Sigrid Chamberlain: Adolf Hitler, die deutsche Mutter und ihr erstes Kind
The book analyzes the classic education manual The German Mother and her First Child from a psychological point of view. The NS educational principles, this is her hypothesis, result in a child that is emotionally wanting and thus more easily adaptable to frameworks like the HJ. I'm not so sure that all the mothers followed the advice given in the book - if they did, it would certainly have resulted in depressed children, as she advocates a very strict regiment, i.e., "breaking the will" of the child. However, the writer's strict tone and her repeated appeals to the mothers seem to hint that most German mothers followed a more gentle line and had to be admonished into following the official line.
Frauengruppe Faschismusforschung: Arbeitsbuch und Mutterkreuz
A collection of essays by left wing feminist writers - strong influence of 1960s ideology (ripe for the next round of ideology critique
) but nevertheless interesting to read. Many facts about the different biographic options of working women, young women, mothers, party career women etc. Basic information which is useful if you want to dig further. Not new but still readable enough. http://www.amazon.de/Mutterkreuz-Arbeit ... 3596237181
Irmgard Weyrather: Muttertag und Mutterkreuz. Der Kult um die deutsche Mutter
A very interesting book stock full of information about the whole process of Mutterkreuz awards, the Muttertag ceremonies and the official cult of the mother. Personally, I'm very interested in it since two of my great-grandmothers were awarded the Mutterkreuz but both felt ambivalent about it. They sure felt the flattering acknowledgement of their hard work as mothers but they also felt embarrassed, and they did not agree with the aggressively pro-natal policies of NS Germany. (Try to have not more than three children! both advised their daughters and daughters in law, and they followed the advice). Still, the book helped me to understand how women were recruited emotionally for the cult of the German Mother, and how my great-grandmothers must have felt being honored.
http://www.amazon.de/Muttertag-Mutterkr ... 390&sr=8-7
Anja Klabunde, Magda Goebbels, Annaeherung an ein Leben
This biography of Magda is interesting but still leaves me, like most biographies, dissatisfied and hungry for more What made this woman tick? We will probably never know. Maybe her good looks made life too easy for her when she was young, and she never developed her own sense of identity? She always adapted herself to the man at her side, but at the same time, resisted this process of adaptation. She seems to me a woman who, after a certain point in her life, put her feelings into a box and never looked at them again. As ideal of elegant beauty and model mother she is still fascinating, as humiliated wife of Goebbels and killer of her children, she is certainly one of the more chilling figures of NS history. I recommend the book although, as I said, it digs at the surface. Magda lets us come no nearer, I fear.
http://www.amazon.de/Magda-Goebbels-Ann ... 969&sr=8-1
Erich Kasberger, Heldinnen waren wir keine
A collection of stories, told by "normal women". Oral history - no judgement, no distance, and the historical framework is quite sketchy - but that's after all not the point of the book. If you want to hear voices of women who remember their life in NS Germany as mothers of soldiers, forced laborers or enthusiastic national socialists, this book is for you. Easy reading but certainly a good overview of stories of younger and older women from all walks of life.
http://www.amazon.de/Heldinnen-waren-ke ... 257&sr=8-3
