Page 5Eric Thomas-Professor WilsonHow Women were viewed in Nazi GermanyWomen in Nazi Germany played a pivotal role at home and on the warfront. Women took on major roles such as head of households, a part of the Nazi regime and a single parent. Women under the Nazi regime wereraised to be good mothers raising their children at home while the husband was at work and the same during the war. Women were taught at a young age that they should embrace that lifestyle because that should be the lifestyle they should grow accustomed to. This often lead historians to view women in this period as victims of a male dominated society during a time in which they had just been granted newly acquired freedoms within the public view after many decades of fighting. Some historians agree to this sentiment and at the same time some disagree and they feel they had a much different, bigger role and also the way they are viewed from an historical standpoint. Women in Nazi Germany are also seen as villains due to helping carry out the harsh crimes of the Nazis during World War Two. While some were seen as stay at home moms, some historians say these Nazi women had an appeal to them. The appeal was so strong they were used in supporting the Nazi regime in an enthusiastic way. Under Nazi ideology, women were to be seen as equal to men because they were given more opportunities, if they met the standards. However, a far cry from the Weimar Republic and the push for equality among men and women had Nazi Regime. Changes would be fundamental and come at the expense of Germany's racial enemies. Racially superior Germans were to be gathered and brought together under Hitler vision of the ideal German society which came to be known as the Volksgemeinschaft. Volksgemeinschaft is a racial community which division of party and class would be transcended in a spirit of racial harmony that would exclude people not considered a part of the Aryan race. Under this ideology women were basically broken off into two categories: villains and victims. One way women were viewed in Nazi Germany was as a villain. These privilege Aryan women, in which Jill Stephenson likes to classify them as in her book, Women in Nazi Germany, were portrayed in various Nazi propaganda videos and was show to have blond hair and really beautiful. They were held to a higher regard within Nazi Germany. These women were often given special jobs and had more opportunities within the Nazi government. While they were not allowed to hold an office, they were often good jobs. Kathrin Kompsich points out in her book Female Perpetrators: Women under National Socialism, these women help aid in some of the war crimes the Nazi committed. They got jobs such as assistants to the doctors who sterilized and murdered disabled people and as guards in the concentration camps. Kompsich also states Women typed the statistics of the murdered victims of the SS Action Squads in the east, operated the radios which called up for more bullets, were invariably the secretaries. They women were just seen to be better than the other women in Nazi Germany. Kompsich also points out during peacetime the job opportunities within the private sector, military jobs, and government jobs became available to these women. Hitler and his regime actively block women from holding a public position; however he encouraged what Kompsich called Nazi terror. Just as blue eyed, blond haired men was seen as the ideal mold of men in Nazi Germany's superior Aryan race, Hitler believed that a special kind of woman could only reproduced Aryan children that will strengthen the country in the long run. Hitler wanted the population of Germany to increase due to the declining birth rate after the first world war and offered incentives for families to reproduce much as possible however he also weeded out the best of the best women that was deemed racially pure. Women; just like men, went through various test that went on to figure out if family genealogy making sure they were pure German and also make sure they were healthy. The healthy women would be deemed good for reproduction and these women received were given incentives for reproducing babies. According to Charu Gupta in the article Politics of Gender: Women In Nazi Germany, he writes Aryan mothers, to be encouraged to have more children and to be made fit to do so by the new impassion physical training which the Nazis introduced in schools, work places and organizations such as the League of German Girls. These ideals were pushed onto girls at a young age so whenever they are of age, they would already know what to expect when they are adults.While women in who were apart of the Nazi propaganda movement were viewed in higher regard, the rest of the women were seen differently. These women didn't exactly get the same treatment as the healthy German women. Historians saw this group of women as victims under Nazi control. Renate Bridenthal author of "When Biology Became Destiny, Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany" wrote that women, who are enslaved economically and morally, cannot exercise their freedom by being confined in the home and placed under the rule of their husbands. Block argues these women were victims due to machismo and even more so under fascism. They were subjected to various laws and unfair treatment due to being not full German, non-Aryan or as they called them mullattos. They were also subjected to racial hygiene that required sterilization to any person suffering from hereditary disease in which explained these women they were victims in the way they were treated by their government. They did not receive the same rights as those who were racially pure. These women could also produce if they were eligible. The women were treated as just a way to reproduce solders for the country and housewives who live were controlled beyond imagination. They were expected not to alter their appearance by dyeing their hair or putting on makeup of any sorts. They were told not to be well built because being skinny would be bad for child birth and could par take in things such as smoking due to it being non German to do so. These women would be deemed as inferior mothers. These German women would not be able to reproduce by law and therefor they would be sent to be sterilized in order to ensure Aryan children are only to be born. Couple historians did come to a similar conclusion about women in Nazi Germany as a whole: the entire focus under the Nazi regime was to be on domesticity and motherhood. The role of the women was celebrated and held up as important, however women in Nazi Germany was seen inferior to men in almost every aspect. In Nazism, 1919-1945: Vol.2, state, economy and society, Authors Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Prindham examined how women were viewed under Hitler dictatorship. They write It started when the Nazi regime took control of the country. Theyre advancement was suppressed due to the party not seeing a place for women in the ranks. Ute Frevert stated although Nazi leaders did try far as possible to put their concepts of strict gender specific segregation and division of labor into practice, the exigencies of the situation almost always ran counter to their intentions. Kompsich words are similar to this as she states at the end of the war they tried to diminish their responsibility by saying they were just cogs in the all-male machine which gave the orders. Kompsich and Frevert seem to both agree that women involved in the war; primarily under the Third Reich, tried to throw the all the blame on men but however that's not totally the case. In retrospect the women are just as much to blame in this situation but they found it easy to blame men and slide under the radar for their actions and they take no responsibility otherwise but more so blame it on the system that was create to suppress women even though the ones that was specifically employed by the Nazi German government did nothing to stop what was actually going on. Women and men were supposed to exist in separate spheres according to Nazi ideology with the think that the separate spheres had a biological basis. Hitler stated the world of women is a smaller world. For her world are her husband, her family, her children, and her house. Hitlers words showed how women were viewed in Nazi society. He tries to empower them by saying they have an ultra-important role in the countries doings however he also belittles them and shows total segregation saying it's their duty to take care of the family, children, and home and they were to learn this at a young age and continue this as they grow older and start their own families as their husband is away at work or fighting in the war. At the same time, women embraced this ideology. Claudia Koonz, author of Mothers in the fatherland: women, the family, and Nazi politics, believes that German feminist went along with the Glieichschltung; in which was the Nazi system which brought total control of everything in society. With the strong voices of women set aside, women felt the need to follow suit with the mindset of things being ok since the ones who typically represents them is going along. Noakes and Prindham explains how women in Germany was least likely to challenge Hitlers view when it came towards women. Hitler believes the women runs the small world and it's the duty of the greater world' to fight for the smaller one. He gives women a greater sense of being important but at the same time he still did not view them on equal footing as men and only saw them as a means of reproduction. Noakes and Prindham also go on to explain how Hitler said the women needed to make sure they be at home to preserve the nation when the men are out protecting it. This sense makes it seem like they are in need of protection no matter what and they must stay out of harms way. Nazi Germany domestic policies towards family life, work and women was penetrated and private sectors of German life was controlled by the government which mainly those within the lower class being affected more than other social classes within Nazi Germany. In Tim Mason's book Women in Germany, 1925-1940: Family, Welfare and Work, Mason brought up points such as women of the working class being silent sufferers. These were women who did not fight for push or change and went along with whatever was going on. This reference was to women during the Weimar Republic who pushed for equal rights under the law, in the job sector and pushed for equality in the political arena also. As noted Mason, he explains during the Weimar Republic, there were an increasing number of women being hired to positions such as fashion-conscious young typist and clerks, some women doctors, civil servants, and headmistresses. these jobs were gaining traction until the Nazi regime stepped in and enforced their policies. Koonz points out a similar sentiment as she went on to explain how women were not forced so they shouldn't be seen as victims of Nazi Totalitarianism, but their motherly instincts kicked in and backed away knowing their silence would somewhat keep the peace among the male Nazi authority figures. This is truly event when Koonz writes few women Nazis voices spoke from the past or, more precisely, from the sources of the national archives. What Koonz is pointing out is the women who fought for womens suffrage during the Weimar Republic is nowhere to be found and they are just as silence as the women under Nazi rule and with this they cannot be painted as victims because they refused to speak up when women needed a voice in a male dominated society under Nazi control. Women in Nazi Germany were seen in two ways: as victims of a male dominated society and villains in which they knowingly help carry out the crimes of the Nazi regime. They are seen as both but historians do come to somewhat agreement that a good portion of when did little to nothing to keep from being suppressed. All the rights they had gained from years of fighting gone in the Totalitarian government. They felt that they didnt have a voice anymore when the leaders from the past were not there to give them something to fight forbut at the same by with being context. In a historical perspective, the women in Nazi Germany was seen as baby making machines in order to help increase the population in the down time and be stay at home moms to preserve ideals. They were given incentives and loans for having children and were offered easy divorces in which if it wasnt possible for children to be conceived. With every good story comes a bad one. The Nazi regime also did not want women who were racially pure to conceive children because they wanted a pure Aryans to conceive and populate the country for the future. This lead to sterilization of many that was considered disable, sometimes exile and even death when it came down to it. Those same pure Aryan women helped during those procedures and helped carry out the horrors of taking someones right away as they were deemed not to be perfect. Historians do come together and believe if there was a stringer push among the women, they could have been seen more equal footing with men but when they choose to stand by and let the Nazi regime do what they needed to and control their a major component of their lives, they became just as much the problem because they did nothing to help find a solution