This document discusses various aspects of domestic policy and society in Nazi Germany. It begins by asking whether governments should control school curricula and the purpose of history teaching. It then examines: unemployment rates falling due to labor programs and rearmament; high participation in cultural and leisure activities organized by the German Labor Front; economic recovery through debt cancellation and seizure of private property. It discusses the roles of women, youth and education/indoctrination. Finally, it outlines state control of arts/culture, persecution of minorities, and creation of a police state through the SS and Gestapo.

1. Is it right for governments to control what is
taught in schools? What is acceptable and
what is not?
Should the teaching of history serve a
specific purpose for the government or its
citizens? If so, what?

2. Nazi GermanyDomestic policies and their impact

3. Unemployment and Labor
Unemployment in Germany Total
January 1933 6 million
January 1934 3.3 million
January 1935 2.9 million
January 1936 2.5 million
January 1937 1.8 million
January 1938 1.0 million
January 1939 302,000
• The National Labor Service (RAD)
• Conscription and rearmament
• Redefinitions

4. Social Organizations
Type of Event Number of events Number of people involved
Theatre performances 21,146 11,507,432
Concerts 989 705,623
Hikes 5,896 126,292
Sports Events 388 1,432,596
Cultural events 20,527 10,518,282
Holidays and cruises 1,196 702,491
Museum tours 61,503 2,567,596
Exhibitions 93 2,435,975
Week-end trips 3,499 1,007,242
Courses/Lectures at the
German Adult Education
Office
19,060 1,009,922

5. Economic Recovery
• Debt repayment cancelled
• “The New Plan”
• Expansion and seizure of property

6. • 1936 Four Year Plan
• Albert Speer

7. Women
“Take hold of the frying pan, dust
pan and broom and marry a man.“
Hermann Goering's Nine Commandments
for the Workers‘ Struggle
“The slogan ‘Emancipation of
Women’ was invented by Jewish
intellectuals…. the woman’s is a
smaller world. For
her world is her husband, her
family, her children and her
home.”
Hitler’s speech to the National Socialist
Women’s League, 1934

8. Women
• Focus on childrearing
• Discrimination in politics, education, and professions

9. The Youth

10. The Youth
• Train boys for war
• Train girls for motherhood
• Hitler youth was mandatory

11. Education and Indoctrination
Biology = Social Darwinism
History = Nationalism
Sports replaced religion
Is it right for governments to
control what is taught in
schools? What is acceptable
and what is not? Should the
teaching of history serve a
specific purpose for the
government or its citizens? If
so, what?

12. Arts and Culture
“It would not be impossible to
prove with sufficient repetition….
that a square is in fact a circle.
They are mere words, and words
can be molded until they clothe
ideas and disguise.”
- Joseph Goebbels

13. Arts and Culture
Four Themes:
• Blood and Soil
• Anti-feminism
• Anti-Semitism
• Order
Leni Reifenstahl
Olympia
Wagner vs. Satie vs. Jazz

14. Persecution of Minorities
• Asocials
• “Biological Outsiders”
• Gypsies
• Jews
• Sterilization
• Euthanasia
• “The Final Solution”

15. Police State
Henrich Himmler
SS
• Internal Security
• Racial Purity
Gestapo

16. Propaganda
http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/