German media reveals Nazi female soldiers: they became "officers' mattresses" in the late World War II.

On May 17, an article entitled "Forgotten Female Soldiers" was published on the website of German Time Magazine by Karen Haagman. The full text is compiled as follows:

German women's participation in World War II is far more active than people think. They engaged in industrial and agricultural production for the recruited male soldiers, and about 400 thousand people became nurses of the German Red Cross. Recent historical research shows that a large number of German women have joined the auxiliary forces of the National Defence Force.

In order to send more male soldiers to the front, a total of about 500,000 German young women worked as auxiliary workers for the National Defence Force and appeared in various battlefields of the armed forces. Among them, 6.5438+0.6 million people directly participated in the war as auxiliary personnel of anti-aircraft artillery units. At the end of World War II, the ratio of men to women in the National Defence Force reached 20 1.

In addition, there are 500,000 young women working as air defense assistants in Germany. Not long ago, the historian Wendy Lowe revealed in the book "Hitler's Female Assistant" that the degree of German women's participation in the Jewish Holocaust far exceeded people's imagination; There are 65,438+0,000 female soldiers in the SS.

Therefore, the degree of German women's participation in World War II not only far exceeds that of World War I, but also far exceeds that of British and American women. Only the Soviet Union mobilized more women to participate in the war than Germany. Moreover, in the Soviet Union, women formally performed military service, and the Red Army estimated that there were 520,000 female soldiers. In addition, about 800,000 Soviet women participated in air defense and nursing first aid.

Nazi female soldier

Women's participation in World War II has long been ignored by the public. In the historical narrative about World War II, their images are mostly just women workers and nurses. This is because fighting has been considered a man's business since ancient times. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in the war was still to mobilize men to fight and save lives.

However, the modern "total war" in the 20th century completely subverted the mode of social support for war. In World War I and World War II, more and more women participated in the military operations of the participating countries. Although in addition to the Soviet Union, other countries * * * and the military try not to let female soldiers take part in the battle, and only send them to do auxiliary work. Due to various concerns, both the British and American military and the German Defence Force tried to conceal the scale of women's participation in the army. But at the same time, the German army systematically expanded the number of female soldiers.

The Nazi regime legislated in May 1935, which laid the foundation for female military service. Mobilizing young women to work for the National Defence Force began with the outbreak of war in September 1939. Members of the Women's Auxiliary Force of the National Defence Force all volunteered to join the army. The brilliant results of Blitzkrieg made many hot-headed women volunteer to join the army in the first two years of the war. Many girls joined the army out of adventure and pursuit of independence. But there are also many people who support Nazi wars of aggression and extinction.

As the war continued, fewer and fewer women volunteered to join the National Defence Force. On the one hand, the news from the front line is getting worse and worse, and on the other hand, the reputation of female soldiers in the auxiliary forces in China is obviously bad. Some soldiers call it "officer mattress" or "soldier mattress".

In order to appease the parents and fiance of female soldiers fighting in the front line and reduce the difficulty of recruiting female soldiers, Nazi propaganda agencies tried to obliterate the sexual characteristics of female soldiers in the recruitment propaganda. The National Defence Force even ordered that female soldiers, as "German women", were not allowed to drink, smoke, make up or wear jewelry.

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June, the losses of the Wehrmacht increased greatly. The Nazi regime subsequently stipulated that 1 single women between the ages of 7 and 25 must work for the National Defence Force for at least1year. With the exhaustion of manpower, the service period of young women is continuously extended. By 1945, young women of school age were required to serve indefinitely.

After the war, in order to restore the pre-war social order and maintain social stability, all participating countries partially lifted the mobilization of women. Female soldiers were ordered to retire; The employed women were asked to resign to make room for the demobilized soldiers. Women were indispensable during the war, but they were marginalized in people's memory of the war.

Today, for the collective memory of Germans, it is like a challenge to imagine German women actively participating in World War II and the Holocaust.