The End

I wish I had a little more time to do this blog. It's been really interesting and revealing. I think it's important that we take the time to research things like this, because even though it's painful to learn about, it's important that we take something away from this. I would literally spend hours on one post because once you start researching you could just follow links forever and never get tired of discovering new things. I have a big list of new books and movies I would like to get. I hope that these posts inspire and encourage other people to do some research on their own. Thanks so much!

Nose Art

I love pin up girls. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post a little example of my favorite form of pin up art. Nose art are the images soldiers painted on the front of their bomber planes. These images were often scnatily clad women with a little saying of encouragement.

The Army Air Force attempted to censor these images, but decided that they were such a boost on morale that they couldn't afford to ban the art. It's my favorite form of pin up art because the pilot's painted it, it was their calling card. These men had dangerous jobs and many did not make it back home, so this nose art was their symbol of pride left behind.

Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter was an icon for women who went to work in the factories and took the jobs of the men who were off fighting in the war. Women were told it was their patriotic duty to keep the economy going and help build war machines and supplies for the soldiers.


The phrase Rosie the Riveter actually came from a cute little song featured in this video:

Coco Chanel

As much as I LOVE 40's fashion, this is not a post about fashion (although that's not a bad idea). I came across an article on Coco Chanel and her extracurricular activities during WWII. Apparently she spent the war years in Paris living in the Ritz with a Nazi officer. After the war and the search for Nazi collaborators was on she was reported to have offered this up as an excuse: “Really, sir, a woman of my age cannot be expected to look at his passport if she has a chance of a lover.” It was also reported that Winston Churchill himself spared her from the punishment of public humiliation that the other French women who were Nazi collaborators received. Even today Chanel has been spared the humiliation of supporting Nazis. I myself have a poster of Marilyn Monroe holding a bottle of Chanel No.5.

A French woman having her head shaved as a form of punishment for collaborating with the Nazis:


This got me thinking about other companies that could be linked to Nazi Germany. I was shocked to find that Volkswagens were quite literally created by and for Hitler. He wanted to create a well built but economical car for the German people. The literal translation of Volkswagen is "people's car." Hitler specifically requested that Ferdinand Porsche create a four-seater car with a streamlined shape "like a beetle."

It is approximated that 80% of VW's wartime workforce were slave laborers from concentration camps.

Another surprising company that supported the Nazis was Coca-Cola. They advertised in Nazi publications and continued to made product for the Nazi party. When they could no longer get the sugar syrup from the United States to make their drink they created Fanta, the fruit flavored soda. That's right, Fanta was created for Nazi soldiers by Coca-Cola. I'm never going to be able to drink a delicious Fanta grape soda without thinking of this ever again.

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

Sophie Scholl was a 21 year old German who opposed the Nazi party. Her brother Hans Scholl founded the group the White Rose after working as a medic in the German army. He witnessed soldiers shooting Jews in mass graves and was outraged. He wanted to raise awareness on the injustices of the Nazi party. At first he did not want to include his sister, Sophie, but she knew something was up and demanded to know. When she found out she wanted to be a part of it. They created their 6th and final leaflet urging Germans to leave the Nazi party and protest the war. They had skipped class to leave the leaflets in the halls and when class let out people picked them up. They noticed afterwards there were still several leaflets left and did not want to let them go to waste. So Sophie and Hans took them to the third floor of the main hallway and threw them over the railing. Unfortunately, a janitor witnessed them and turned them in. They were arrested by the Gestapo, tried and found guilty, and sentenced to death. A mere ten hours after being arrested they were executed by guillotine. Sophie's last words were, “God, you are my refuge into eternity.” Hans had to watch Sophie and a dear friend be executed before he was. His last words were, “Long live freedom!” There is a memorial for Sophie and the White Rose group in front of the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich that resembles the leaflets tossed to the ground. I would love to see this in person one day.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

I just wanted to share this really great website where I have gotten a lot of great stories from. It has tons and tons of pictures, interactive artifacts, videos, and personal stories. It is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website. It's got so much information it would take me years and years to sift through it all. It's located in D.C. and I would really like to make a trip up there this summer if I can gather up the gas money.

Volksgemeinschaft (German Community)

So yesterday I did a post on sterilization of "lesser people" according to Nazi Germany and I thought today I would follow that with Germany's policies on German women having children. Like I talked about earlier Hitler was looking for a "master race." He wanted Germany's "racially pure" women to breed as many Aryan children as possible. Hitler wanted Germans to reproduce to create more soldiers and German citizens to take over the lands that Germany conquered. In 1936 the SS leaders founded the program Lebensborn, or Fount of Life. This program states every SS member should father at least four children, whether he was married or not. This program was not received well due to the immorality of children out of wedlock. Instead, they began rewarding German families who produced children by honoring them publicly, giving them monetary rewards, and the Cross of Honor of the German Mother. German mothers who bore four of five children received a bronze medal, six or seven children a silver medal, and eight or more got them a gold medal.

While reading about the sterilization experiments I found this upsetting story. Apparently after finding out a doctor had helped a SS leader's infertile wife conceive, they ordered him to conduct experiments on women prisoners in Auschwitz. He reportedly performed experiments on around 300 women and would tie them down and taunt them by telling them he had just inseminated them with animal sperm and monsters were now growing in their wombs.