Hitler's Girls: Doves Amongst Eagles

by Heath, Tim

  The Third Reich was also awash with sex appeal for visiting foreigners attending the big party rallies. There were really no other countries at that time that boasted a generation of uniformed girls and boys who appeared to have been sculpted from bronze, and who marched like soldiers, showing the kind of discipline, order, and self-belief that became the envy of the world. Certainly, as reporter Bud Hanna wrote in his diary in 1934:

  Third Reich Germany is unique and its new culture is unique. It has an army of girls and boys who obey their leaders every command. They are totally awe-inspiring, and when the girls march it seems that they would follow their leaders over cliff tops if necessary and never show any sign of breaking rank or formation. They exude absolute confidence and natural ability and have absolutely no fear whatsoever. German women and girls in particular are the Third Reich’s greatest investment in its future.

  Bud Hanna’s entry would, like those of so many others, become prophetic words in the not-too-distant future, as Hitler’s regime steadily inched towards its goal of world domination.

  During the course of the author’s research, many of the contributors to this work have mentioned unwelcome sexual and rude remarks being made to them, mainly by boys of the Hitler Youth and young soldiers.

  Kirsten Eckermann, Anita Von Schoener and Anna ‘Tiny’ Dann – as she became known to her friends – had all been the victims of some very unpleasant name-calling and sexual banter. Most of the remarks were predictable in their content. The girls were asked things like ‘can we give you babies?’ or ‘are you at our service?’ While not exactly as vulgar as what one would have expected, the boys often followed the girls around until the girls threatened to tell a superior, which often had the desired effect. The BDM were also given nicknames designed to ridicule them. These will be examined in the next chapter.

  Such things did not help the girls. They began to feel, in some cases, like second-class citizens in a society dominated by males. Anna ‘Tiny’ Dann recalls:

  I was a BDM at the age of fourteen years in 1943. Because of the war I didn’t go out much, but the male attitude towards us by then had also changed. Our role was slowly shifting away from that traditionally planned for us by our elders and leaders. Women were by this time becoming involved directly in the war effort.

  Though one time some older Hitler Youth boys once followed me and asked me if I would have their babies and that they would all like to ‘do me’ as they put it. This did not happen all of the time, but certain members of the male Hitler Youth had a pig-headed attitude and it hurt when they said these things to you. I once reported some boys to a Jung Madel leader who caught one of them by his ear and slapped him very hard around the head. She also reported him to his own group superior who then made him give the names of the other boys. They should have been disciplined, but I found out that their group leaders thought it was funny and that I had misunderstood what they had said to me. They said I had told a lie to attract attention, and horrible things like that. Yes, it’s true, things like that did go on back then, even in a totalitarian society.

  Chapter Six

  The Bund Deutscher Madel

  Unlike the Hitler Youth for males, the Bund Deutscher Madel (BDM), or League of German Girls, had never officially been intended to become a military arm. It was largely due to the catastrophic changes in Germany’s military fortunes by the middle of the Second World War, which dictated the necessary transition that had to take place within the organization. At the same time, this would completely redefine the role of German female society as a whole.

  There is no doubt that both the Jung Madel and BDM operated in many ways the same as Girl Scouts organizations did in other countries. It has to be said, however, that the Jung Madel and BDM were radically different in the way that both had been created with far more sinister political and physical intentions in mind, which will become even clearer during the course of this book.

  The basic philosophy of the BDM followed in much the same vein as its precursor, the Jung Madel. Being older, the roles of the girls in the BDM were different in many ways. Other more important expectations were placed on the girls’ shoulders, particularly where political matters were concerned. BDM girls were certainly more politically active than their younger Jung Madel counterparts.

  The system of joining the BDM was much the same as that of the Jung Madel. There was one exception, however, and that was the physical fitness test that all prospective BDM girls had to undergo. If any girl failed to pass the physical test, they could not join the BDM.

  This physical prerequisite of enrolment required that each girl had to complete a series of punishing physical tasks. The recruit had to be able to run 60m in fourteen seconds, throw a heavy medicine ball 12m, complete a two-hour march, swim 100m, and finally, she had to know how to make a bed.

  Most of the girls were already quite strong, athletic and fit individuals, with the result that surprisingly few ever failed to complete the gruelling test. Upon completion of the test, all that was left was a simple enrolment ceremony, at which the student had to take the stage, stand beside a flag bearing the Swastika, and swear an oath of absolute obedience, allegiance and purity to Adolf Hitler and the German Reich. Usually the student repeated the words read out to her either by her BDM Gruppenführer, who was always present to watch over the enrolment ceremony, or the girl’s school headmistress.

  It has to be said that, owing to the immense emphasis placed on physical fitness and well-being, German girls of that particular period under Nazi rule tended to be fitter and stronger than their modern-day counterparts. Physical strength, agility, and finesse were an essential part of the Hitler Youth and BDM.

  At first, Hitler’s plans for the BDM girls revolved around a very specific biological aim. Subsequently, they were educated on the principle that they were to be mothers and housewives of his future Reich. Their education would have to centre on this chosen role and purpose. Particular career goals and the achievements of individual girls were not encouraged or considered, being deemed unnecessary. In fact, many of the Nazified teachers would successfully dissuade the girls from studying hard and aiming toward university education, often against the wishes of their parents.

  Hitler is quoted as once having told a class of BDM girls ‘that the German girl is better employed as a wife and producer of children, rather than a wasted university graduate’. As a result the Nazi school education criteria for females was somewhat minimal.

  The boys did not fare much better. They were being raised to be warriors and conquerors, but they received considerably more variety of attention and basic tuition than did the girls.

  The BDM education system was tailored to the needs of the Reich as determined by Hitler himself. It therefore became like everything else in the nation: an industry geared to the factory-rearing of the most extreme Nazi ideology, which most girls found they had a duty to respect and assimilate. Yet there were also those who found it narrow, boring and uninteresting.

  There were, however, many exceptions to the general thinking that young German females lacked interest in Nazi political matters. Many BDM girls became greatly interested in the Nazi geopolitical goal and would excel in their political theory. For such girls, the rewards could be impressive. The Reich designed a series of attractive proficiency awards especially for the BDM girls. Perhaps the most notable of these awards was the BDM Leistungsabzeichen or proficiency clasp. This award was officially instituted around 1936, and came in the form of a clasp consisting of medal ribbon of red, white, and red horizontal bands enclosed in a metal frame and beneath the three letters BDM. The clasp was issued in bronze or silver, depending on the age of the individual. The reverse of the clasp carried an individually stamped number of issue.

  To qualify for the award, the BDM girl had to pass rigorous tests in first aid, nursing, home craft, physical exercise, knowledge of geography and Nazi political theory. All tests had to be completed and passed within a period of twelve months.
Upon earning the award, there would be a small presentation ceremony, when the award would be pinned to the left breast of the BDM uniform jacket. Such awards carried with them an overwhelming sense of achievement and personal pride, therefore it is little wonder that so many girls strived for that sense of personal excellence within their respective BDM groups.

  BDM girls were taught the Nazi curriculum throughout the state-operated Nazi girls’ schools. Select subjects such as biology, geography, physical education, political theory and dancing were considered to be subjects of immense importance to German girls and women.

  Biology was, without doubt, the subject of prime importance to the girls. As already mentioned, a great emphasis was placed upon the issue of physical and mental well-being, and the maintenance of blood purity and the creation of racially pure offspring.

  The blood purity issue was one that had been raised on an almost daily basis in the BDM education system. Hitler was fanatical about the blood purity of his new generation, which should not allow itself to be soiled by the poison of mixed-race breeding. The anti-Semitic language of the Third Reich education system, together with Hitler’s loathing of Communists, Slavs, Jews, gypsies and blacks, did not have to necessarily be attractively packaged in order to make it as appealing as possible to his new generation. Years of brainwashing had already instilled much of the party politics where race and creed were concerned. German girls were taught that relationships with men other than those of pure German origin would only serve to contribute to the racial sewer that Germany was in serious danger of becoming throughout the early 1930s.

  For girls of the BDM, schooling was to form the nucleus of the new generation. It was therefore imperative that girls be educated separately from the boys, as both had to perform different roles within the new community. Boys were educated to become soldiers and upholders of the Reich, and were taught that they were superior to the girls. Girls, on the other hand, were to remain at home as servants to their men, fulfilling a passive role as childbearers and house frauen. The girls were frequently reminded that this should be their sole commitment in life.

  In order to hammer this message home to the girls, only the most dedicated and hardline of Nazis were given the authority to teach the girls, while those unsympathetic to the Nazi cause, as explained earlier, were forced from their professions. The Nazis chose to try and erode certain basic principles of morality from the thinking of their females. Many were taught, using principles adapted from nature that one should not feel any form of guilt from the repression and disposal of those considered as being weak and or racially inferior within their communities and the new German society. It was instilled through teaching that it was their duty to remain strong by eliminating the weaklings amongst them, just as the same principle is applied in the kingdom of nature. They were taught that the inferior races and those considered as being biologically weak could only remain on this earth through evolving within their own incestuous communities. Such communities, it was said, were poisonous, immoral and unfit. They were abhorrent to nature and must therefore either be prevented from breeding or destroyed.

  As the new German Reich was to operate as one singular social mechanism, there was no need and no room for individual communities anyway. The girls were also taught that, in the interest of producing perfect offspring, commitment to a single German male should be their goal. Any girl committing the offence of adultery risked creating a whirlpool of mixed genes that may become incestuous. Yet it is interesting to note that in later years and in contradiction, German women and BDM girls were encouraged to sleep with as many German males out of wedlock as they chose and produce as many illegitimate children as they desired. Many girls displayed a fierce pride for such squalid actions, which they regarded as a biological service to the Reich and their Führer, attacking all those who dared to protest at their immorality, parents included.

  The reality was that the girls were being exploited. Not only were they being used by those males who slept with them, but also by the state itself for allowing such exploitation of its supposedly most valuable resource.

  It is unclear just how young many of these girls were, but there is reason to believe from my own research that some were not of a suitable age to partake in any form of sexual activity. The ages of BDM girls engaged in this desperate Reich policy range from as shockingly young as fourteen, to nineteen years of age. One can only imagine the nightmare effect this would also have had on the girls’ families.

  In the Third Reich, the morality of the German girl and boy was adjusted to suit. There are many hypocritical contradictions to be found in many of the quotes and speeches made to the Reich’s generation of young people by various Nazi leaders, including Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler. A quote from one witness of the time perfectly emphasizes the fact:

  All children are defenceless receptacles, waiting to be filled with wisdom or venom by their parents and educators. We who were born into Nazism never had a chance unless our parents were brave enough to resist the tide and transmit their opposition to their children.

  Parents who opposed their daughter’s involvement with the BDM not only risked the wrath of the Reich authorities, but also of being socially ostracized. So as a result, many were forced to conform and allow their offspring to absorb the views of their Nazi teachers. Kirsten Eckermann can verify perfectly the effect that the BDM had on both her and her family:

  Upon joining the BDM aged fourteen in 1937, I eagerly attended the weekly BDM meetings. There were few differences in reality to the Jung Madel, though we did become involved in more activities. It was not without its shortcomings though and after a while I found that I was becoming ever more distant from my parents. Of course I cared for them both, but what I had been taught over the last five years led me to challenge much of what they themselves had been taught and believed in and what they had taught me. While my father and mother generally supported Hitler during the early years, they came to resent his power, which he had even over us children. My parents felt as if they were no longer in charge or formed a part of my destiny as their child anymore. This inevitably led to tension within the home environment.

  The BDM further endorsed the idea of challenging the ideals of our elders, and some viewed it as a means of rebelling. I had a relatively trouble-free upbringing until my inception into the Hitler Youth system. It was good fun at first especially in the Jung Madel, but the BDM was much more disciplined and less tolerant, and forced us to challenge everything which opposed what we had been taught over the years by the Nazi system. You could not just switch off when your parents told you to and that is when problems, and in many situations violence, began in the home for many young girls. Though many young girls lived in fear of their fathers in particular anyway.

  The BDM was packaged in a way that made it appeal to us as young people. We yearned for adventure and escape from the city and the BDM continued to provide those things, in return of course for the absorption of certain political realities where we would then be rewarded with attractive little medals. I earned my bronze Leistungsabzeichen well within my first year with the BDM.

  The Nazis even challenged the subject of German history, changing much of it to suit the new Nazi ethos. Much of the history the Nazis taught was based around the philosophy of the ancient Greeks and their gods and goddesses. Hitler also had great admiration for the Nordic tribes and their culture and aggressiveness. An adaptation of the Nordic-race culture was visibly emulated in certain ways by the BDM. For example, regardless of whether a girl had black, brown or blonde hair, it had to be worn like the Nordic tribeswomen – long and in two ponytails.

  Certain traditional dress styles adopted for women in the BDM also had a similarity to those worn by the Nordic races. This is perfectly reflected in some of the photographs of BDM parades, where the students are wearing their BDM uniform, while flag-bearers walking at their sides are wearing the Nordic-style dress of Viking women. From these such subjects emanated Hi
tler’s realization of the Aryan race ideology. Hitler had plans of creating an Aryan race from his new generation of Hitler Youth girls and boys, who would generally serve as the experimental material for this sinister endeavour. It was accepted that it would take two full generations before a true Aryan race would consistently emerge from the Nazi gene pool.

  Geography taught to the girls of the BDM in school revolved around the dispute over territory taken from Germany after the First World War. Girls were given detailed explanations of how losing the war, and the implications of the French-and British-brokered Treaty of Versailles affected parents and grandparents of the pre-Hitler era. Such topics were not just confined to school, but were also discussed at the weekly BDM meetings. When war broke out again in 1939, the geography of Germany then centred on the territorial gains made by the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. After the war, when the Allied re-education programme began, the geography of German territory changed yet again, to a position worse than that just after 1918.