women in the third reich

Women played a vital role in Adolf Hitler's plan to create an ideal German Community (Volksgemeinschaft). Hitler believed a larger, racially purer population would enhance Germany's military strength and provide settlers to colonize conquered territory in Eastern Europe. The Third Reich's aggressive population policy encouraged "racially pure" women to bear as many "Aryan" children as possible.

This policy took its most radical form in 1936 when SS leaders created the state-directed program known as Lebensborn (Fount of Life). These were not buildings that were hidden away in some back street. “The government openly publicised them and they had a white flag with a red dot in the middle to identify them to the public.”

Lebensborn homes sheltered illegitimate offspring and their mothers, provided birth documents and financial support, and recruited adoptive parents for the children. The 1936 Lebensborn ordinance prescribed “that every SS member should father four children,...