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German pedestrians read Hermann Goering's "Nine Commandments for the Workers' Struggle," which included such exhortations as this one to German women: "take hold of the frying pan, dust pan and broom and marry a man." Berlin, Germany, May 1934.
A work corps of German women marches to the fields. Beginning in 1939, many thousands of German women between the ages of 17 and 25 worked on farms as part of a national labor service program. Germany, wartime.
A parade of young Austrian women, members of the Nazi youth organization the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Maedel). Graz, Austria, February 20, 1938.
The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were the primary tools that the Nazis used to shape the beliefs, thinking and actions of German youth.
Nazi policy encouraged racially "acceptable" couples to have as many children as possible. Because of the number of children in this Nazi Party official's family, the mother earned the "Mother's Cross." Germany, date uncertain.
Mothers who have given birth in a National Socialist maternity home wait to have their babies examined by a doctor. Fuerstenberg, Germany, March 28, 1937.
Members of the Nazi girls' organization, the League of German Girls (BDM), do a group exercise. Dresden, Germany, December 1936.
Women were included in preparations for national defense even before the war. Here, some German women form a unit of the civilian Air Defense League. Germany, November 15, 1936.
The cover of a Nazi publication on race, Neues Volk (New People), portrays motherhood with this ideal image of an "Aryan" mother and child. Germany, September 1937.
German propaganda photograph of a kindergarten for German infants promotes the nurturing role of women on the home front. Germany, 1941.
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