GERMAN WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 118, 12 February 1940, Page 4

GERMAN WOMEN

Exhausted At Beginning Of The War On German women the Reich’s leaders have imposed the crushing task of feeding the war machine, writes Judith Grunfeld. in ‘'lndependent AVoman,” the orgaffof the United States National Federation of Business and Professional AVomen’s Clubs. At the same time, women have been deprived of adequate food for themselves and their children. Caught in a network of conscription, compulsory labour service, obligatory labour passports, chronic breadlines, and terroristic outbursts, the regimented and deeply degraded German women face today's strange war practically as exhausted as they were at the close of the AVorld AVar.

One has only to read the German newspapers, listen to the pronouncements of leaders —and the protests of the Nazi women themselves —to see a clear picture of the situation. Thus Field Marshal Hermann Goering, addressing munitions workers in Berlin on September 9, stated emphatically: “Today the entire nation, from 16 years on, is mobilized. No- matter where he stands, everybody is in the service of the Reich. Here is a special word to women. They are great sufferers. AVe know the German woman will bear the heaviest burden of war. . . .”

And this, remember, is a war brought about by the policies of the National Socialist Government that prohibited election of women to the Reichstag, because “Women are too flue by nature to be fllthied by politics.” A government, further, that has deprived women of any political voice or opportunity to manifest their horror of war. As early as 193-1, Irmgard Reichenau, a Nazi woman, wote: “AVomen today are handed over defenceless to the men. It cannot be called a people’s State when a man’s State is set up. In view of the greater rigidity of men’s souls one could understand if they monopolized vocations such as those of butcher or hangman. But why should women not be allowed to be judges, priests and State ministers, since they are allowed to be queens? Experience teaches that the elimination of the woman, the guardian of morals and of culture, is a threat to both.

Furthermore, she raised the question : “AVhat use to abolish class arrogance and class hatred if they are only to be replaced by male arrogance and sex hatred which arc a thousandfold more disastrous?” Manual Tasks. While eliminating women from responsible and professional positions, the Nazis more and more pushed them into strenuous manual tasks. Instead of sending them back to the home the National Socialist Government has ruthlessly pulled women out of it. To build up their gigantic war machine. Nazis have been hunting for the very working wives they formerly dismissed, plus many of their sisters. Since 193 S headlines in the controlled German Press have demanded more and more female labour; Note the following sentence from an editorial in the “Angriff,” propaganda Minister Goebbels’s paper: "AVe must mobilize for the labour market not only women who never before wore gainfully employed, but also those who gave up their jobs because of marriage. The slogan ‘double earners,’ which condemned the employment of married women a few years ago, is now out of date because we urgently need their labour power. It. has become a necessity for the State.”

And appealing to "only housewives,” the same paper pointed out. on November 17, .1938, that it is the duty of married women to join tlie labour market instead of remaining “useless” at home. Indeed, nobody did more to unmask tlie falsity of the Fascist “woman-baek-to-the-home” slogan than Hitler himself in his policy toward retail stores and small shops. Many thousands have

been closed down by the Nazi Government to compel independent, business women and the wives of storekeepers and artisans, who had been helping their husbands, to become dependent labourers in munitions plants. The State Secretary of Labour, Dr. F. Syrup, announced at. the beginning of 1939: “Retailers represent an additional labour reserve and the abolition of one-third of retail stores is planned. Thus the same Nazis who promised security to the middle class and a “woman’s life at. home,” have ruined numerous business men and women, subjecting both to hard toil outside their homes. Beyond Their Strength, The increasing work burden placed on women is fully recognized. Even Dr. Goebbels’s “Angriff” admitted in May, 1939, that, women are often required to do work “which is beyond their strength.” The Berlin weekly, “Der Witselniftsring,” stated on April 7, 1939: “The reports of the Ministry of Labour show not only an increase in the number of employed women,, but also the extent to which female labour has penetrated into industries when it has hitherto been almost, unknown; in steel

works and foundries women are to be seen in large numbers; in the papermaking industry they are often engaged in barking Limber; in the quarrying in-

dustry they are employed for loading broken stone; the brick-making industry is largely dependent on female labour since the men have moved to better occupations. Women are generally cheap, and manufacturers appreciate cheap labour.” Is that not quite an impressive illustration of Hitler’s much-advertised protection of the feminine nature and family life? Step by step, the author continues, the degradation of Germany's womanpower has been pursued. ’Whereas in 1914 Germany entered the war with large reserves of women who had been really enjoying “home life,” leisure, adequate food, educational and professional opportunities, women who voluntarily offered their unused energies to their Fatherland in its war emergency, Germany, in 1939, is in quite a different position. Worn out by over-work, under-nourishment, and the numerous sacrifices imposed by Hitler's dictatorship, Gernfan women face this war without unused energies to offer, few of them free for voluntary service. Will the Nazis’ short-sighted imlicie.s regarding women prove the determining factor in this war? Muy not, perhaps. the opposition of women be delaying Hitler’s war? British and French women, in contrast, are voluntarily bringing fresh reserves of accumulated energy and the full strength of the democratic spirit to the defence of humanitarian civilization against totalitarian aggression and slavery.