The Nuremberg Laws

Two new laws were created in Germany in 1935. They were known as the Nuremberg laws.

Blutschutzgesetz

Literally: “blood protection law” 

This defined how Jewishness was determined. Renate’s parents would not have been able to marry after 1935 and the divorce that they had in 1942 was really expected. Only pure Germans may marry other pure Germans and produce pure German children. If only one grandparent was Jewish, a marriage may be permitted. Renate had two Jewish grandparents so according to this law was a Mischling. If she’d have had three Jewish grandparents she would have been considered to be completely Jewish. If she had had only one, she might have been allowed to call herself German.  

            

Reichsbürgergesetz

Literally: Reich’s citizenship law

This robbed people who were not full Germans of many civil rights. This made legal former boycotts. Jews had lost the right already in 1933 to practise law or medicine.

Food for thought: 

Can you think of any other countries who have used or are indeed still using laws anything like this?  
Is there any way in which such laws could be protective? 
Why do you think the Germans wanted pure blood? 
  

 

Kinderlandverschickung

This was a little like our evacuation. However, German children tended not to stay in individual homes. They would stay in camps and be looked after by youth leaders. Children who do not need to be evacuated were encouraged to go on holidays organised by the same people who organised the evacuation. This offered another opportunity for Nazi indoctrination. The German girls in the novel get involved in this sort of activity.  

The Kinderlandverschickung existed before World War II. It had been a tradition to send young people to the countryside for recreational holidays. Even though the KLV sometimes requisitioned rooms in people’s homes, the children were brought together at the main camp for most of their meals and all of their entertainment. 

During the Nazi time children were sent on mass during the Easter and summer holidays to camps. It made the Nazi government look good. Many films and photos show happy children enjoying the countryside and being waved off by parents what had put their trust in the camp leaders. What we don’t see is the homesickness and the indoctrination.

Camps were run by Nazi approved teachers and later Hitler Youth leaders. There was a lot of camaraderie and group work. However, the children would have missed their family life. It started off with the children, playing together, learning to help each other with daily chores and learning to trust each other. But they began to lose individuality, especially those who were evacuated on a longer term basis. They were seen as the future of Germany. Marching and singing patriotic and anti-Semitic songs became part of what they did.

2.8 million children were sent to the camps with separate camps for boys and girls.

Strength was recognised and the weak were ridiculed.

The boys were prepared for the army, the girls for the three Ks – Kinder, Küche, Kirche  – children, kitchen church. 

If you had to be evacuated because of a war situation, would you prefer to live with your friends or within a family? 
Which do you think is best for the child?
How might being evacuated affect your schooling and your family life? 
What are the advantages of evacuation? 
And the disadvantages? 
Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?   
 

The Kriegshilfsdienst

Literally: War Help Service. From 1941, this was created as a half year extension to the Reichsarbetsdienst taken on by young German women. There was a similar programme for men until the war broke out but their war work was considered to be the conscription into the SA.

The German girls write much about this in the letters – in the actual ones and the ones I’ve fictionalised in the story. In the real letters the girls are writing from March 1942 to November 1944. Most of them complete their Reichsarbeitsdiesnt in that time and many of them are in their Kriegshilfsdienst. What they describe is actually what we might consider to be war work for any young woman: helping with the field post, manning the local telephone exchange, helping on farms, working in laboratories, air traffic control and helping look after children on the Kinderlandvershickung.

They talk a lot about duty in the letters.

Is it right and fair to expect young people to do their duty during war time?

Should they also do duty during peace time?

The Hitler Youth

In the Hani and Renate strands of the story we meet several members of the Hitler Youth. Sabine’s trainer is one of the organisers. Several of the German girls have brothers who are involved.  Hani has a romantic encounter with one of the young leaders. Gerda, the girl who lives on a farm, has one brother who becomes a little overenthusiastic and then towards the end of the war, the boys in the family that helps with the farm become determined to fight the invading American army. Fortunately, they calm down and don’t attempt this. In the last months of the war, they were taking orders from the SS. In the Hani strand they are ordered to clear the Special Class out of Haus Lehrs. They refuse.

The Hitler Youth was a slightly tougher organisation than the BDM, the girls’ equivalent organisation, though there are many similarities. It was much more intense than the Boy Scouts movement, though there were a few similarities there as well.  

Baldur von Schirach was the overall founder of both movements. In fact, he united all of the various Nazi youth movements in 1931.  

By 1936 it was compulsory to join. You could at that time pay the subs and not attend.  By 1939, attendance was compulsory also.

At six, a little boy could become a member of the Pimpf. Boys joined the Deutsches Jungvolk at age 10. They moved up into the Hitler Youth proper at 14.

The Heimwehr and the Home Guard

These two organisations are similar. They are made up of man too young or too old to join the main war effort or who are working in reserved occupations and who give some of their free time on a voluntary basis. They help to protect civilians. 

There are a few men in all three strands of the novel who take on this sort of work.  

However, in Germany it took a more sinister turn in 1944 and the Volkssturm, the people’s army, was created. This was a vicious force of former Heimwehr members, Hitler Youth and even BDM members. They were to do everything possible to protect the Fatherland.  It was a last ditch attempt by the German government. The Germans were beginning to lose the war. Also there was much fear that they would be badly treated by the liberators so this civilian population was encouraged to fight hard to the end. At least the patriotic German teen boys in our novel have the sense to capitulate early to the professional American soldiers. Not all did, and some lost their lives in a particularly gruesome way. 

The Volkssturm became a highly organised paramilitary organisation though was made up of mainly the Hitler Youth, men invalided out of the army and those who have been declared unfit for active service.  

Food for thought: 

Why do you think so many teen boys were willing to take on the Allies when they moved into Germany?
How might their training with the Hitler Youth have helped these young people?
The Heimwehr is similar to our own Home Guard. However, there are differences. Can you think what they might be?       

The Blackout

In our story, Renate does not see a stone in the road. It would not have been all that dark in July 194, but it would have been difficult to see and it is likely that she would not have had a battery for her cycle lamp. Notice that the local Policeman was more worried about the family having a door open letting light out than that an “enemy alien” had been out after curfew.        

The Blackout started on 1 September 1939, though was quickly revised in November 1939 because of the many accidents that happened. Accidents included people falling into rivers or being hit by cars.   

As well as streetlights being turned off, road signs and railway signs were removed. People had to put dark black curtains up to their windows. This cost a lot or money and didn’t always work. Sometimes windows were painted black or covered in card. This shut out daylight as well and caused low morale. Firms that had glass roofs had to paint them black. This was very costly.   

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.