Part IX

‘Hitler’s Furies: German Women In the Nazi Killing Fields’

“It must be kept in mind,” declared Raul Hilberg, “that most of the participants of genocide did not fire rifles at Jewish children or pour gas into gas chambers … most bureaucrats composed memoranda, drew up blueprints, talked on the telephone and participated in conferences. They could destroy a whole people by sitting at their desks.”

There were practically 40 million German women in 1939, a third of whom (13 million) were actively involved in the Nazi Party. Their numbers continued to rise until the end of hostilities. Among the numerous myths of the postwar era was that of the “apolitical woman,” explained historian Wendy Lower, author of “Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields.” Contrary to what many German women testified in court or stated in oral testimonies, they were not merely organizing the affairs in the office or attending social events by managing the needs of other Germans stationed in the East.

There is no doubt the “female fascists,” who were in Nazi headquarters in Kiev, in gated villas in Lublin or in military and SS and police offices in Minsk were not simply performing “women’s work.” What appeared to be minor assistance in daily government operations, military, and Nazi Party organizations “added up to a genocidal system,” Lower said. They were “zealous administrators, tormentors and murderers…”

Lower adds that other women came as teachers, nurses, secretaries, concentration camp guards and wives. At least half a million German women went to Eastern Poland, the former Russian territories under German occupation, and today’s Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, where they became “integral parts” of the operation to destroy the Jews of Europe. The Nazis viewed “The East” as their Lebensraum (living space), a frontier where everything was conceivable—factories built to accommodate mass murder alongside model German settlements.

“A Civilizing Mission”

German teachers were sent as part of a “civilizing mission,” since schools were key institutions for transforming ethnic Germans into true believers in Nazi ideology. Teachers were also charged with creating a “racial hierarchy” that forced non-German children out of the schools, while developing a cadre of select female educators. In one area of Poland alone, approximately 2,500 German women were working in more than 500 kindergartens. They advanced the genocidal crusade by ridding the schools of non-Germans; indoctrinating ethnic Germans in Poland, Ukraine and the Baltics; and stealing Jewish and Polish property for the schools and the children, many of whom were orphans after the Nazis had evacuated the East.

“Angels on the Front”

Historian Henry Friedlander said that in Germany nurses participated in selecting the mentally and physically disabled in asylums, and then accompanied them to the gas chambers or gave them lethal injections. Nursing comprised the highest number of authenticated criminal acts of all female professions. In the East, nurses were the largest group of women directly involved in the war. Their primary responsibility was to restore the health of German soldiers, and boost their self-confidence. Members of the SS and the Police, who participated in mass executions where they shot Jewish men, women and children at close range, were consoled by the nurses after the trauma they experienced. In concentration camps, nurses worked in the infirmaries.

Many of the nurses who volunteered to go East were teenagers eager to leave their villages, who had already learned about hygiene and racial biology. In late 1939 and early 1940, approximately 15,000 women responded to the recruiting campaign for nurses. The conventional virtues nurses had traditionally adhered to—”sacrifice, discipline and loyalty—were now to be used to wage war.” As one nursing school instructor commented, “hatred is noble.”

Secretaries

Lower notes that aside from the nurses, the largest number of women providing support to the everyday operations of the war in the East were the German secretaries, office assistants, telephone operators and file clerks who worked in state and private concerns. Although the SS and police were the primary murderers and controlled these organizations, the legions of 200,000 young secretaries (ages 18-25) enabled the mass murder juggernaut to function. Some of the secretaries who typed up the orders to murder the Jews were also involved in the slaughter and were present at the mass shootings. They saw it “as a professional opportunity and a liberating experience.”

Wives

“In government hierarchies, female professionals and spouses attached themselves to men of power and in turn wielded considerable power themselves, including over the lives of the regime’s most vulnerable subjects.” They occupied positions throughout the chain of command “from the very bottom to the very top,” and had the authority to issue directives to subordinates.

Lower concludes that “genocide is also women’s business. When given the ‘opportunity,’ women will engage in it, even the bloodiest aspects of it.” Although the verified cases of women directly murdering Jews or others are “not numerous,” they must be viewed seriously and not viewed as “anomalies.” These women were “not marginal sociopaths,” Lower said. They regarded their cruel and vicious acts as “justified acts of revenge” imposed on Germany’s adversaries and thus “expressions of loyalty.” This view is also shared by political scientist Guenter Lewy. In other words, the collection of their accounts and memories enables us to understand “what human beings—not only men, but women as well—are capable of believing and doing.”

Dr. Alex Grobman is the senior resident scholar at the John C. Danforth Society, a member of the Council of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and on the advisory board of the National Christian Leadership Conference of Israel (NCLCI). He has an MA and PhD in contemporary Jewish history from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.