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Women's Labor Service in Nazi Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Jill Stephenson
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Extract

The totalitarian pretensions of the Nazi party's leadership are nowhere better illustrated than in the belief that the entire German people could be “educated” to a sense of service to the Volk, that mythical national community whose sum was allegedly infinitely greater than its parts. Excluded from real power in the state— whatever was claimed about “the unity of party and state”—the party in the Third Reich assumed the role of “spiritual leader” of the community, with the task of reorienting the aspirations of men, women, and children away from the satisfaction of personal desires and ambitions and toward service. Germans were not merely to accept passively the wisdom of the regime's policies, but were positively to channel their concern and their energy into supporting them. In this way, ran the message, they would find deeper satisfaction than in the pursuit of selfish pleasure.

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Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 1982 , pp. 241 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1982

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65. Reichsgesetzblatt, 1936 I, Sept. 26, 1936, p. 747, and 1937 I, Nov. 24, 1937. p. 1298.

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76. The marriage rate rose from 7.9 per 1,000 of the population in 1932 to 9.7 in 1933 and 11.2 in 1934. From 1935–38 it fluctuated between 9.1 and 9.7, again reaching 11.2 in 1939. Figures from Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich, 1934, p. 27; 1937, p. 37; 1939–1940, p. 42; 1941–1942, p. 66.

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89. BA, Slg.Sch., 262, “Erlass des Führers …,” July 29, 1941.

90. IfZ, MA 441/5, frame 2–755206, Meldungen aus dem Reich, Nov. 10, 1941; IfZ, MA 441/5, frames 2–755478–81, Meldungen aus dem Reich, Dec. 15, 1941; cf. Gersdorff, Frauen im Kriegsdienst, pp. 68–69.

91. VB, Sept. 8, 1933.

92. Maschmann, Fazit, pp. 38, 94–105, 134–35.

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97. Hierl, Im Dienst, pp. 110–11.

98. Bajohr, “Weiblicher Arbeitsdienst,” pp. 355–56; Winkler, Frauenarbeit, p. 132.

99. Gersdorff, Frauen iin Kriegsdienst, pp. 69–70.

100. IfZ, MA 294, frame 2–562575, letter from Frau Else Bruger, Adelsheim, to Brandt, on Himmler's staff, Feb. 23, 1945.

101. BA, Slg.Sch., 262, notice from Stuckart, in the Ministry of the Interior, n.d. (early Mar. 1945?).

102. Maschmann, Fazit, p. 135; Winkler, Frauenarbeit, p. 131.

103. Rupp, Mobilizing Women, pp. 133–34. Rupp is concerned with presenting the image of women in Nazi propaganda, rather than the reality of life. Some of her remarks about the Women's Labor Service, especially on p. 134, misleadingly give the impression that the reality was the same as the image projected.

104. Winkler, Frauenarbeit, pp. 131, 80.

105. BA, NS 22/2037, “Rundschreiben 11/41—Aktivierung der Dorfkultur,” Sept. 12, 1941.

106. BA, R 77/63, “Die Durchführung des politischen Unterrichtes im Winterhalbjahr 1942/43,” Oct. 19, 1942.

107. Winkler, Frauenarbeit, pp. 131–32.

108. BA, Slg.Sch., 368, Partei-Kanzlei-Korrespondenz, notes for a speech by Friedrichs, July 20, 1944.