History and Political Science. Examine the roles of men and women in fascist Germany - Essay Example

? Running head: History and Political Science   Examine the roles of men and women in fascist Germany Insert Insert Grade Insert Name 20 April 2012 Traditionally, women in Germany have always been considered inferior to men and this has been ingrained into the German laws, customs, and religions that have defined German cultures over time. Women were historically controlled by men with unmarried women and girls controlled by their fathers and then their husbands after marriage1. Men were always superior with male children occupying higher pedestals than their female counterparts. Women in Germany did not hold any property rights and even upon the death of their husbands they could not inherit anything and were required to find a male guardian to care for her children. This discrimination was based on the premises that women were more emotional than men and hence their intellectual capacities were limited by their emotional nature. They were even discriminated by their men counterparts in the church who considered them weak to the temptations of the flesh because of emotions2. Though church men felt that the women should be excluded from the church, they were allowed to participate in some religious ceremonies but were excluded on other activities like singing. Overtime, women gained several milestones and they started gaining little education which men felt allowed them to be better mothers and cooks. World War 1 thrust women into men roles and they excelled in the home fronts carrying out gender roles traditionally performed by men. Under the Weimar republic (1919-1933), women were given more freedom which enabled them to accomplish many goals previously under the male domain. The Weimar republic made secondary requirement a right for women in 19203 where women were officially allowed to vote. However, the German-male-dominated political field did not empower women to participate in politics and this still confined women to traditional roles of the child rearing and housekeeping. The gains that women made in the beginning of the 19th century were undone when Hitler ascended and consolidated all power in 1933. The Nazi regime reinforced the traditional gender roles historically present in medieval Germany by stating that there was a natural distinction between men and women. They believed that men were productive and creative in the spheres of politics and war whereas women were emotional and reproductive suitable for maintaining homes and the family. German women were expected to follow the "kinder, kirche und kuche" (children, kitchen, and church)4 philosophy. This foundation was the premises in which women conducts were expected to follow, and any deviants were frowned upon. The Nazi regime made women believe that through submissiveness, domesticity, and mother hood they were developing their nation and their own selves but in reality the Nazi regime wanted the men to completely oppress the women. Though not all women supported their restriction to gender roles, many women welcomed the Nazi regimes move as good for the family. The fascist Nazi regime philosophies and ideals significantly changed the employment landscape, with many intelligent women doctors, teachers, civil servants and lawyers being summarily dismissed leaving very few women professionals. The fields left vacant by women in the professional field were filled by similarly qualified men of German origin and because women and other non German population were not formally recognized as true Germans unemployment in the German states declined sharply. The Nazi regime under Hitler expected all German men to obtain an income through hard work. They organized their finances and funded a large program for work creation. Men were sent through the National Labour Service to work in public works and conservation projects which were primarily focused on building highly networked motorways, railways lines, and reclamation projects5. Through highly developed industrialization plans aimed at rearmament, Hitler introduced conscription for the German army and this reduced unemployment for the men. An extensive army increased the need for weapons equipment and uniforms that further increased the available jobs for lay men, engineers, and designers who were traditionally male. Hitler also introduced a law for the encouragement of marriage, which promised newly married couples a loan of 1000 marks; when the first child was born they could keep a quarter of the money and they could successfully keep all the loan if they gave birth to four kids6. In line with the child rearing role women were expected to fulfil, the women were discouraged from slimming as it was not good for child bearing. Special homes were set up for unmarried mothers that could facilitate the unmarried women getting pregnant by racially pure German men. The obsession with repopulation through child bearing in the fascist Germany for women is also illustrated by a new law of 1943, which wanted to make it compulsory for all single and married women up to the age of thirty five who do not already have four children to produce four children by racially pure German men7. The law proposed to release married men who had four children for purposes of procreation outside the home. The fascist government was very unjust to women and considered them inferior; suitable for child bearing only by taking their right to man of choice and the father of their children. Men did not have much restrictions placed on them by the government as they were considered intelligent and capable of making wise decisions. The Nazi regime reversed the progress of women equality as Nazism promoted the stereotypical roles, which fundamentally did not recognize women as able of progressive developmental projects. The regime dissolved all existing women groups, stunted higher education for women, banned abortion and contraceptive use among its women population. Through lack of education and forced to stay at home, the German women were deprived of their rights as human beings and this reduced their self esteem as they could not compete against men or actively pursue careers of their choice. The men also had various rights deprived under the guise of nationalism and employment. It is true to say that despite working hard to create industrial development to Germany, they were overworked, performed compulsory labour work and compulsory military service that made them into mere instruments for the German Nazi regime. The Nazi regime maintained control of the citizens by using various tactics that deprived both men and women information and justice. At eighteen, it was mandatory for all German men to go to the labour service for six months. It was deceptive in that the manual work hardened the men making them ready for the army8. The men were housed in camps and they had to march to work every day. They had very low wages that were mitigated by provision of meals and shelter. With completion of the mandatory labour service men were forcibly conscripted into the army. German male workers had no rights; their trade unions were banned and were replaced by the Nazi labour front, which organized cheap festivals and demonstrations9. To make sure that the country’s children would be ready for fascism, the Nazi regime adopted a gradual method of indoctrinating the country’s children that started at the nursery level, the plans were different for boys and girls in line with their principle of girls becoming mothers and housewife’s and men becoming workers and soldiers. The third Reich republished books and new nursery rhymes were introduced which encouraged the children to violence. The books introduced the kids to weapons and encouraged them to play with guns; their main objective was to promote violence through bloodshed and anti-Semitism10. The regime introduced different girls and boys schools on which the two sexes had different curricula systems. The girls’ education was centred to child care and cooking which effectively curtailed the women from any career in future. The boys however studied foreign languages, maths, and sciences which created a strong foundation for careers in the military and industrialization. Propagandist lessons and curriculum were drawn up and published by the Nazi systems and the lessons mainly included Nazi beliefs and ideology eugenics and elimination of the inferior people in the society11. To completely maintain their hold on the children, they were compelled to join pro-Nazi youth organizations with boys joining Pimpfen progressing to the German youth and the Hitler youths. The girls joined the German maidens. They were exposed to National Socialism and Nazi ideology in supposedly extracurricular activities planned during the weekends, which effectively occupied both girls and boys preventing them from developing anti-Nazi sentiments12. This denied them free time of which they could actively participate in other avenues of learning and providing their regime of monitoring the parents through sentiments and ideas generated by the children. The Nazi regime conducted extensive propaganda to the adult population about the German family illustrating the desired gender roles of the German population. The regime introduced various awards to women of German origin who had many children and they were recognized by the state as mothers of the nation. Through deceit and coercive manipulation, Hitler succeeded in getting support of majority of the people. He consolidated his power by banning political parties and exterminating their leaders. To fully implement his plan, only Nazi personnel would be employed to senior positions in government, the civil service, and teachers. The high militarization of most of the country’s structures ensured that there was no room for dissent in the working population. The Nazi party had set up the Gestapo, a secret police force which spied on people and helped reduce any dissent among the German population. The police and the Gestapo had unlimited power, which was not under the law and it had the power to arrest and discipline any person who attempted to oppose or ridicule the Nazi party or Hitler. The government strictly regulated all books, radio programmes, news papers and the regime banned many writers, painters and composers who did not approve of the Hitler’s mode of leadership. This ensured that the people remained ignorant of what was happening in their country as well as around the world and it effectively helped him manipulate Germans to his will. With absolute control over the people of Germany, Hitler was able to advance his ideologies of creating a unique pure German race under a fascist regime. The German men were called to fight with the enemies of the Germany who were considered racially inferior. They were expected to posses honour, patriotism, bravely and duty and were called to forfeit their lives for the survival of Germany. The German men under Nazi rule were supposed to increase the German population by regularly having sexual intercourse with racially suitable men. The German women were to refrain from sex with inappropriate men lest they be forever spoiled with their children becoming racially impure13. German women caught having sex with-non German women were to be severely and publicly punished because they had disgraced their honour and had offended not only the German honour in general but the honour of all German males14. The German women had an honour to protect i.e. their sexual honour belonged to the German men and the German nation and thus they had to protect that honour. Despite the Nazi regime crafting laws prohibiting sexual intercourse between German males and non Germans, their enforcement was much less mild and less objectionable than German women having intercourse with non Germans. Under the Nazism ideology German women were to be evaluated according to the degree to which they adhered to gender norms. The racial quality of all the women in fascist Germany was to be their gender quality and this determined how the justice system and the German men handled the women. Women were supposed to behave according to the accepted norms of the Germans and if they deviated from the norms even under the face of sexual exploitation the crimes went unpunished. The German man had a role to protect women from harm and this was in line with the existing laws of the land. However, sexual violence especially against German women would be severely reprimanded but only certain kinds of women and children were worthy of protection. Men who raped German women acting in accordance to gender norms were subject to severe criticism and punishment. But when the woman transgressed the gender cocoons instituted by the Nazi regime, she was blamed for the offence. On the face of sexual abuse, female children were often blamed by the regime for provoking the sexual violence but in case male child were sexually abused, the men responsible were severely dealt with for damaging the strength of the nation and the military because their actions put the men at risk of developing homosexual tendencies. This underscores the importance of function males were accorded in the German society and as thus they had a tough role to fulfil. Wanting to cleanse Germany of all inferior people, the Nazi party under Hitler orchestrated the holocaust that was a systematic, state sponsored persecution and mass murder of Jews. The Nazi regime believed that the mentally handicapped, physically challenged, homosexuals, lesbians, religions and cultures were not worth of existence and they embarked on a vicious and horrific mass murder of men, women and children considered racially inferior. To survive the onslaught, both women and men developed specific roles in the resistance that followed mainly for survival. The Nazi regime rounded up able bodied men of inferior races mainly the Jews and deported them to forced labour camps. Because men faced the risk of deportation when they ventured outside, the married women assumed the tasks and roles of performing chores outside their family homes like standing in line for food. To reduce the reproduction of racially inferior races, the Germans introduced sterilization laws in 1934 to prevent lives of unworthy life15. The Nazi regime used forced abortions for all Jews in the ghettos16. They sometimes secretly used toxic chemicals that were planted in unsuspecting women prisoners’ food and the chemicals resulted in tremendous pain, internal haemorrhaging, itching and the rupturing in the mouth cavity of women resulting in painful holes17. They also used x-rays to destroy women ovaries resulting in infertility. To exterminate the women, the Nazi regime used toxic gasses to kill their hapless victims. The men were forced to work under exhaustion till they dropped dead while others were shot when they could no longer work. Women were predominantly sexually abused in the camps and these crimes largely went unpunished but men were overworked and exposed in the Nazi labour camps till they died. German men and women who did not conform to the gender ideals of the fascist regime were persecuted by the Nazi regime and forced to conform to the ideal norms. German homosexuals were considered part of the German master race and they were forced to conform sexually and socially. Those who were not willing to switch to heterosexuals were sent to concentration camps where they were exterminated through work under hazardous conditions. Others were jailed and some were castrated as a means of ending their corrupt lineage. The women lesbians were not heavily persecuted as they were seen easier to persuade to conform to accepted social and sexual norms. The deviant cultures of German men and women was seen as a threat to the ideal gendering roles imposed by the Third Reich and had to be dealt with effectively. During this painful and dark period, both women and men faced dehumanizing and painful events and each gender endured unique and different emotions and experiences enabling them to survive. Women developed extraordinary caring for one another due to the pre occupation with hunger and looking for food. Their strong social bonding under threatened and heightened risk of sexual violations, physical abuse, and sexual humiliation enabled them to develop efficient home making skills that enabled them to cope with their sufferings18. This closeness was very important to the Jews under persecution as it prevented complete breakdown of the women that would have resulted in mass hysteria, depressions, and could have led to more social problems for the women. Though the men had their own methods of dealing with their humiliations, the gender expectations of men did not allow the display of weaknesses as it was considered un-masculine and a form of weakness. The atrocities performed by the Nazi regime were largely concealed from the rest of the populations and they in turn were not concerned about the rest of the communities under exterminations. Though there were widespread unconfirmed reports of what was going on, many German and non-German men and women lacked the will to oppose or resist the Hitler regime. But there were a few German men and women who helped the Jews under persecution. Under threats to their safety, these courageous men and women resisted the gender roles and ideals thrust upon them by Hitler. German women resisted the Nazi regime during the Rosenstrasse protest, while others hid persecuted Jews, lesbians and rescued Jewish children challenging the stead fast notion that women were submissive and only suited for child bearing and rearing. The Rosenstrasse protest happened in Berlin and started when Jewish husbands of German women were arrested and deported to Auschwitz with the Nazi regime having an ulterior motive of ridding Berlin and its environs Jews. The Nazi regime had promised these Jewish men and women protection from deportation but regardless of the promises they were incarcerated and faced an uncertain future alongside other Jews19. The protesting women compelled the Nazi regime to release their Jewish husbands; something that had never happened before. The courageous German women had challenged the men’s’ ultimate power over their lives and had succeeded using peaceful means. Many other German women risked their lives and abandoned the traditional passive roles and they undertook missions to save and sustain life especially of Jewish children20. The German women rejected their traditional roles and undertook to save men, women and children and they had an advantage in that the Nazi men would not expect the women to resist and hence did not question their daily activities. Notable women who courageously defied the Nazi ideals include Lilly Wust who was happily married, had given four sons, and hence decorated by the Nazi government as a mother to the Reich. But she fell in love with Jewish woman when her husband was overseas fighting. Her friend was then arrested and sent to a concentration camp. When she could not see her friend in prison she instituted an annulment of her marriage and secretly sheltered several Jewish women in the lesbian community. Lily Wust abandoned all German Nazi ideals cherished by many German women and resolved to help the Jewish women who eventually survived the holocaust at her own risk of being sent to a concentration camp. She was recognized by Yad Vashem, the memorial museum in Israel, as one of the righteous among the nations -gentiles who assisted Jews during the holocaust21. German men had no chances of resistance against Hitler because of the ruthless way protesters and opponents of the regime were quelled. Many Germans especially communists and democrats under persecution fled their country and actively pressed the international community to act to save the Jews. They operated illegal newspapers and operated underground networks that either helped to rescue the Jews in the ghettos or supplied them with food. The Nazi regime used various methods of instilling fear and deception to closely monitor and oppress the Jews and other non Germans races. The established German police and the expanded military severely inhibited the abilities of civilians especially in Germany to oppose the blood thirsty regime successfully through various methods of policing, spying, and peddled lies. Though many Germans had reservations about what was happening, the intentional misinformation, propaganda, and systematic deprivation of the right to choose for everybody ensured that the Nazi regime was fully in control. Under threat of death, torture and forced labour that could result in death, many honourable men and women remained indifferent to the sufferings of the Jews as they did not have any capacity to effect any meaningful help except that of saving Jewish children and providing food and shelter to some of the Jews under persecution. By restricting women to domestic roles which entailed submissiveness to the men and rescinding the right of women to work prior to the war. The Nazi regime planned the complete oppression of the women and subsequently they lost their self esteem and could not question anything that was done by the men or the government. The day to day challenges of fending for food and child rearing preoccupied the women and they did not have any chance or avenue to have a common voice as women groups had been banned. The intensive spying networks of the Gestapo made sure that everybody remained mum of the happenings as been outspoken could result in immediate arrest for correction. Coupled with an ineffective education and censored media, German women had very limited avenues of actively opposing the fascist regime and were content to just fulfil their roles for the safety of their families. The men were conscripted into the army and labour groups, which were organized and managed in a military style. In the labour camps the men will to choose was broken down and this is seen by how the work-shy Germans were treated by their own countrymen. Though they were given work and employment on a permanent basis, German men were slaves in their own country with no right to choose their path in life. The Nazi regime expected total obedience to orders given by its officials and through militarization ordinary men had no avenues to front their reservations of the regime. The masculinity ideals and Nazi ideology that was indoctrinated into the army made the men view all other races as inferior and hence they orchestrated a brutal campaign to rid Germany of Jews who was ranked at the bottom of the social hierarchy. By participating in mass killings German soldiers developed a comradeship that celebrated the annihilation of the Jews by shooting and those who did not participate in the killings were labelled as unpatriotic and cowards, a thing that exposed them to ridicule from their peers. The Jews men and women were particularly hapless against the German onslaught because they were unarmed and had hopes that the German regime would conscript them into labour camps. The communities largely disbelieved that the Germans were killing them by the thousands and hence many men and women refused to join resistance groups. Only under very certain death did some of them resort to fighting however bleak it was. Their resolve was remarkable and both courageous women and men fought actively or supported their members through organized courier services and weapon smuggling. The fascist regime in German was manipulative, power greedy and at best dictatorial. The Nazi regime killed millions of Jews and facilitated the mass relocation of millions of others under inhumane conditions. The sheer magnitude of the atrocities committed by the fascist regime made many Germans civilians and Jews disbelieve the reports reaching them. By controlling the information flow their human abuses continued unabated and the international community watched without help until they were threatened by Hitler’s greed for power. Though many people would condemn the Germans for the atrocities of Hitler’s regime, their rights were also infringed upon making them powerless in most aspects of their life. The fear of the Gestapo and the military police effectively put to rest any questions, reports, or comments that attempted to criminalize or condemn the actions of the regimes as those who did were killed or imprisoned. Through the idealist German gender roles, Hitler was able to define the social life of Germans and in so doing control their lives to suit the fascist regime he was creating. The German people never knew they were being led into slavery until it was too late and they had no options but to follow the highly contradicting virtues of the regime. No race is superior to the other and all people are equal. Entertaining racial superiority complexes in the minds of people is a recipe for genocide disasters as seen by the German holocaust. It should forever remind the human race the violence and evil inherently in us that should be controlled collectively by all people. No country, man or woman should be allowed to create a fascist government or country and we should all opt for independent democracies to avoid the human atrocities of the scales witnessed. References Aldhous, P, Germany: The Backbreaking Work of Scientist-Homemakers. Science, Volume 263, 1994 p.1975 Chris, T, The Role of Women in Nazi Germany, 2010, April 2012. Cohen, B, The ethics of using medical data from Nazi experiments. 2003, April 2012. Craig, G, The Germans, New York, Penguin Books, 1991 p.148 Deborah, D, ‘LamedVovniksof Twentieth?Century Europe: Participants in Jewish Child Rescue,’ Resistance Against the Third Reich 1933?1990. Michael Geyer and John W. Boyer, eds. 1994 p.104. Friedlander, S, Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume I: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939, New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1997 p.152 Modern world history: Nazi Germany, How did the lives of people change in Nazi Germany? 2012, April 2012. Ofer, D., & Weitzman, L, (Eds), Women in the Holocaust. 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