Holidays, rest, and leisure were one of the most popular tools used by Nazism. Rested workers were needed to be productive and above all to be soothed. The Nazis fought social conflict with spas and recreational activities.

Enjoying a well-deserved holiday is one of the axioms most strongly engraved in the subconscious of Western societies. It is not only considered a great conquest of the workers, but a kind of mental refuge in which we hide during a whole year of labour hardships. When the work is difficult and fatigue or lack of appetite defeat the workers’ spirits, they start thinking about what they will do on holiday. Where to go? What to do This carrot that we put in front of us helps many citizens get through one day after another, but how does it contribute to the perpetuation of a model of society that makes us unhappy and dependent?

Between 1933 and 1945, the organization Kraft durch Freude (KdF) existed in Nazi Germany, which literally means “strength through joy“. The goal was simple: happy people don’t riot. This had to guarantee social peace and, consequently, maintain the validity and momentum of the Nazi project. Inspired by Italian fascism (which a few years earlier had thrown out the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro), the Germans designed a series of activities that, for the first time, made certain luxuries available to the entire population at popular prices. At last the lower classes could taste the pleasures of the upper classes: days off in spas or in residential towns on the coast, or a cruise, or going to the theatre, or the cinema, or practicing sailing or tennis… Finally, the 42,000 workers at Siemens, for example, could do more than go for a dip in the lakes or a walk in the woods at the weekend. All with the undisguised aim of increasing productivity and cohesion.

The success of the KdF: appeasement

According to Robert Ley, founder of the KdF, Hitler wanted “every worker to be granted a sufficient period of holiday and that everything be arranged so that these holidays and the rest of their free time really serve as rest and recovery. I want it because I want a town with nerves of steel, because the only way to do big politics is with a town that keeps calm”. The success of the initiative was gross and, in 1938, the KdF exceeded 10 million customers in one year. It became so important that it would have 7,000 workers, becoming the largest travel agency in the world. When World War II broke out in 1939, 43 million Germans had traveled with the KdF and spent millions of marks in a company that would eventually feed the war machine. The objective had been achieved: the population had been appeased, and the money had been concentrated in the hands of the Nazi elites.

The Kdf-Wagen

The issue of offering hitherto unattainable luxuries to the population even prompted the creation of the KdF-Wagen, launching what would later be known as Volkswagen (“people’s car”, the Beetle). The KdF-Wagen was also a great financial maneuver to finance the war, because citizens bought the car in installments, paying a weekly amount and did not receive the car until it was paid for in full. This served many happy workers to actually finance the production of war material when it was preferable to devote efforts to the war rather than making cars to deliver to customers.

The essential confusion

During the French Revolution, the Jacobin Robespierre asserted that “human beings are born for happiness and freedom, but everywhere they are slaves and miserable”. This idea, which implies that we deserve to be happy and free, has been intelligently used by the Nazis, as well as by the Italian fascists, the Spanish Francoists and currently by all consumer societies. Holidays, of 15 days, of 23 days per calendar year, of one month or two, are today the tool that the Nazis intended. A machine to appease societies, full of citizens who pack and unpack their bags while reviewing with a smile the photos of their moments of supposed freedom.

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