That sense of duty

I noticed when I was studying the letters from the Wilhelm Lőhe School that two words occurred quite often: camaraderie and duty.  Now, I’ve made one of the girls also notice the word “duty”.

All of these girls will have attended the meetings and training sessions of the BDM, the girls’ equivalent of the Hitler Youth. They would have thereby been indoctrinated.  This organisation at first glance seems much like our scouting and guiding movement. Young people are taught many useful life-skills, wear a smart uniform and get involved in a lot of outdoor activities. 

However it becomes a little more sinister, especially for the girls. They are to grow up to become useful women. Women were expected to be content with the bringing up children, working in the kitchen and going to church.  The latter may seem odd as the girls’ school was closed because it was a church school and did not teach Nazi values. Perhaps church was just a way of keeping the women occupied. 

Big families were encouraged, so that more Aryans may be born.  

The Lebensborn initiative was sinister. Women were encouraged to have good Aryan babies.  Single mothers were more than tolerated- as long as the father was a respected Nazi officer. Fantastic maternity homes and homes for young mothers were built. These became breeding centres. 

The BDM magazine again looks just like a scouting magazine – until you start looking at the book reviews. As the years went by, they changed from recommending outdoor activities to providing more and more articles about home-making. 

BDM girls were encouraged to think for themselves and not just think as their parents had thought. However, that thinking was encouraged to be anti-Semitic and over patriotic. Young girls aged 14-17 were encouraged to alert the authorities about anyone in their family who was thinking “wrongly”.  

The girls I am studying don’t seem that different from the young British women who lived through World War II. Our women worked in munitions factories, became land girls and took on many of the jobs that the men who had gone to war had left behind, including ones in middle management. The German girls had to do their RAD (compulsory work experience) and then war work. They had lived through hyperinflation and the depression which was worse in Germany than here because of the constraints put on the nation after the Great War. They were very young at the time of the hyperinflation but it would still have affected them and they lived with parents damaged by it.

Of course they wanted their country to be great. Why wouldn’t anyone want their own country to shine? 

In my latest novel, Erika, one of twins who have to run their father’s factory after he dies suddenly, and Frau Schmitz the secretary there, come up with their own version of what doing duty means. It is about being aware of the needs of others. And if that leads to Germany becoming great again, so be it.              

Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay

The Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) State Work Service

Living away from home

The girls tended to live in barracks and were often sent to different parts of the country even though other barracks might be nearer to their home. This made them rely on each other more and they developed a sense of camaraderie. They had some fun. They also gained a sense of duty. They received some training in the jobs mentioned below.    

Find out what you can about what life was like in the barracks. Pretend you are a young German woman living there. Write home about life in the barracks.

The type of work  

The organisation was originally for men and helped to keep them employed in the 1930s but was extended to young women as war broke out. It included useful training towards their later war work – Kriegsdienst – war work.

Work included:

·         Working on farms

·         Looking after the children and the home whilst the farmer’s wife got on with farm work.

·          Learning first aid.

·         Operating telephone exchanges.

·         Delivering post

Which of these jobs appeals to you most and why? Imagine you are a German girl writing to a friend about the work you are doing.

Exceptions

Girls were excused RAD if:

·         They found a job that was the equivalent of the RAD.  This is what Hani did in becoming the housekeeper at Schellberg Street.

·         They had attended a school that taught domestic duties such as the Piloty School in Nuremberg. They would only have to six months RAD instead of a year. At this school they learnt the art of scrubbing floors.

·         They had to take over the role of a father or brother who lost their life in the war. Twin sisters in The House on Schellberg Street had to take over their father’s business when he died suddenly.      

Imagine you have one of the reasons for not completing RAD. Write a formal letter to the RAD bureau explaining why you think you should be exempt. Outline exactly what you have been doing.  

Seminar 3 The House on Schellberg Street

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 

Sabine, 27 August 1939

Gerda, 4 December 1939

Anika, 16 April 1940

Helga, 17 August 1940

Erika, 10 May 1941

Anika, 15 November 1941

Helga, 18 January 1942

Erika, 15 June 1942

Ilse, 15 October 1943

Charlotte, 27 December 1943

Erika, 2 April 1944

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.

Hani, 19 April 1940

Sabine 2 June 1943

Charlotte 18 August 1943

Gerda 22 August 1943

Anika 22 October 1943

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

Helga 17 August 1940

Charlotte 5 January 1941  

Sabine 23 March 1942  

Charlotte 27 March 1942

Charlotte 18 August 1943

Anika 22 October 1943

Hanna Braun 7 November 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. 

       

    

   

Reichsarbeitsdienst

Literally the Reich’s Work Service. It was also known as the RAD. If young women had been to one of the schools where they learnt how to do housekeeping they only had to do half a year. The girls would go to camps and live in barracks. They were then taught a variety of skills including household management and childcare.  This was in line with the Nazi ideal of producing efficient mothers. After six months, the girls might have an outside placement, perhaps helping on a farm, helping a family that had over five children or helping at a hospital. They might have also been kept at the camp to help teach other girls. They would then go on to their Kriegshilfsdienst  

It was created in 1934 to help to reduce unemployment. However, as the war progressed there was plenty of employment especially for the men. At the time of our story it was mainly a training programme for women and got them ready for the later Kriegshilfsdienst though men involved still were used on major projects such as the construction of motorways.