By Liana Jacob
SEXIST SCENES that reveal the perception of a Nazi official describing US women as flirts and playgirls in comparison with German women who were considered useful for the country in war have been exposed.
In the beginning of the footage, the lead character describes the French as ‘confused and helpless in the hands of fascist leaders’, while he labels England as ‘weak’ and ‘frightened’ and the US as having ‘no army, navy or air force’.
Other scenes show a man asking another whether he would consider American women to work for them, followed by the lead man laughing sarcastically and labelling them ‘the most decadent women on the face of the Earth’.
He goes on to quote a few ‘statistics’ about what American women have done to degrade the country, including; in 1938 they spent more on cosmetics than the United States Navy did to purchase warships.
The clip is part of a Department of Defence film called The Hidden Army which was produced in 1944, and goes on to redeem the negative views on the contributions of women during the Second World War.
“Last year, 1938, they spent more for cosmetics than the United States Navy did for ships, more for silk stockings, than the United States Air Force spent for planes,” the narrator said.
“Flirts, cocktail drinkers, pleasure lovers, loafers, a race of playgirls; pampered and spoilt by their sentimental American men.”
The film was set just a couple of years before the start of World War II which began on September 1, 1939, and lasted until September 2, 1945.
It was only during WW2 that the National Socialists changed their policy to allow women to join the German Army, which was the opposite of what they previously believed.
While women in Nazi Germany were not given combat unit tasks during the war, they were considered as auxiliary military personnel; in charge of logistical and administrative duties in understaffed areas.
Approximately 350,000 American women joined the military during the Second World War. They worked as nurses, drove trucks, fixed airplanes, and performed clerical work to free up men for combat.
“How different from the women of Germany, who trained like soldiers, who bred babies to wage this war and are now producing the goods for our grown soldiers and fighting fronts,” the narrator said.
“And all of this without lipstick and American women, pah.”
