Figure 1.--One NS-Frauenschaft program was the Deutsche Kinderschar (DK). This was a program for younger children (6-10 years old) before they enter the Hitler Youth. There was no national uniform, but each group adopted identical clothing. The DK units met once a week for what was descibed asa 'homely afternoon'. Here we see a Kinderschar unit in Brockwitz near Dresden. The girls wear identucal dresses mny showing the Wolfsangel badges variously titchefd on their dresses. The boys in the picture are already wearing the unfirom of the Jungvolk, so must be 10 years old or older.Some of the boys wear HJ (Deutsche Jungvolk- DJ) uniforms. They may be DF boys or younger boys just wearing DJ uniforms for the DK .

The National Socialist Women's League (Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft--NSF) was the women's wing of the NAZI Party. As the NAZI Party grew stronger, Hitler decided to combine various nationalist and NAZI women's associations, including the German Women's Order (Deutscher Frauenorden -- DFO). This meant in prctical terms tht women were subordinated to the NAZI Reich leadership (Reichsleitung). Girls and young women were the responsibility of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM)-- the Hitler Youth unit for girls. Hitler appointed Gertrud Scholtz-Klink (1902–1999) Reich's Women's Leader (Reichsfrauenführerin) (1934). She wouild hold that post until the end of the NAZI regime (1945). The NSF published a biweekly magazine -- the NS-Frauen-Warte. We are not sure about yhe trmsl;atiom. Yjat ppears to mean 'Women Waiting', but the message is unclear. NSF activities were to prepare German women to be better wives and mother in keeping with the NAZI view of women. Hitler dd not dwell a lot on wimen, but when he did it was oarimarily to cocius on women as giving birth to future soldiets. Ans the NAZI few was the place foe women was at home creating a healty and supportive place for her husband and children. The NAZIs adopted the Imperial German phrase -- Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, and Church). They were not interested in the Church poart, but thought it too well ingrained to change. The NSF focused on the children and kitchen. One imprtant assignent was to encorage women to use German products like rayon instead of imported products and food stuffs to support the NAZI economic policy of Autarky. The NSF organized classes for school girls and new brides. They also organized circle groups on cooking, sewing, child birth, and child care. After Hitler and Stalin launched Workd War II, this chanaged. The NSF provided refreshments at train stations, organized drives for scrap metal and other materials, ran cookery and other classes, and allocated the domestic servants enslaved in the East to large, suitably NAZI families. Any published material on women had to have NSF approval. Only limited information is available on memnbership, but it appears to hve reached 2 million (1938). The NSF organized a group for younger chilren kniown as Kinderschar (figure 1). This was for children under 10 years of age before they joined the Hitler Youth. The NAZI Party closed the NSF to the general public. Those interested in joining the NSF were were encouraged to join the less politically oriented labor organiztion -- Deutsches Frauenwerk (German Women’s Work -- DFW). This was a subsidiary organization launched a couple years earlier (1934). This was an associate group, unlike the NSF not oart of the Party structure. Stragely the DFW seems to have worked at cross purposes with the NSF. The DFW found plces for women to work outside the home, although at first it was traditionsl areas such as farming, nursing, and domestic jobs,

Created: 2:03 AM 5/16/2021
Last updated: 2:03 AM 5/16/2021