{"id":19712,"date":"2012-11-27T12:25:09","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T16:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=19712"},"modified":"2012-11-27T16:39:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T20:39:00","slug":"two-uc-students-explored-life-in-nazi-womens-labor-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2012\/11\/two-uc-students-explored-life-in-nazi-womens-labor-camps\/","title":{"rendered":"Two UC Students Explored Life in Nazi Women`s Labor Camps"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Suzanne Maggard<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/a>

Mary Louise Eich<\/p><\/div>\n

College students are notoriously adventurous and University of Cincinnati students are not immune to the exploratory spirit.\u00a0 In the Archives and Rare Books Library, we are in the unique situation to learn about and discover student adventures that may have otherwise been forgotten.\u00a0 An example is the story of Mary Louise Eich and her friend and Delta Zeta sorority sister, Mary Nichols.\u00a0\u00a0 Last week, we received a donation of a book entitled, An Odyssey in the Life of Mary Louise Eich<\/em>written by William Neal, the son of Mary Louise Eich.<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/a>

Mary Nichols<\/p><\/div>\n

The book tells the story of Mary Louise\u2019s life and the trip she made with Nichols in the summer of 1936 to Nazi Germany.\u00a0 Both Eich and Nichols spent a month working in Women\u2019s Labor Service camps.\u00a0 Upon their return they both wrote articles for the Cincinnati Post<\/em> about their experiences.\u00a0 Neal\u2019s book provides transcriptions of the articles Eich and Nichols wrote for the Cincinnati Post<\/em> and is a great addition to our library\u2019s holdings on German-Americana and University of Cincinnati history.<\/p>\n

Neal\u2019s book provides few clues as to how Eich and Nichols were able to work in the Women\u2019s Labor Service or Frauenarbeitsdienst<\/em>.\u00a0 Nichols does write in her November 4, 1936 article, though, that Eich received permission through the Institute of International Education and asked Nichols to accompany her.\u00a0 By working in the Women\u2019s Labor Service, Eich and Nichols could get an inside look into the lives of German people.\u00a0 During the 1930s, Women\u2019s Labor Camps were located outside urban areas and the women learned both domestic and agricultural skills.\u00a0 The purpose of the camps included occupying the unemployed, providing community benefit from work, promoting the idea of a simple life, and educating young women.\u00a0 Originally completely voluntary, in March of 1934, six months of service became compulsory for young German women before they could attend college.[i]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nichols writes of her experience, \u201cMy four weeks stay here is both an adventure and an interest in the German slogan, \u2018Kraft durch Freude\u2019 (strength through joy).\u00a0 As an American girl I would learn the purpose of work in a German lager.\u201d (November 4, 1936).<\/p>\n

\"Article<\/a>Eich and Nichols were separated and sent to different camps.\u00a0 Although this must have been difficult on them, it resulted in unique experiences for both young women.\u00a0 Eich was first sent to Camp Molkenberg (Molkenberg, Germany).\u00a0 She found the young women there incredibly political and Eich offended them by refusing to salute the Nazi flag.\u00a0 She writes in her October 27th<\/sup> article, \u201cI was getting pretty tired of politics in camp.\u00a0 The songs we sang, the books we read, everything was political.\u00a0 In the little free time we had the girls talked seriously with me of politics.\u201d\u00a0 Eich was soon transferred to K\u00f6nigswalde in Neumark, where she had a more pleasant experience.\u00a0 The camp leader was very informal, her cohorts were interested in learning American folk songs, and villagers asked about American politics.\u00a0 Mary Nichols was placed in Camp Sablath at Christianstadt.\u00a0 She, unlike Eich, did not have a firm grasp of the German language and struggled to communicate.\u00a0 Nichols describes the difficult work endured at the camps and on the surrounding farms, a long bicycle trip to Sagan, and the variety of women she was able to meet in the camps including a women of both French and German descent from Geneva.<\/p>\n

Eich\u2019s articles go into more depth on political issues than Nichols.\u00a0 She explains that on the surface, all the people seemed to support Hitler, but that as she got to know people better, she learned otherwise.\u00a0 She writes, \u201cThere is a strong undercurrent of unrest in Berlin.\u00a0 We were told that underground organizations are still working to overthrow the government.\u201d\u00a0 Yet, she also found some support for Hitler simply due to the improvement in economic conditions throughout the country.\u00a0 She writes that some had the following attitude, \u2018I used to have my liberty, but no bread.\u00a0 Now I have bread, but no liberty.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather have the bread.\u2019\u00a0 (Nov. 10, 1936)<\/p>\n

In the Fall of 1936, Mary Louise returned to school at UC for her senior year.\u00a0 In 1938, she married William Leonard Neal with whom she had seven children.\u00a0 She died in March of 1954 from tuberculosis.\u00a0 Little is known of the life of Mary Nichols after her return from Germany, but maybe one of our readers can provide us some clues.\u00a0 We do know she graduated from the University of Cincinnati in June of 1936 with a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Household Administration.<\/p>\n

An Odyssey in the Life of Mary Louise Eich<\/em> provides a unique first-hand look at Nazi Germany and supplements other items in the Archives and Rare Books Library from American visitors to Germany during the 1930s and 1940s including the Carl Helmecke papers<\/a> and the George E.\u00a0 Armstrong photograph collection<\/a>.\u00a0 An Odyssey<\/em> is currently being cataloged, but will be available in the Archives and Rare Books Library soon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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[i]<\/a> Stephenson, Jill, \u201cWomen\u2019s Labor Service in Nazi Germany,\u201d Central European History<\/em>, 15.3 (1982): 245-246.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Suzanne Maggard College students are notoriously adventurous and University of Cincinnati students are not immune to the exploratory spirit.\u00a0 In the Archives and Rare Books Library, we are in the unique situation to learn about and discover student adventures … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[64,49,52],"class_list":["post-19712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-uclibraries","tag-german-americana","tag-new-and-notable","tag-uc-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}