The Third Reich may have been a man’s world, but women were their willing helpers. A consultant with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Wendy Lower investigates an ill-explored aspect of Nazi Germany with Hitler’s Furies. Parallel to developments in America and elsewhere, German women entered clerical jobs, teaching and nursing in unprecedented numbers by the 1930s. In those capacities they helped facilitate the administration of Germany’s conquered territories in Eastern Europe. Whether employed by the SS, enrolled in the military or working for civilian agencies, German women “sought a liberating adventure” from old social constants. Many accepted Nazi racial ideology and a minority bloodied their hands in the killing fields.
