The Lightning Girls: A Brief History of the Nachrichtenhelferinnen des Heeres
Women took on new roles in the Second World War never before open to them. They became pilots, welders, and even anti-aircraft gunners due to shortages of men for combat jobs. Women filled the gaps, and after France fell to Germany in June 1940 those gaps broke the barriers to women's service in Germany. The German occupation of France created a need for women to initially fill numerous jobs including clerical and administrative positions to support the occupation and free men for combat service and as the war extended so did the role of women across the occupied territories.
Ilse Wansky served as a female signals auxiliary in the German Army stationed in Lille, France from 1942-1944 where she operated a switchboard and conducted clerical duties to free men for combat roles.
Women in Service
For many German women, service as a military auxiliary (Helferin) provided an unprecedented, if paradoxical, sense of autonomy. It offered an escape from traditional domestic expectations, granting opportunities for travel and professional roles—such as signals intelligence, anti-aircraft support, and administrative logistics—that had been largely restricted under pre-war Nazi social norms. While the majority of these women were deployed to administrative hubs and signals centers throughout the Reich and occupied territories, a distinct cadre known as SS-Helferinnen served within the Nazi bureaucracy. This integration meant that female clerical staff were often stationed in the administrative offices of concentration camps, directly embedding female labor into the operational machinery of the Holocaust.
Regulations
1. In agreement of the Minister of the Interior a larger number of female members of the German Red Cross will be trained as signal auxiliaries. The preliminary training will be done in trainings groups within the Deputy General Commands, the concluding training will be done in the Army Signals School in Gießen. From there on the deployment commences .
2. The signal auxiliaries of the Army are phone and teletyper operators, working within the higher command post in the occupied countries together with uniformed and self-contained military units. Fundamentally they are to be accommodated in combined housing. The organization of their spare time is regulated by special stipulations. In the core Germany they will only deployed in such cases where regular employees cannot be appointed for special reasons .
3. The units of the communication specialists are organized as follows:
a. Comradeships (consisting of one senior helper and 11 helpers)
b. Platoons (Züge, consisting of 2 to 5 comradeships)
c. Squad (Bereitschaft, consisting of 2 to 4 platoons)
A task force should not be less than the force of a platoon, it can consist also of several squads.
The Nazi regime’s foundational ideology was rigorously patriarchal, promoting a vision of the "German Mother" whose sphere of influence was strictly confined to the domestic trinity of Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church). Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist leadership viewed the militarization of women with deep suspicion, fearing that female participation in the armed forces would erode the moral fabric of the family and undermine the masculine ethos of the soldier. They even created a medal called the Mutterkreuz (officially the Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter, or Cross of Honor of the German Mother) to celebrate women giving birth, with higher grades given for bearing more children. But on October 1, 1940 the Nazi regime conceded to necessity and created the auxiliary signals branch of the army. It was announced in Heeresmiteillungsblatt 40, No. 1085, the German Army Gazette where regulations were printed. Though service was initially voluntary, the failed invasion of Russia led to the Dienstverpflichtung (Service Obligation) law in December 1941, which introduced compulsory military service for women aged 18 to 40. Ilse Wansky was among those transferred from the German Red Cross to the German Army’s signals auxiliary.
Officially called the Nachrichtenhelferinnen des Heeres, or NH des Heeres for short, these women were nicknamed "Blitzmädchen” or “Blitzmädels” - lightning girls so called after the yellow lightning bolt logo they wore as the emblem of their service. The women of the signals auxiliaries served as secretaries, radio and telephone operators, at switchboards and in all manner of duties in offices throughout Germany and occupied Europe. They primarily served at headquarters, administrative, and communication centers. Many of them found themselves serving in dangerous locations, particularly later in the war when the headquarters could quickly become the front lines and had to endure air raids regardless of where they served.
The School in Gießen
To transform civilian women into efficient cogs of the Wehrmacht's communication machine, the Army established a centralized training hub: the Heeres-Schule für Nachrichtenhelferinnen (Army School for Signals Auxiliaries) in Gießen, Hesse. The selection of Gießen, a central location with significant rail and communication links, underscored the importance the High Command placed on the standardized training of its female corps. The school was located in a military complex known in the post-war era as the "Rivers Barracks." This facility was not merely a classroom environment but a fully militarized zone that included the "Gisela" signals bunker, a hardened communication node located in the forests southeast of Gießen.
One Woman's Story: Annelise Brüser
One woman's journey through the female signals auxiliaries. The story of Oberhelferin Annelise Brüser is the story of many women that went from a quiet life in Germany to eventually serve the German Army in the Second World War.
Annelise Brüser
A nurse transferred into the Army
Annelise Brüser was a nurse in the German Red Cross (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz or DRK), as was typical for so many women that were eventually transferred to the NH des Heeres to fulfill their compulsory military service, or Dienstverpflichtung. She worked in Oldenburg, a gorgeous small city west of Bremen and surrounded by farmland. This letter on the left and other notes she received notified her that she was to report for duty for the army signals auxiliaries.
Annelise traveled to the German Army Signals School in Gießen, Hesse north of Frankfurt. There she was trained as a telephone operator and eventually landed a job at the school. Though she was not in a capital city or far away land as so many women were, she was earning a living on her own. As her pay receipt on the right shows she earned a salary and living allowance, though she had to pay taxes and even social security.
Life in Gießen became more perilous as the war wore on. More than 800 people were killed in Gießen during bombings from September 1944 to March 1945 though the school itself survived the war. Annelise was wounded in an air raid early in September 1944. On the left is the award document for the German equivalent of the American Purple Heart, the Black Wound Badge, provided to Annelise for wounds her wounds. There were numerous Allied attacks on airfields and other key facilities in very close proximity to the school during the first week of that September, though the school itself was never hit.
After recovering from her wounds Anneliese was transferred south of Berlin near Zossen where she worked in the Signals Group of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (which today is a museum). While this was a prestigious post, it was also insanely dangerous. She was awarded the War Merit Medal in 1945 for her service there, the award document is on the right. Numerous signals auxiliaries were awarded these medals for their efforts helping the German war effort. It is hard to comprehend what Annalise experienced in Berlin during the final days of the Nazi regime.
Curriculum
The training curriculum at Gießen was rigorous, technical, and strictly regimented. It was conducted primarily by male officers and NCOs from the regular Nachrichtentruppe (Signal Troops), ensuring that the women were integrated into the Army's specific operational protocols. The course duration varied by specialization but generally involved several weeks of intensive instruction.
The core subjects included:
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Switchboard Operations: Trainees learned to operate the complex manual plug-board exchanges used at Corps and Army-level headquarters. This required not just manual dexterity but the ability to prioritize message traffic under pressure.
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Radio and Teletype: A subset of auxiliaries was trained in the operation of teleprinters (Fernschreiber) and radio transmission. This was highly technical work, often involving encrypted messages, requiring a security clearance.
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Military Protocol: Beyond technical skills, the Gießen school indoctrinated women into the Wehrmacht's hierarchy. They learned rank recognition and the specific disciplinary codes governing their conduct.
Ilse Wansky studying at the Heeres-Schule für Nachrichtenhelferinnen in Gießen in 1942. She attended in 1942, living in a hybrid of boarding school and boot camp. She lived in communal barracks (Kameradschaftshäuser), wore the working smock uniform, and was subject to strict curfews. The atmosphere was designed to strip away civilian individualism and replace it with a collective spirt. She was stationed in Lille, France in a unit reinforcing the social cohesion and ideological instruction forged during her training.
Ilse Wansky's Journey
Wansky's service was typical for a woman of her day. She began working as a nurse with the German Red Cross in her early 20s in Glogau, an hour from her home in Grünberg, Schlesien. Near the end of 1941 she was notified of her transfer to the NH des Heeres and was sent to Gießen in 1942 to learn her trade. She became a switchboard operator and learned to transfer calls, operate complex switchboards serving headquarters. During the German occupation of Lille, Ilse worked as an Army Signals Auxiliary (Nachrichtenhelferin) stationed at the Palais de la Bourse (Chambre de Commerce), which served as the headquarters and communications center for Oberfeldkommandantur 670. This organization oversaw the administration of the German military in the region, but also worked to crush the French Resistance and sentenced many French to death. She was also assigned to the Frontleitstelle transit control offices near the Gare de Lille-Flandres, operating military switchboards and routing rail logistics across northern France.
On August 25, 1942, while stationed in Lille, Ilse Wansky met Ernst Großmann, a Luftwaffe Flak Wachtmeister serving with an 8.8 cm anti-aircraft battery in Belgium. Operating the military switchboard in Lille, Wansky frequently routed Großmann’s calls, facilitating communication between their duty stations. The couple married in January 1944, and by April of that year, Wansky was pregnant with their first child.
On April 16, 1944, Großmann accompanied Ilse back to her hometown of Grünberg, Silesia. In accordance with National Socialist regulations, pregnant military auxiliaries (Wehrmachthelferinnen) were required to demobilize and return to Germany to give birth. This policy reflected the regime’s strict ideological focus on traditional maternal and domestic roles, maintaining an emphasis on motherhood even as women were increasingly integrated into wartime military support structures.
