Nazi Women at War

The peacetime years of the Third Reich were a time of strange shadow-boxing for the NSDAP and its affiliates. Once actual and potential opponents of the new regime had been neutralised by Gleichschaltung in 1933, the Party’s restricted sphere of activity became frustratingly delineated. Denied even a share in government and axiomatically required to use persuasion rather than coercion with healthy, politically reliable, ‘Aryan’ Germans, the NSDAP had been condemned to the virtually impossible task of generating enthusiasm for Party ideas and activities among those who, given a free choice, had elected not to become involved with National Socialism beyond accepting Hitler’s Government as a fact of life. This uphill struggle had been mitigated by the acquisition of territory — including the Saar, Austria, the Sudetenland and Memel - which was relatively unsaturated by Nazi canvassing. The readiness of substantial numbers in these areas not only to welcome German rule but also to involve themselves in Party activities was a consolation prize for Party workers used to the apathetic response of the unconverted in the ‘old Reich’. The enthusiasm exuded by a report of the rapid construction of an NSF/DFW organisation in Memel — complete with RMD, Vw/Hw and other sectional activities — made in July 1939 ¹ is reminiscent of the ardour which characterised the accounts of the Party’s early development in the Gau Histories.