WOMEN IN GERMANY

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 17, 3 March 1939, Page 4

WOMEN IN GERMANY

"German women are not just women," writes an American observer, Professor Clifford Kirkpatrick, in his book, "Women in Nazi Germany." "They are German citizens. It is easy to underestimate the psychological satisfactions which National Socialism brought to German women as well as to German men. Many a shrunken ego was inflated by identification with a great tribal in-group. Millions of humble mothers were made to feel that the pangs of childbirth and the cares of child-rearing had at last been appreciated as a noble service to the folk state. National Socialism brought a sweet sense of belonging to an intimate in-group made up of comrades of the same blood and the same belief. It brought the comfort of a simple faith, the religious experience of yielding to something larger than oneself. Conflict could be eliminated and personality integrated hy devotion to a father, lover, saviour, protector and leader combined in the person of Adolf Hitler. The pageantry of Nazi Germany gives to women the tonic effect of a religious revival and the hope of salvation in a nation reborn."