Female Sexual Desire - Male Honor: German Women's Illicit Love Affairs with Prisoners of War in the Second World War
Abstract
In official Nazi propaganda prisoners of war were portrayed as enemy aliens and racially dangerous. Friendly contacts between them and the German population were prohibited and increasingly harshly controlled. German women who had romantic liaisons with POWs were singled out for special censure and many thousands of them were imprisoned for sexual encounters with French, occasionally Russian, Polish, rarely Danish and Serbian POWs. Thus at the level of the state these women were expelled from the national community and became outsiders just like their foreign boyfriends. A number of historians (eg Kundrus, Stephenson, Heusler, Herbert, Schneider) have researched this topic but hardly anyone consulted the judicial records in detail, and even if they did, they focused on Nazi terror, the ill treatment of foreigners, or the prosecution practice of `inter-racial’ relationships during the war. My own aim, however, is to explore sexuality as a subjective experience in its cultural context and do so with the help of police and Gestapo depositions. Such records obviously need to be treated with utmost care but they can reveal important passages of defendants’ own narratives. Moreover, the survival of intimate correspondence, photographs and other personal mementos exchanged between the lovers afford unmediated glimpses into the private world of this public crime. In this article several case studies will be analyzed in detail; by using the concepts of honor, shame and romantic love developed in the history of emotions,the gendered meanings of these illicit sexual encounters will be explored. Of particular interest are the ways in which women imagined love and expressed desire; the impact of war on women’s erotic fantasies and the power relations between German women and their husbands/fiancés or boyfriends but also that of German women and their POW lovers. Finally, what do their affairs tell us about German women’s espousal or rejection of Nazi racism?References
Some of the most important works cited are:
Patrice Arnaud,“Die deutsch-französischen Liebesbeziehungen der französischen Zwangsarbeiter und beurlaubten Kriegsgefangenen im `Dritten Reich‘: vom Mythos des verführerischen Franzosen zur Umkehrung der Geschlechterrolle“ in Elke Frietsch, Christina Herkommer eds., Nationalsozialismus und Geschlecht. Zur Politisierung und Ästhetisierung von Körper, „Rasse“ und Sexualität im „Dritten Reich“ und nach 1945 (Bielefeld, 2009).
Ingrid Bauer and Christa Hämmerle, “Editorial”, L’Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft, 24, no 1 (2013), special issue on „Romantische Liebe“, 5-14.
Gisela Bock, Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus (Opladen, 1986).
Gabriele Czarnowski, “Women’s crimes, state crimes: abortion in Nazi Germany”, in Arnot, Usborne, Gender and Crime, 238-256.
Idem, „Zwischen Germanisierung und Vernichtung: Verbotene polnisch-deutsche Liebesbeziehungen und die Rekonstruktion des Volkskörpers im Zweiten Weltkrieg“, in Helgard Kramer ed., Die Gegenwart der NS Vergangenheit, (Berlin, 2000), 295-303.
Mark Fenemore, “The Recent Historiography of Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Germany”, The Historical Journal, 32, no 3, (2009): 763-79.
Ute Frevert, Emotions in History: Lost and Found (Budapest, 2011).
Robert Gellately, Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany (Oxford, 2001).
Elizabeth Heinemann, What Difference does a Husband Make? Women and marital status in Nazi and postwar Germany (Berkeley, CA/London, 1999).
Ulrich Herbert, Hitler’s Foreign Workers. Enforced foreign Labour in Germany under the Third Reich (Cambridge, 1997).
Dagmar Herzog, ed., Sexuality and German Fascism (New York/London, 2005.
Idem, Sex after Fascism: memory and morality in twentieth-century Germany (Princeton, NJ, 2005).
Idem ed., Brutality and Desire. War and Sexuality in Europe’s Twentieth Century (London/New York, 2009).
Andreas Heusler, “`Strafbestand‘ Liebe. Verbotene Kontakte zwischen Münchnerinnen und ausländischen Kriegsgefangenen“, in Sybille Kraft ed., Zwischen den Fronten. Münchner Frauen in Krieg und Frieden 1900 - 1950 (Munich, 1995).
Ulrike Jureit, “Zwischen Ehe und Männerbund. Emotionale und sexuelle Beziehungsmuster im Zweiten Weltkrieg“, WerkstattGeschichte, 1999, vol 22, 61-73.
Birthe Kundrus, “Forbidden Company: Romantic Relationships between Germans and Foreigners, 1939 to 1945”, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11, nos 1/2, (2002): 201-22.
idem, “Die Unmoral deutscher Soldatenfrauen. Diskurs, Alltagsverhalten und Ahndungspraxis 1939-1945“, in Kirsten Heinsohn, Barbara Vogel, Ulrike Weckel (eds), Zwischen Karriere und Verfolgung. Handlungsräume im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland (Frankfurt a.M./New York: Campus, 1997), 96-110.
Claire Langhamer, The English in Love. The Intimate Story of an Emotional Revolution (Oxford, 2013).
Maren Röger,”The Sexual Policies and Sexual Realities of the German Occupiers in Poland in the Second World War”, Contemporary European History, 23, 1 (2014), 1-21, 2.
Silke Schneider, Verbotener Umgang. Ausländer und Deutsche im Nationalsozialismus. Diskurse um Sexualität, Moral, Wissen und Strafe (Baden-Baden, 2010).
Nicholas Stargardt, The German War. A Nation under Arms, 1939-1945 (London, 2015).
Jill Stephenson, “Triangle: Foreign Workers, German Civilians, and the Nazi Regime. War and Society in Württemberg, 1939-45”, German Studies Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (May, 1992), 339-359.
Patricia Szobar, “Telling Sexual Stories in the Nazi Courts of Law: Race Defilement in Germany, 1933 to 1945”, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11, nos 1/2 (2002): 131- 63.
Susan Tegel, Nazis and the Cinema (London and New York, 2007).
Annette Timm, “Sex with a Purpose: Prostitution, Venereal Disease, and Militarized Masculinity in the third Reich”, in Dagmar Herzog ed., Sexuality and German Fascism (New York/Oxford, 2005), 223-255.
Patrice Arnaud,“Die deutsch-französischen Liebesbeziehungen der französischen Zwangsarbeiter und beurlaubten Kriegsgefangenen im `Dritten Reich‘: vom Mythos des verführerischen Franzosen zur Umkehrung der Geschlechterrolle“ in Elke Frietsch, Christina Herkommer eds., Nationalsozialismus und Geschlecht. Zur Politisierung und Ästhetisierung von Körper, „Rasse“ und Sexualität im „Dritten Reich“ und nach 1945 (Bielefeld, 2009).
Ingrid Bauer and Christa Hämmerle, “Editorial”, L’Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft, 24, no 1 (2013), special issue on „Romantische Liebe“, 5-14.
Gisela Bock, Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus (Opladen, 1986).
Gabriele Czarnowski, “Women’s crimes, state crimes: abortion in Nazi Germany”, in Arnot, Usborne, Gender and Crime, 238-256.
Idem, „Zwischen Germanisierung und Vernichtung: Verbotene polnisch-deutsche Liebesbeziehungen und die Rekonstruktion des Volkskörpers im Zweiten Weltkrieg“, in Helgard Kramer ed., Die Gegenwart der NS Vergangenheit, (Berlin, 2000), 295-303.
Mark Fenemore, “The Recent Historiography of Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Germany”, The Historical Journal, 32, no 3, (2009): 763-79.
Ute Frevert, Emotions in History: Lost and Found (Budapest, 2011).
Robert Gellately, Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany (Oxford, 2001).
Elizabeth Heinemann, What Difference does a Husband Make? Women and marital status in Nazi and postwar Germany (Berkeley, CA/London, 1999).
Ulrich Herbert, Hitler’s Foreign Workers. Enforced foreign Labour in Germany under the Third Reich (Cambridge, 1997).
Dagmar Herzog, ed., Sexuality and German Fascism (New York/London, 2005.
Idem, Sex after Fascism: memory and morality in twentieth-century Germany (Princeton, NJ, 2005).
Idem ed., Brutality and Desire. War and Sexuality in Europe’s Twentieth Century (London/New York, 2009).
Andreas Heusler, “`Strafbestand‘ Liebe. Verbotene Kontakte zwischen Münchnerinnen und ausländischen Kriegsgefangenen“, in Sybille Kraft ed., Zwischen den Fronten. Münchner Frauen in Krieg und Frieden 1900 - 1950 (Munich, 1995).
Ulrike Jureit, “Zwischen Ehe und Männerbund. Emotionale und sexuelle Beziehungsmuster im Zweiten Weltkrieg“, WerkstattGeschichte, 1999, vol 22, 61-73.
Birthe Kundrus, “Forbidden Company: Romantic Relationships between Germans and Foreigners, 1939 to 1945”, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11, nos 1/2, (2002): 201-22.
idem, “Die Unmoral deutscher Soldatenfrauen. Diskurs, Alltagsverhalten und Ahndungspraxis 1939-1945“, in Kirsten Heinsohn, Barbara Vogel, Ulrike Weckel (eds), Zwischen Karriere und Verfolgung. Handlungsräume im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland (Frankfurt a.M./New York: Campus, 1997), 96-110.
Claire Langhamer, The English in Love. The Intimate Story of an Emotional Revolution (Oxford, 2013).
Maren Röger,”The Sexual Policies and Sexual Realities of the German Occupiers in Poland in the Second World War”, Contemporary European History, 23, 1 (2014), 1-21, 2.
Silke Schneider, Verbotener Umgang. Ausländer und Deutsche im Nationalsozialismus. Diskurse um Sexualität, Moral, Wissen und Strafe (Baden-Baden, 2010).
Nicholas Stargardt, The German War. A Nation under Arms, 1939-1945 (London, 2015).
Jill Stephenson, “Triangle: Foreign Workers, German Civilians, and the Nazi Regime. War and Society in Württemberg, 1939-45”, German Studies Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (May, 1992), 339-359.
Patricia Szobar, “Telling Sexual Stories in the Nazi Courts of Law: Race Defilement in Germany, 1933 to 1945”, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11, nos 1/2 (2002): 131- 63.
Susan Tegel, Nazis and the Cinema (London and New York, 2007).
Annette Timm, “Sex with a Purpose: Prostitution, Venereal Disease, and Militarized Masculinity in the third Reich”, in Dagmar Herzog ed., Sexuality and German Fascism (New York/Oxford, 2005), 223-255.
Published
2018-02-01
Issue
Section
Studies
