Nazism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Sex and gender === {{further|Women in Nazi Germany}} [[File:Pflichten der polen.jpg|thumb|upright=2.0|Obligations of Polish workers in Germany, warning them of the death penalty for any sexual relations between Germans and Poles]] Nazi ideology advocated excluding women from political involvement and confining them to the spheres of "[[Kinder, Küche, Kirche]]" (Children, Kitchen, Church).<ref>For more elucidation about this conception and its oversimplification, see: Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz, "Beyond ''Kinder, Küche, Kirche'': Weimar Women in Politics and Work" in Renate Bridenthal, et al. (eds), ''When Biology Became Destiny in Weimar and Nazi Germany'' (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1984), pp. 33–65.</ref> Many women enthusiastically supported the regime, but formed their own internal hierarchies.<ref>[[Claudia Koonz]], ''Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988), pp. 53–59.</ref> Hitler's own opinion on the matter of women in Nazi Germany was that while other eras of German history had experienced the development and liberation of the female mind, the National Socialist goal was essentially singular in that it wished for them to produce a child.<ref>Hitler on 23 November 1937. In Max Domarus ed., ''Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen, 1932–1945'', (vol I). Triumph. (Würzburg: Verlagsdruckerei Schmidt, 1962), p. 452.</ref> Based on this theme, Hitler once remarked about women that "with every child that she brings into the world, she fights her battle for the nation. The man stands up for the ''Volk'', exactly as the woman stands up for the family".<ref>Adolf Hitler in a speech to the National Socialist Women's Congress, published in the ''Völkischer Beobachter'', 15 September 1935 (Wiener Library Clipping Collection). Cited from: George Mosse, ''Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social Life in the Third Reich'' (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003), p. 40.</ref> Proto-natalist programs in Nazi Germany offered favourable loans and grants to newlyweds and encouraged them to give birth to offspring by providing them with additional incentives.<ref>[[Claudia Koonz]], ''Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988), pp. 149, 185–187.</ref> [[Birth control|Contraception]] was discouraged for racially valuable women in Nazi Germany and [[abortion]] was forbidden by strict legal mandates, including prison sentences for women who sought them as well as prison sentences for doctors who performed them, whereas abortion for racially "undesirable" persons was encouraged.<ref>Jill Stephenson, ''Women in Nazi Germany'' (London and New York: Longman, 2001), pp. 37–40.</ref><ref>Gerda Bormann was concerned by the ratio of racially valuable women that outnumbered men and she thought that the war would make the situation worse in terms of childbirths, so much so that she advocated a law (never passed) which allowed healthy Aryan men to have two wives. See: Anna Maria Sigmund, ''Women of the Third Reich'' (Ontario: NDE, 2000), pp. 17–19.</ref> While unmarried until the very end of the regime, Hitler often made excuses about his busy life hindering any chance for marriage.<ref>Anna Maria Sigmund, ''Women of the Third Reich'' (Ontario: NDE, 2000), p. 17.</ref> Among National Socialist ideologues, marriage was valued not for moral considerations but because it provided an optimal breeding environment. ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' Heinrich Himmler reportedly told a confidant that when he established the ''[[Lebensborn]]'' program, an organisation that would dramatically increase the birth rate of "Aryan" children through extramarital relations between women classified as racially pure and their male equals, he had only the purest male "conception assistants" in mind.<ref>Himmler was thinking about members of the SS fulfilling this task. See: Felix Kersten, ''Totenkopf und Treue. Aus den Tagebuchblättern des finnischen Medizinalrats Felix Kersten'' (Hamburg: Mölich Verlag, 1952), pp. 228–229.</ref> Since the Nazis extended the ''[[Rassenschande]]'' ("race defilement") law to all foreigners at the beginning of the war,{{sfn|Majer|2003|p=180}} pamphlets were issued to German women which ordered them to avoid sexual relations with foreign workers who were brought to Germany and the pamphlets also ordered German women to view these same foreign workers as a danger to their blood.<ref name="Rupp1978">{{cite book|author=Leila J. Rupp|title=Mobilizing Women for War: German and American Propaganda, 1939–1945|date=1978|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-04649-5|url=https://archive.org/details/mobilizingwomenf00leil}}</ref> Although the law was applicable to both genders, German women were punished more severely for having sexual relations with foreign [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labourers]] in Germany.<ref>{{cite web|author=Helen Boak |title=Nazi policies on German women during the Second World War – Lessons learned from the First World War? |url=https://www.academia.edu/4794258 |pages=4–5}}</ref> The Nazis issued the [[Polish decrees]] on 8 March 1940 which contained regulations concerning the Polish forced labourers ([[Zivilarbeiter]]) who were brought to Germany during World War II. One of the regulations stated that any Pole "who has sexual relations with a German man or woman, or approaches them in any other improper manner, will be punished by death".<ref name="Gellately2001">{{cite book|author=Robert Gellately|title=Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany|url=https://archive.org/details/backinghitlercon00gell|url-access=registration|date =2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-160452-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/backinghitlercon00gell/page/155 155]}}</ref> After the decrees were enacted, Himmler stated: {{blockquote|Fellow Germans who engage in sexual relations with male or female civil workers of the [[Polish people|Polish]] nationality, commit other immoral acts or engage in love affairs shall be arrested immediately.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-dishonorable-german-girls-the-forgotten-persecution-of-women-in-world-war-ii-a-672803.html|title=The 'Dishonorable' German Girls: The Forgotten Persecution of Women in World War II |last=Friedmann|first=Jan|work=Der Spiegel|access-date=January 21, 2010|date=2010-01-21}}</ref>}} The Nazis later issued similar regulations against the Eastern Workers ''([[Ost-Arbeiter]])'', including the imposition of the death penalty if they engaged in sexual relations with German persons.<ref name="Gellately1990">{{cite book|author=Robert Gellately|title=The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy, 1933–1945|year=1990|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-820297-4|page=224}}</ref> Heydrich issued a decree on 20 February 1942 which declared that sexual intercourse between a German woman and a Russian worker or prisoner of war would result in the Russian man being punished with the death penalty.<ref name="Evans2012">{{cite book|author=Richard J. Evans|title=The Third Reich at War: How the Nazis Led Germany from Conquest to Disaster|date= 2012|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-14-191755-9|page=355}}</ref> Another decree issued by Himmler on 7 December 1942 stated that any "unauthorised sexual intercourse" would result in the death penalty.{{sfn|Majer|2003|p=369}} Because the [[Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor|Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour]] did not permit capital punishment for race defilement, special courts were convened in order to allow the death penalty to be imposed in some cases.{{sfn|Majer|2003|pp=331–32}} German women accused of race defilement were marched through the streets with their head shaven and placards detailing their crimes were placed around their necks<ref name="Stephenson2001">{{cite book|author=Jill Stephenson|title=Women in Nazi Germany|year=2001|publisher=Longman|isbn=978-0-582-41836-3|page=156}}</ref> and those convicted of race defilement were sent to concentration camps.<ref name="Rupp1978"/> When Himmler reportedly asked Hitler what the punishment should be for German girls and German women who were found guilty of race defilement with prisoners of war (POWs), he ordered that "every POW who has relations with a German girl or a German would be shot" and the German woman should be publicly humiliated by "having her hair shorn and being sent to a concentration camp".<ref name="Longerich2012">{{cite book|author=Peter Longerich|title=Heinrich Himmler: A Life|url=https://archive.org/details/heinrichhimmlerl00long|url-access=limited|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-959232-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/heinrichhimmlerl00long/page/n495 475]}}</ref> The [[League of German Girls]] was particularly regarded as instructing girls to avoid race defilement, which was treated with particular importance for young females.<ref>"[http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/fink.htm The Jewish Question in Education]"</ref> [[Transgender]] people [[Transgender people in Nazi Germany|had a variety of experiences]] depending on whether they were considered "Aryan" or capable of useful work.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nunn |first1=Zavier |date=2022 |title=Trans Liminality and the Nazi State |journal=Past & Present |volume=260 |pages=123–157 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtac018|doi-access=free }}</ref> Several historians have noted that transgender people were targeted by the Nazis through legislation and were sent to concentration camps.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paper: Trans Identities and "Cross Dressing" in Nazi Germany: Trans People as a Discrete Target of State Violence (134th Annual Meeting (January 3–6, 2020)) |url=https://aha.confex.com/aha/2020/webprogram/Paper27446.html |access-date=3 January 2023 |website=aha.confex.com}}</ref><ref name="Sutton">{{Cite journal |last=Sutton |first=Katie |date=2012 |title="We Too Deserve a Place in the Sun": The Politics of Transvestite Identity in Weimar Germany |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23269669 |journal=German Studies Review |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=348 |doi=10.1353/gsr.2012.a478043 |jstor=23269669 |via=JSTOR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Paragraph 175 and the Nazi Campaign against Homosexuality |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/paragraph-175-and-the-nazi-campaign-against-homosexuality |access-date=12 March 2023 |website=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |quote=Not everyone arrested under Paragraph 175 identified as a man. During the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, Germany was home to a developing community of people who identified as 'transvestites.' [...] Initially, this term encompassed people who performed in drag, people who cross-dressed for pleasure, as well as those who today might identify as trans or transgender.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Transgender Experiences in Weimar and Nazi Germany |url=https://mjhnyc.org/events/transgender-experiences-in-weimar-and-nazi-germany/ |access-date=19 June 2023 |website=Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marhoefer |first=Laurie |date=6 June 2023 |title=Historians are learning more about how the Nazis targeted trans people |url=http://theconversation.com/historians-are-learning-more-about-how-the-nazis-targeted-trans-people-205622 |access-date=19 June 2023 |website=The Conversation |language=en}}</ref> ==== Opposition to homosexuality ==== {{further|Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany}} [[File:Berlin Pink Triangle.JPG|thumb|left|upright=.65|Berlin memorial to homosexual victims of the Holocaust: ''Totgeschlagen – Totgeschwiegen'' (Struck Dead – Hushed Up)]] After the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler promoted Himmler and the SS, who then zealously suppressed homosexuality by saying: "We must exterminate these people root and branch ... the homosexual must be eliminated".{{sfn|Plant|1988|p=99}} In 1936, Himmler established the "[[Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und Abtreibung]]" ("Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion").<ref name="Homosexualität und Staatsräson. Männlichkeit, Homophobie und Politik in Deutschland 1900-1945"/> The Nazi regime incarcerated some 100,000 homosexuals during the 1930s.<ref name="Holocaust: Gay activists press for German apology" /> As concentration camp prisoners, homosexual men were forced to wear [[pink triangle]] badges.<ref name="international"/>{{sfn|Plant|1988|p=}}{{page needed|date=January 2021}} Nazi ideology still viewed German men who were gay as a part of the Aryan master race, but the Nazi regime attempted to force them into sexual and social conformity. Homosexuals were viewed as failing in their duty to procreate and reproduce for the Aryan nation. Gay men who would not change or feign a change in their [[sexual orientation]] were sent to concentration camps under the "Extermination Through Work" campaign.<ref>{{cite web |last=Neander |first=Biedron |title=Homosexuals. A Separate Category of Prisoners |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum |url=http://en.auschwitz.org/h/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=3 |access-date=10 August 2013 |archive-date=14 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140114033949/http://en.auschwitz.org/h/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=3 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page