Mothers and Their Roles in Nazi Germany Essay -- Germany Mother Mother

Mothers and Their Roles in Nazi Germany I am here instantly to discuss how gender played a critical role in the construction of the Nazi State, prior to 1938. Specifically, I would like to focus my abbreviation on how and why the Nazis constructed a conception of drawhood that specify the mother in relation to the state. For our purposes today, we will examine two ideal German mothers and explore their similarities in order to understand how and why the Nazis perceived mothers as public agents of the Volksgemeinschaft, or German community of people. Primary documents will take into account us to examine first-hand experiences of mothers written within the context of Nazi Germany. however first, on must begin by understanding precisely how the Nazis mendd motherhood. The Nazis essentially invoked the ethos or authority of nature in order to define motherhood. For instance, they state, To be a mother means giving life to goodly children, bringing to fruiti on all the physical, mental, and spiritual faculties in these children (HCC 282). Raising sanitary children and encouraging physical, mental, and spiritual growth be clearedly universal or natural goals that any mother should hope to attain, even today. The Nazis definition of motherhood, in this instance, seems to be inclusive rather than exclusionary. In addition to nature, the Nazis invoke the ethos of nationalism to define motherhood. For example, the Nazis state that mothers must create a home for them which represents a place where nationalist and racialist culture is nurtured (HCC 282). This nationalistic definition of motherhood is not inclusive. Rather, it is implicitly exclusive because it defines political and racial boundaries. It is important to ma... ...ng considered non-citizens whitewash identified themselves as German Jews and nationalists. Hitler was incorrect when he asserted that Jews are a foreign race, unwilling and unable to sacrifice its racial characteristics, to revoke its own feeling, thinking, and striving (HCC 142). How then do people like Marta Appel and her family let on themselves as German Jews? By juxtaposing Marta Appel to the Aryan peasant mother it becomes clear that the Nazis not only constructed an arbitrary definition of motherhood, further also of a whole race. Thus defining a mother as a public agent of the Volksmeingeschaft was nothing more than a means by which the Nazis carried out their anti-Semitic political agenda. The Nazis claimed to be exposing natural distinctions between races, but in reality they were creating superficial divisions between people who were essentially the same.