You will find it easier to follow this is you have read the
book The House on Schellberg Street
The German girls’ story
Hard times
Why was life so hard in Germany for these girls?
·
The 1930s were hard for most of the world.
·
Germany had lost World War I (The Great War).
This made things even worse in Germany.
·
The girls were born just after the
hyperinflation in Germany during the 1920s. They may well have had siblings who
remembered it. Their parents certainly would have done. Imagine: you have to spend what you are paid as
so as you can before it loses value.
·
Their parents were damaged by war.
·
When World War II starts it get even worse.
Read some extracts about this. Try:
Helga, 18 February
1939
Anika,
15 November 1941
Helga,
18 January 1942
Erika, 15 June 1942
Imagine what it must
have been like for the girls. As well as what they mention remember also that
they had no internet, no moblie phones and no social media. Most of their news
in fact came via the round robin letter. They couldn‘t buy sweet, chocolate and
other snacks as easily as we can.
To do:
Read some of
extracts mentioned above and write a short letter or a diary entry as if you
were one of the girls.
The BDM – Bund Deutscher Mädel
The girls would
certainly have been members of this group. This was compulsory for girls aged
14 and above. You can get a flavour of what it was like by studying their
magazine – see cope here: http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/maedel.htm
Things to bear in
mind:
·
This smart
uniform and interesting club came at a time when there was shortage of money and a lot on unemployment.
·
It taught
the girls a lot about homemaking.
·
It made
the girls feel as if they were doing their bit towards making Germany great again.
Read more about
it here: http://www.bdmhistory.com/research/main.html
You can also see
some of the unifroms here:
To do:
Write a letter or
a diary entry about your first visit to the BDM. Talk about some of the activities you did,
what the other girls were like and how much you like your uniform.
The Reichsarbeitsdienst
This was
compulodory work experience for young German women, from 1935 onwards. Often they would work on farms but not as Land
Girls as we had in Britian. They would
take over the houeshold chores and childcare whilst the farmer’s wife carried
on looking after the farm.
If they had
attended one of the special schools that trained them in domstic duties, they
only had toi do six months RAD.
You can read
about this in the follwing extracts from Th
House on Schellberg Street.
The girls’ letters generally form 1942 onwards give quite a good
idea of the work they did, even if they don’t mention the word RAD.
You can also read more about it here: http://www.feldgrau.com/rad.html
To do:
Pretend you are another German girl and write a letter or diary
entry about your RAD.
The Kriegshilfsdienst
This was tagged
on to the end of the RAD and often involved similar work but also could sometimes
be more closley related to the war. Girls were often invovled in:
·
Working
in munitions factories
·
Looking
after hospital supplies
·
Looking
after the post
·
Working
a telephone exchange
Here are some examples from The House
on Schellberg Street:
Hani, 19 April 1940
Charlotte 18 August 1943
Anika 22 October 1943
Two themes came out in the original letters I read:
1. Camaraderie
2. Duty
Are these worthy qualities or is this Nazi propaganda? What is good about this? What is less good?
In groups make two lists.
Would you like this as a handy PDF? Download it here.
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