals of a “new woman” who stood independently on her own, dressed androgynously. In this way, the Nazi party was not only setting the racial standard for Nazi Germany, but the gender
The National Socialist Party quickly turned heads in July 14th, 1933 through the Law Concerning the Formation of New Parties, by declaring itself the only political party that was "allowed to exist in the Third Reich" (156.HCCR). Soon thereafter, the political perception the Nazis were likely to enforce would transform the whole view of German culture, economy, race, and especially, the way German individuals emotionally and physically interacted with one another. One relationship in the German state that stood out in my mind was the Nazi’s view of marriage, its purpose, its use and its representation in the German state. The Nazi’s perceived marriage as a processing factory, where each partner had certain roles and purposes to fulfill. Through the creation of speeches, art and laws, the relationship that would stand to the occasion in representing the Third Reich was the relation between man and woman...marriage.
Women were not likely to be harassed, arrested, or imprisoned when the war first started. As the war progressed, women were soon held to the same level of torture. Germans were not typically allowed to sexually assault the Jewish women because they were considered them beneath them, but many did not follow that particular rule. Women were humiliated in the streets and forced to perform dirty tasks regularly. They were often subjected to gender specific tasks, like undressing in front of German officers. Despite this type of harassment, it was typically not until the liquidation of the ghettos that women and children were subjected to the extreme violence and brutality that left even the experienced ghetto chr...
Zusak’s portrayal of discrimination within the book delivered by the Nazis was shown to be extremely blatant and shameless, the author revealing and reinforcing the stereotypical German concept that the Jewish people were treated as bug-eyed cesspools...
Overall, the Nazis used men to do labor and the women are considered weaker and not valuable. The women are weaker because they had a harder time giving up their children and are not as strong as men. They are considered useless because they did not provide anything for the Nazis. Gender played a major role because it also decided if they are going to die or not. In the cases of women, they are killed because they were unneeded. Fewer men died because they were needed. Their gender determined the fate of the Jewish men and women in the Holocaust.