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Background: The Frauen Warte was the Nazi Party's biweekly
illustrated magazine for women. This is an article from the 1st January
issue, 1940 that works to persuade women to have children even in the
midst of war.
The source: Paul Danzer, "Das Leben muß siegen,"
NS Frauen Warte, (8), #13 (1st January issue, 1940), p. 289.
Life Must Win
Thoughts on the New Year
What the man sacrifices in fighting for his people, the
woman sacrifices in fighting to maintain this people. The man
shows heroism on the battlefield, the woman shows it in eternal
patient devotion, in ever patient sorrow and endurance.
Each child that she brings into the world is a battle that
she fights for the existence or nonexistence of her people
— Der Führer
In happy times, holidays like Christmas Eve with the family or New Year's
Eve are high points. In graver times when the fate of an entire people
hangs in the balance, they are an occasion for looking back and looking
ahead. Only weak people will fall into lame sentimentality or be tempted
by hopeless self-pity. Others find occasion to catch their breath, to
find clear, solid knowledge that they can use to give them new courage
to go on with their labors. But we should not forget that these holidays
even during war bring joy and strength. A war Christmas is not a new thing
to those of us who are older. We have experienced it before, those grave
but unforgettable Christmases that brought the homeland and the front
together in unbreakable community. Christmas, that is the festival of
family community. During war, it is the festival of community for all
who are of the same nature, the same blood. It is the community of Germans;
particularly now as we all stand before unprecedented change, a time of
renewal, of youth, of the eternity of our people.
A correct understanding of our time must make us proud and strong, and
from such knowledge we may turn our view from outside to the lives of
German women. Their high mission as guardians of life is very different
from that of the man, and one cannot do enough to emphasize that again
and again. The man's life is filled with struggles and battles, with tools
or working the soil. But today more than ever, the outcome depends on
the quiet heroism of women. The willingness of the man to die stands against
the will of the woman for life. The more we learn about the world and
our people, the higher is the role of the woman, and the more we must
see the question of life as the most significant. War and victory stand
in the service of life, in the service of maintaining and extending the
life of our people. That is their meaning.
Our enemies have often said openly that they look for victory not in
honest fighting on the battlefield, but rather in a war of annihilation against
the core of our national being, against our women and children. They may
have hunger written on their battle flags, but these methods they used
against us before hold no terror for us, for we are prepared. What is
behind those threats is more serious. The implacability of our enemies
in England and above all in France is best understood when one realizes
that their populations are declining. They face a Germany whose population
is so strong they dare not attack it with arms. They hope that by prolonging
the war, by blockades and starvation, they can exert pressure on the German
life will. These shrinking peoples use poisoned weapons to fight the new,
healthy German growth, a Germany they believed they had dealt with in
the Treaty of Versailles by senselessly taking its territory in the hopes
of cutting off Germany's life.
The success or failure of the enemy's devilish plans depends
on German women and mothers, on their will to sacrifice and on
their love for their children. It may often be hard to be a mother,
to carry on the eternal struggle for the life of the German people.
That is especially true for women whose husbands are in the military,
but each brave deed is its own reward. And let us remember that
life keeps going, and breaks through the barriers that stand
in its way. Is not the continuing expansion of German territory
new proof for the eternal law that life finds its way?
No one may take away the desire of German women to have children.
Some may attempt to spread the idea that children born during
the war will face hunger and a future wounded in body and soul,
as happened during the World War. But the government today sees
in children its greatest wealth, and its highest task in caring
for them. It will see that children born during the war will
be protected, and can look forward to a happy Germany. They will
harvest what today is being sown in these great days. And we
may not forget that today the whole people stand behind our children;
once again it takes pleasure in children and loves them, seeing
its future in its children.
Life is the world of the woman. The fate of her people is
determined by her attitude toward life, in her will to happiness
and her desire for children. Our soldiers protect Germany and
all that we have accomplished. But it is our women who are the
foundation of Germany's future, who build it stone by stone through
fine German children. Here are the values , here the right to
life of our people. Our children are the river that carries German
feeling, German thinking, German accomplishments, and the German
will through the centuries.
Shall the courage of German women to carry on life be less
than the willingness of our soldiers to die? That is the question
that is before us. The only answer is this:
A military or political victory over our enemies would be
only half the battle, and could not guarantee Germany's future
or the Führer's work. The decisive factor is the victory
of life. And that is in the hands of our women and mothers.
[Page copyright © 1999 by Randall Bytwerk.
No unauthorized reproduction. My email address is available on the
FAQ page.]
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