Women of the Reich: Reichsschule-ϟϟ für ϟϟ-Helferinnen Oberenheim

Leader of the Reich

Women of the Reich

German women played a vital role in the Nazi movement, some thirteen million were active in Nazi Party organizations that furthered the regime's goals of racial purity and imperial conquest. The number of female auxiliaries in the German armed forces approached 500,000 by 1945. The SS-Helferinnenkorps, the women who volunteered to support the Waffen-SS, and who formed a female Nazi trained elite, have to date been the subject of minimal research. The plans for the founding of the SS-Helferinnen school in Oberenheim in Alsace began in early 1942. These women would replace men, who would then be free to fight at the front. They had to be recommended by either an SS-man, a Bund Deutsche Mädel leader, or by a leader in the NS-Frauenschaft, the National Socialist Women's Organisation. The applicants’ reasons for applying varied from professional to familial to personal to political. The selection procedure involved the completion of a detailed application form which required 15 different documents, an extensive written examination, a racial examination and a medical examination. The written exam took place at the local SS Office, and tested spelling, dictation, general knowledge and ideological knowledge. If the applicants passed these initial tests, they would receive a call-up. The average age of applicants was 20 years old. The youngest applicant was 16 years old, the oldest 42 – and her application was received favourably, probably because she was Princess Ingeborg Alix von Schaumburg-Lippe, and was recommended for the position by her brother-in-law Prince Josias Georg Wilhelm Adolf zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, who was held in high esteem by the SS. The SS-Helferinnen were expected to behave impeccably. If the girls did not maintain the good reputation expected of them, it was grounds for dismissal. As members of the Waffen-SS they wore the SS runes and sleeve eagle on their uniforms. After the war, its members were mistakenly often regarded as members of the SS-Gefolges, female SS guards. These female guards were not members of the Waffen-SS, but were members of the so-called female civilian employees of the SS. Credit: authors Jutta Mühlenberg and Rachel Century. Left image: Austrian-born pan-German dictator Adolf Hitler. Photo taken by Hitler's private cameraman OLt. Walter Frentz at the Berghof in 1941. Walter Frentz Coll. FU. Right image: excited German girls are cheering for Hitler during the annual Nürnberg Rally. Photo by photog. Hugo Jäger on Sept. 6 1938. LIFE photo archive.