Women’s lives in Nazi Germany:
Women had to live their lives by Kinder,
Kuche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church);
 Kinder – expected to have 4 children for
the Fuhrer at minimum;
 Received medals for having a set number
of children (called Mother’s Crosses);
 Marriage loans of 1000 marks could be
paid off by having children (250 marks per
child);
 Childless couples paid more tax;
 Women encouraged to exercise and live a
plain life.
 Kuche – women’s work was managing the
home;
 Girls were taught budgeting and making
do with rations;
 Hitler believed that the ‘man’s world’ was
built on the foundations of the woman’s.
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Children’s lives in Nazi Germany:
Year 9 Learn Sheet
Exam Week 3
Life in Nazi Germany
Remember, you could be assessed on
any topic you have studied so far!
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Women’s lives were very
different to how they were in the
1920s;
During the Roaring ‘20s women
voted and worked – this was
because Germany was a forwardthinking democracy;
Women wore short dresses, cut
their hair short, smoked and
drank alcohol. Many enjoyed
these freedoms.
 Hitler knew that children were vulnerable;
 He wanted his ‘magnificent youngsters’ to be cruel, violent
and driven;
 Children spent as much time away from their parents as
possible and were indoctrinated (brainwashed);
 At school boys were taught physics (rocketry), geography
(map reading), maths (weights of bombs) to prepare for
war – the Hitler Youth took boys away on summer camps;
 Girls were taught eugenics (finding the perfect ‘mate’),
home economics and maths (budgeting);
 Some children resisted the Nazis. The Scholl siblings were
beheaded for distributing leaflets about how the Nazis
shouldn’t get away with taking people’s freedoms;
 The Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth were gangs of
teenagers who liked American culture. They beat up and
even murdered Nazi officials.
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Thinking back
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Workers’ lives in Nazi Germany:
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Nazi Propaganda
 Used to threaten
enemies and motivate
supporters;
 Controlled by
Goebbels;
 Nazis censored news;
sold cheap radios;
arranged the
Nuremberg Rallies;
enforced the Heil
Hitler salute;
 Germans knew better
than to resist.
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 Hitler did not care for workers. They
traditionally voted for the Nazi’s enemies, the
communists;
Hitler banned trade unions, setting up a Nazi
version, the National Labour Front, which set
men aged 18-25 at work on projects like
motorways;
Striking was banned – Hitler needed to make
sure that nothing would get in the way of
weapons being made;
Rewards were offered to workers through the
Strength Through Joy programme – these
included cruises, holiday camps (one
apartment block was built at Prora) theatre
and cinema tickets and Volkswagen cars;
No Volkswagen car was every delivered to
workers – the money for coupons was spent
on making weapons;
Unemployment went from 6 million to almost
nothing by 1938;
However, most Jews and women lost their
jobs;
It was the middle class who benefitted the
most from rewards;
On average workers worked 72 hours a week
and pay was low;
The eintopf (‘one pot’) meal encouraged by
the Nazis showed that luxuries were scarce.
Nazi Terror
Terror State controlled by Himmler (SS leader);
 Used to punish enemies/increase paranoia;
 Included the Gestapo (secret police) and
concentration camps;
 Germans ‘spoke through a flower’ – only said
good things.
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