The Holocaust Documentation & Education Center is pleased to share the following program from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
“The Myth of the Perfect Mother: Propaganda and Conspiracy Theories”
This program was offered as part of the USHMM’s Facebook Live Series.
Cigarette card titled “Muttergluck” (Joy of Motherhood), which shows Adolf Hitler with a mother and child. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of William O. McWorkman
Women were necessary participants toward the Nazi goal of creating a so-called pure race. Under Hitler’s reign, non-Jewish German mothers who had at least eight children began to expand the nation’s population earned golden crosses, a tradition that began on Mother’s Day.
Learn how nationalist propaganda and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories converged to persuade women to become key players in the myth of Nazi supremacy. Women today assume the roles of both victim and vehicle in spreading modernized versions of these dangerous conspiracy theories that divide our society and jeopardize democracy.
Speakers:
Dr. Rebecca Erbelding, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Dr. Annie Kelly, Expert on contemporary conspiracy theories
Moderator:
Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The program can be viewed by clicking here.
