Young Women In Nazi Germany

It was a predominantly negative experience to be a young woman in Nazi Germany during the period 1933-1939, and there are a number of examples that support this argument. In being forced to join youth groups, the underlying reason was to spread Hitler’s political message. In addition, young women were expected to marry and have children, which meant they had reduced freedom. Finally, there were limited job and leadership opportunities for them and their primary role was to support men. This essay will discuss these points to conclude the experience of young women in Nazi Germany as mostly negative.

Young women in Nazi Germany had some opportunities in the youth groups, which gave them positive experiences, but despite these limited positive

All girls had the expectation that they marry and become mothers. In Nazi Germany, marriage was considered as a moral obligation by the youth group leaders and the aim was to promote the specific standards which included motherhood (3G). Although there were positive impacts due to the important role women held, there were several negative consequences for each incentive, due to the fact that Hitler believed that by forcing women to have more children, the German Army could become much stronger and hence defeat all countries during war. There were many Nazi inducements which encouraged women to have children. Mother’s Day was declared as an official German holiday in May 1933 (2). This provided women with a special status in society and made them feel valued as people. However, this holiday was created to encourage more young women to have children. Due to these expectations of young women in Nazi Germany, they had limited prospects for the future and reduced freedom. Women were also persuaded to have a number of children due to the praise that they received from it. Mothers with three or more children under ten years old received “honorary cards” which allowed them to jump shopping queues and get payment discounts (Crossland, 2017).

Since many of the men were part of the Nazi Army, women were given the chance to partake in more masculine jobs. Women were able to work in farms that their husbands originally worked in. Marianne Mostowski spoke about how although the work in the farm was hard work and tiresome, she enjoyed it since it made her feel proud of the fact that she was an important asset to help Germany win the war (h). Even though women were made to feel special and honoured due to the contributions they were making to the country, they were only used because of the shortage of skills in Germany. In 1937, a law was passed which meant that women had to do a year of duty. They could work in a factory to help boost the German economy (History Learning Site, 2017). Women were used as a final option which was a negative impact on women as it made them feel looked down upon and made the impression that they were not as worthy or significant as men. Also, once men arrived back from the war, most women lost their jobs and returned back to how they were living before the war. Moreover, women did not have many chances to lead as they were not allowed to have a powerful position, which includes soldiers and members of the Nazi party (2). In turn, there were not any women in the