Session Abstract

It is no secret that the Nazis were committed to creating an exclusionary Volksgemeinschaft or people’s community.  In addition to the daily public discrimination and exclusion of Jews, which drove them out of Germany, the Nazis promoted both negative and positive population policies in order to build a Volksgemeinschaft based on a racial vision of society.  Historians, however, have given little attention to how the Nazi regime actually carried out this mission within their multitude of bureaucratic organizations.  Our panel seeks to address this by looking closely at how the Nazis promoted positive population policies within its elite paramilitary organization, the SS, and within the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls; BDM) and the Reichsmütterdienst (Reich Mother Service).  Together, our papers offer a glimpse at the day-to-day practice of implementing positive population policies, and question the success or failure of doing so.  In this way, we seek to determine if the Alltagsgeschichte (everyday history) of Nazi organizations was connected to the broader rhetoric of the Nazi regime; we aim, in other words, to discern if a gap existed between Nazi ideology and practice.

Amy Carney of Pennsylvania State University, the Behrend College will present “Striking the Proper Balance: SS Family Policy During the Second World War.”  Through her examination of the SS, she demonstrates how Heinrich Himmler sought to transform the SS into a family community, which encompassed SS men and their wives and children.  In her paper, ideology and practice did not always coincide, as Himmler had to strike a balance between his long-term goal of creating the ideal family community with the short-term necessity of having a viable military branch that could ensure victory for the Reich after World War II started.  This necessity for balance created challenges for Himmler and ultimately led to the failure of the creation of the family community.  Bradley Nichols, a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee, will present “From Desirable to Undesirable: The Nazi Re-Germanization of Polish Girls during the Second World War.”  He assesses the daily lives of “racially valuable” German girls, who were sent to live with German families and to work as domestic servants, while undergoing a process of assimilation into the national community under the Nazi SS Re-Germanization Procedure.  Arguing that these girls failed to live up to stereotypical SS ideals of Germanness, and were then considered dangerous and beyond saving, he also reveals the large gap between SS rhetoric and practice.  Melissa Kravetz of Washington College will present “Building the Volksgemeinschaft: Women Doctors working for the BDM and Reichsmütterdienst.”  She argues that female physicians usurped the Nazi rhetoric of creating a healthy Volksgemeinschaft by showcasing their abilities to serve as a “doctor-mother” under Nazism.  Women doctors led the way to the Volksgemeinschaft through example.  They served as model mothers and supporters of the regime while working with women and children in the BDM and Reichsmütterdienst.  Matthew Conn, a doctoral candidate at the University of Iowa in German history, will serve as chair and commentator.