Nazi Germany Research Paper

Education was important to the Nazis as they understood that they would be able to easily influence children to follow the Nazi ideology and saw it as a way to control the role of women. They targeted girls with two groups, the Jungmadel which consisted of 10 to 13 year olds and the Bund Deutscher Madel which consisted of girls from the age of 14 to 18 year olds. "As soon as the Nazis came to power, they set about eliminating all other rival youth organisations, just as they Nazified the rest of German Life" In other words the Nazis felt youth organisations were key to the future of Hitler’s Germany and the only way to ensure the Thousand Year Reich. Moreover Hitler indicated just how pivotal he felt the youth groups were as the Nazis went
Hitler did not disregard young people or underestimate their political value. This shows how the Nazi Party was able to manipulate girls from a young age so that they would not have known any difference to the Nazi ideology. The BDM, open to older girls from 14 to 18, also attracted Girls because of the view of how they were wanted when they grew up. It also appealed to many girls as they enjoyed all of what the BDM offered. Girls like "Susanne von der Borch [who] was 'the ideal German girl' - tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed and mad about sport: …" This demonstrates how they appealed to Girls not only through their ideology but also encouraged events such as sport as they would be healthier and have more chance of becoming a mother in the future but it also appealed due to the fact that they got a mix of sport and education. In terms of education they were taught how to care for their home. Hitler wanted the National Socialist movement to appeal to all levels of society, including the young and the only way of sustaining his Third Reich was to appeal to women, as women were expected to stay at home and look after the family ensuring a high birth rate for the growth of the population. Education was surprisingly successful when assessing how Hitler changed the role of women to suit his needs as he provided an alternative to school studies with the youth groups which appealed to many as it also meant that they could be in different communities and meet different people as they wanted to remove the idea of social class. When addressing whether women's status improved due to the education in Hitler Youth groups the evidence suggests it didn't improve women's status as they were taught to be subservient to men and were taught things such as cleaning, cooking and learning the Nazi ideals for