![Winterhilfswerk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Winterhilfswerk.jpg)
The ''Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes'' ( en, link=yes, Winter Relief of the German People), commonly known by its abbreviated form ''Winterhilfswerk'' (WHW), was an annual donation drive by the
National Socialist People's Welfare
The National Socialist People's Welfare (german: Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt, NSV) was a social welfare organization during the Third Reich. The NSV was originally established in 1931 as a small Nazi Party-affiliated charity active loc ...
(german: Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt) to help finance charitable work. Initially an emergency measure to support people during the Great Depression, it went on to become a major source of funding for the activities of the NSV and a major component of Germany's welfare state. Donations to the WHW, which were voluntary in name but ''de facto'' required of German citizens, supplanted tax-funded welfare institutions and freed up money for rearmament. Furthermore, it had the propagandistic role of publicly staging the solidarity of the ''
Volksgemeinschaft
''Volksgemeinschaft'' () is a German expression meaning "people's community", "folk community", Richard Grunberger, ''A Social History of the Third Reich'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971, p. 44. "national community", or "racial community", ...
''.
Background and early history
The Winterhilfswerk was organised by the
National Socialist People's Welfare
The National Socialist People's Welfare (german: Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt, NSV) was a social welfare organization during the Third Reich. The NSV was originally established in 1931 as a small Nazi Party-affiliated charity active loc ...
, a
social welfare
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
organisation whose declared purpose was "to develop and promote the living, healthy forces of the German people". The NSV's origins can be traced to Nazi party welfare activities during the
Kampfzeit, when local groups were formed to provide aid to party members in distress. The Berlin association "Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt e.V." is considered the primary institutional ancestor of the NSV. Initially, the Berlin organisation was met with contempt by
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
leaders: In 1932 the party informed the association's leadership that it had initiated legal proceedings because of "misuse of the word 'national socialist'". In 1933, the party changed its position; Hitler designated the NSV a party organ on 3 May 1933. It went on to grow rapidly, counting 3.7 million members in 1934 and becoming the second largest mass organisation in Nazi Germany, behind the
German Labour Front
The German Labour Front (german: Deutsche Arbeitsfront, ; DAF) was the labour organisation under the Nazi Party which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
History
As early as March 1933, ...
. At the onset of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, it had more than 10 million members.
Hitler ordered the establishment of the Winterhilfswerk in 1933 and personally opened the first drive, giving out the directive "no one shall be hungry, no one shall freeze". The initial donation drive in winter 1933/1934 took place against a backdrop of acute distress in large parts of the German populace; its initiation was partly a result of the party's desire to prevent social unrest. The "Law on the Winterhilfswerk of the German People", passed on 1 December 1936, formally established the WHW as a registered association, to be led by the
Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Operation
![Stamp WHW](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Stamp_WHW.jpg)
The yearly donation drives by the Winterhilfswerk constituted the most visible part of the NSV's work. As part of the centralisation of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, posters urged people to donate, rather than give directly to beggars. The
Hitlerjugend
The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926 ...
and
Bund Deutscher Mädel
The League of German Girls or the Band of German Maidens (german: Bund Deutscher Mädel, abbreviated as BDM) was the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only legal female youth organization in Nazi Germany ...
(boys' and girls' associations, respectively) were extremely active in collecting for this charity. As part of the effort to place
the community over the individual, totals were not reported for any individuals, only what the branch raised.
Certain weekends were assigned to all of the different
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
associations, each with their own special Abzeichen, or badges, to pass out in exchange for a
pfennig
The 'pfennig' (; . 'pfennigs' or ; symbol pf or ₰) or penny is a former German coin or note, which was the official currency from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002. While a valuable coin during the Middle Ages, ...
or two. The highly collectible items were made of many different materials, such as wood, glass, paper, terra cotta, metal and plastic. Over 8,000 different pieces had been produced by the end of the war, and some of the rarer ones sell for quite a lot of money today.
![Nazi Collection Tin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Nazi_Collection_Tin.JPG)
The Can Rattlers, as they became known, were relentless in their pursuit of making sure every good German citizen gave their share to the WHW. In fact, those who forgot to give had their names put in the paper to remind them of their neglect. Neighbors and even family members were encouraged to whisper the names of shirkers to their block leaders so that they could persuade them to do their duty. On one occasion, a civil servant was prosecuted for failure to donate, and his argument that it was voluntary was dismissed on the grounds it was an extreme view of liberty to neglect all duties that were not actually prescribed by law and therefore an abuse of liberty. It was not unheard of for workers to lose their jobs for not donating to Winterhilfe or not giving enough. For instance, when a worker was fired for not donating to Winterhilfe, the firing was upheld by a labour court on the grounds that it was "conduct hostile to the community of the people
..to be most strongly condemned".
Large donations were also a means to establish oneself as a loyal supporter of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
without the commitment of joining it.
A greatly encouraged practice was once a month to have a one-pot meal (''
eintopf
A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and m ...
''), reducing all the food to one course and the money thus saved was to be donated. During autumn and winter months from 1933 onward, the ''Eintopfsonntag'' (One-Pot Sunday or Stew Sunday) was officially scheduled by the WHW. Restaurants were required to offer an ''eintopf'' meal at one of several price points. Households were reminded of the occasion, although it has been noted that the authorities did not investigate whether the one-pot meal was actually served.
Collection drives were a mainstay of the Winter Relief and those who did not give, or gave little (such as one pair of boots to a clothing drive), were sometimes the victims of mob violence and needed to be protected by the police , known in French as the ''Secours d'Hiver'' in Belgium.
Gifts and tokens
A paper ''Monatstürplakette'' (monthly placard) was issued to place on one's door or in one's window to show others that one had given and also to keep the roaming bands of charity workers at bay.
![1943 Winterhilfswerk note - GG issue with antisemitic clause](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/1943_Winterhilfswerk_note_-_GG_issue_with_antisemitic_clause.jpg)
Donors were often given small souvenir gratitude gifts of negligible value, somewhat similar to the way modern charities mail out address labels and holiday cards. A typical such gift was a very small propaganda booklet, reminiscent of Victorian-era miniature books; about 0.8" wide x 1.5" tall. Booklets included ''The Führer Makes History'', a collection of Hitler photographs, and ''Gerhard Koeppen'' and other decorated heroes of the war.
![Medallion Urnenfund bei Litzmannstadt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Medallion_Urnenfund_bei_Litzmannstadt.png)
More generous donors would receive concomitantly better gifts, such as lapel pins on a wide variety of themes. Some depicting occupational types or geographic areas of the Reich, others animals, birds and insects, nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters, or notable persons from German history (including Hitler himself). They were made from a variety of materials. Each individual miniature book, badge, badge set or toy set was only available for two or three days of a particular collection drive. The populace would be encouraged to donate the following week and thereby collect the latest in the series. There could also be consequences such as nagging by the appropriate official if your local ''Blockleiter'' saw that you were not wearing the current, appropriate pin by about Tuesday of the week.
![Winterhilfswerk Donation Recognition](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Winterhilfswerk_Donation_Recognition.JPG)
When he visited Germany in 1939 as a reporter for the
North American Newspaper Alliance,
Lothrop Stoddard
Theodore Lothrop Stoddard (June 29, 1883 – May 1, 1950) was an American historian, journalist, political scientist, conspiracy theorist, white supremacist, and white nationalist. Stoddard wrote several books which advocated eugenics and sci ...
wrote
Once a fortnight, every city, town, and village in the Reich seethes with brown-shirted Storm Troopers carrying red-painted canisters. These are the Winter-Help collection-boxes. The Brown-Shirts go everywhere. You cannot sit in a restaurant or beer-hall but what, sooner or later, a pair of them will work through the place, rattling their canisters ostentatiously in the faces of customers. And I never saw a German formally refuse to drop in his mite, even though the contribution might have been less than the equivalent of one American cent.
During these periodic money-raising campaigns, all sorts of dodges are employed. On busy street-corners comedians, singers, musicians, sailors, gather a crowd by some amusing skit, at the close of which the Brown-Shirts collect. People buy tiny badges to show they have contributed—badges good only for that particular campaign. One time they may be an artificial flower; next time a miniature dagger, and so forth. The Winter-Help campaign series reaches its climax shortly before Christmas in the so-called Day of National Solidarity. On that notable occasion the Big Guns of the Nazi Party sally forth with their collection-boxes to do their bit.
Stoddard described visits to a Winterhilfswerk facility where he was shown winter clothing and other items meant for distribution. Few others describe the charitable work of the WHW and the historical record contains many details on the collection of money and goods, but little about what was done with either. William Russell's eyewitness book
Berlin Embassy surmises that the entire program was a sham and that all proceeds were used to produce armaments. The 1933–1945 collection drives issued a large number of themed ceramic medallions and other badges given to donators.
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
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{{Authority control
Social welfare charities
Nazi Party organizations