3. Why did the Nazis want to increase the birth rate?
4. What methods did they use to try to increase the birth rate?
Marriage loans were not the only means the Nazis used to increase the birth rate. They also provided maternity benefits, family allowances and medals for mothers with large families. As a result, the birth rate increased between 1933 and 1939. But the Nazis also sterilised (made infertile) some
women, ‘for the prevention of hereditary diseased offspring’ (to prevent children born with disabilities).
Life for the Jews in Nazi
2Examine the life of Jews in Nazi Germany
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Germany Racist ideas influenced the Nazis very much. The Nazis believed the Germans were the pure-blooded Aryan race – the Master Race (Herrenvolk). They said they were a superior race to the inferior Jews (and others). They regarded the Jews as the Untermenschen – subhuman. Jewish children were badly treated in schools, newspapers spread stories about the Jews, and Nazi organisations were used to harass Jews. Hitler had a great hatred of the Jews (anti-Semitism).
Cross of Honour of the German Mother (Mother’s Cross) presented to mothers with large families
He now used the power of the government to persecute them, while Goebbels used propaganda films to increase racist feeling in Germany. Jewish shops were boycotted in 1933. Jews were banned from the civil service, from the universities and from journalism. The Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935 ‘for the promotion of German blood and honour’.
Nazi Stormtroopers (SA) arrested a woman and her
partner prior to the Nuremberg Laws. The sign on the woman reads: ‘I am the biggest pig of
all. I only sleep with Jews!’ The sign around the man says: ‘I am a Jewish boy who only brings German girls to my room.’
