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During the Second World War, all contact between German soldiers and Polish women - considered an 'inferior race' - was officially banned. Sexual encounters frequently took place, however. Some were consensual, while others were characterised by brutal violence, and women often sold their bodies as a means of survival. The army and SS constructed purpose-built brothels for their soldiers, but also banned and frequently punished loving relationships. In Wartime Relations, Historian Maren Röger gives a powerful account of these encounters and describes the actions of the army and the SS in regulating relations between soldiers and civilian women. Röger provides new and important insights into everyday life during the occupation, Nazi racial policy, and the fates of the women involved.
List of contents
- Introduction
- PART I: Prostitution in Occupied Poland
- 1: Establishing and Organizing Occupier Brothels
- 2: Policy and Politics of (Forced)Prostitution
- 3: Unsupervised sex work and prostitution as a means of survival
- PART II: Relationships in Everyday Life Under Occupation
- 4: Interactive spaces in times of racial segregation
- 5: Types and Trajectories of Relationships
- 6: Fraternizing Women and Men
- PART III: Occupation Relationships and the Power of the State
- 7: Disciplinary Measures: Polish Patriotism and Nazi Authorities
- 8: (Attempts at) Legalizing Relationships
- PART IV: Sexual Violence and its Consequences
- 9: Patterns of Sexual Violence in Occupied Poland
- 10: Sexual Violence Before the Police and in Court
- Epilogue
- Conclusion
- Appendix
About the author
Maren Röger is Associate Professor for German and Central European History at the University of Augsburg and Head of the Bucovina-Institute there. From 2010 to 2015, she was a research fellow at the German Historical Institute (Poland). In 2014, she won the highly-regarded Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History for the German edition of Wartime Relations: Intimacy, Violence, and Prostitution in Occupied Poland, 1939-1945, followed in 2016 by the Geisteswissenschaften International Sonderpreis. She has published several books as well as articles in renowned academic journals, including Contemporary European History, European Review of History, Historische Zeitschrift, and Gender & History.
Summary
During the Second World War, all contact between German soldiers and Polish women was officially banned. However, sexual encounters frequently took place: some consensual, others characterised by brutal violence. Historian Maren Röger gives a powerful account of these relationships.
Additional text
Providing new insights into the everyday life of the German occupation, Maren Röger's monograph makes an important contribution to modern Polish history.
Report
Providing new insights into the everyday life of the German occupation, Maren Röger's monograph makes an important contribution to modern Polish history. Aleksandra Jakubczak, Columbia University
