Following their defeat in the First World War, Germany was in an economic depression, and millions of people were out of work. The National German Socialist Workers’’s Party was a small party that gained support popularity by rallying support from the unemployed and people who were upset with the current government because of its inability to manage the economic crisis. They promised to reverse the Treaty of Versailles, and to restore lost German cultural values. By harnessing the support of the angry citizens, the Nazi party was able to get their leader, Adolf Hitler appointed as chancellor of Germany. One of the key beliefs of the Nazi party was that the Aryan race was superior to all others and that Germany was in danger from Communists…show more content… The Hitler Youth Law stated that the purpose of the organization was to prepare German children for their future. “The future of the German people rests on the young. All German youth must therefore be prepared for their future duties...The entire German youth, outside of the home and the school, are to be educated physically, spiritually, and mentally in the spirit of National Socialism for the service of the nation” (Pagaard, 195). Every aspect of the daily lives of members of the Hitler Youth was changed when they became members. Children were taught that the state was more important than anything else and they “were even encouraged to report disloyal parents” (Pagaard, 195). By the beginning of World War II, more than ninety percent of the German youth were members, but not all of them joined willingly. Groups were created in opposition to the Hitler Youth, namely, the Swing Youth,. The Swing Youth was an “illegal association of youths opposed to the Party and the state, and which on a wholesale level practiced English lifestyles while rejecting the German lifestyle” (Doc.…show more content… The female half of the Nazi youth party was the League of German Girls, whose motto was, “Kinder, Kirche, Küche” (children, church, kitchen)” (Pagaard, 196). In Document 24, an official in the national office of the League of German Girls explains the group’s mission. She says that the purpose of the organization is to “shape girls who are politically conscious. That does not mean women who debate or discuss things in parliament, but girls and women, who know about the necessities of life in the German nation and act accordingly” (Doc. 24). Since children were an integral part of Hitler’s plan to revitalize Germany, it was necessary that women be prepared to care for them. In his speech to the Nation Socialist Women’s Organization, Hitler explains that a woman is women are important because “each child that she brings into the world is a battle that she wages for the existence of her people” (Doc. 22) The government also “outlawed abortion, discouraged women from obtaining higher education, and glorified domesticity and motherhood” (Mckay et al, 905) so that women would focus all of their attention on caring for their children. It is clear that the Nazi party emphasized the importance of women’s role as mothers, as evidenced shown by a speech made by the head of the German Womens Order in which she proclaims,“German mothers, lead us to the
