Wednesday, January 13, 1943. Germany enters Total War.

Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter, looking a lot like the Blue Max.

Adolf Hitler decreed that the "Führer decree on the full employment of men and women in the defense of the Reich", bringing total mobilization into effect, but rather late, given that the war had been going on since 1939, and that the struggle with Russia had been going on since 1941.  

The act was designed to bring adult German women into the industrial work force, thereby relieving men to fight in the Wehrmacht.  It would only allow, however, for an additional 500,000 men to be mobilized, which in the context of the war was telling as that frankly wasn't that many.  The act had been designed to apply to women from age 16 to 50, but Hitler insisted on upping the lower age limit to 17.  Soon thereafter, the upper age limit was depressed to 45.

Deutscher Frauenarbeitsdienst service flag.

As perhaps that short history reveals, the Nazis were very reluctant to fully mobilize their adult population to the extent it required mobilizing women.  The party had always had the view that women's roles were solely familial and domestic, and had discouraged female employment and involvement in civil life in every fashion.  While exceptions occurred, women were not supposed to be allowed to join the Nazi Party.  Indeed, Nazi fascination with the female reproductive role descended right down to the perverse level in some instances.

With the arrival of the war, therefore, the Germans effectively sidelined its female population until forced to mobilize them due to the inescapable manpower needs of the war.

This contrasts dramatically with the Allied powers. The UK, US and Canada had all encouraged women to work in factories and fields since the onset of the war, and had taken women into non combat military service early on. The Soviet Union went one step further, not only taking women into service, but also allowing small scale use of female combatants.  The UK had required women by this point to register for some sort of war support service.

By this point in the war, of course, the Germans were resorting to slave labor for the same purpose.

Some interesting ones from Sarah Sundin for today's date:

Today in World War II History—January 13, 1943:Students at the University of Munich riot after a Nazi speaker blames the German army’s dire situation in Stalingrad on student malingerers.

 and

In “Sleepy Lagoon” case in Los Angeles, 17 Mexican-Americans are wrongly convicted of murder; convictions will be overturned in October 1944.

The wrongfully convicted upon being released.

I vaguely recall this story featuring in the movie Zoot Suit.