Overview

Sexual violence was a widespread reality during the war and the occupation in the Soviet Union: Wehrmacht soldiers and SS men made women and girls victims of sexual torture, committed rape and sexual enslavement. They also visited both 'secret' prostitutes and official military brothels, and had encounters with women who were forced to trade sex for protection or food. In some areas, they engaged in consensual relations, which sometimes led to applications for marriage permits. This book dispels the myth that military leaders, in adhering to the Nazi ideology of 'race defilement', strictly repressed soldiers' sexuality. Regina Mhlhuser opens up new perspectives on the complexity of wartime sexual practices beyond the Nazi case by looking at the whole spectrum of heterosexual encounters-forced and consensual, violent and non-violent, commercial and non-commercial. In doing so, she develops a more nuanced understanding of soldiers' sexual behavior and the ways in which military commands assess soldierly sexuality and integrate it into their strategic thinking.

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9781474459075

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Reviews

Regina Mühlhäuser's extraordinary account of wartime sexual relations dismantles many myths associated with Nazi sexual ideology and practices during the Second World War. She not only delves deeply into official policies regarding sexual behaviours (both forced and consensual) but is sensitive to the ways men and women attempted to make sense of the brutality of sex in times of war. This is a book that will change the way historians think about sex and war.--Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck, University of London Such an examination of the whole spectrum of sexual contacts is new and Regina Mühlhäuser succeeds in showing that an understanding of the structures of power and violence in wartime is essential if we are to comprehend consensual relations, as well. [...] Regina Mühlhäuser has probed the complex nature of encounters between military society and civil society. [...] To ""get to the roots of the multilayered interconnectedness of gender, sexuality, war, and violence"" was the goal which Mühlhäuser formulated for her work. With her close analysis of a wide variety of sources, she has achieved this in what is, altogether, an outstanding way.--Veronika Springmann ""H-Soz-u-Kult, May 2010"" Thanks to her innovative research focus, the study's multiple perspectives, her clear lines of argument, and her careful use of terminology, Mühlhäuser has made an important contribution to this field of research.--Maren Röger ""Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, 58 (2010): 7/8, 671-672""

"Regina M�hlh�user's extraordinary account of wartime sexual relations dismantles many myths associated with Nazi sexual ideology and practices during the Second World War. She not only delves deeply into official policies regarding sexual behaviours (both forced and consensual) but is sensitive to the ways men and women attempted to make sense of the brutality of sex in times of war. This is a book that will change the way historians think about sex and war.--Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck, University of London Such an examination of the whole spectrum of sexual contacts is new and Regina M�hlh�user succeeds in showing that an understanding of the structures of power and violence in wartime is essential if we are to comprehend consensual relations, as well. [...] Regina M�hlh�user has probed the complex nature of encounters between military society and civil society. [...] To ""get to the roots of the multilayered interconnectedness of gender, sexuality, war, and violence"" was the goal which M�hlh�user formulated for her work. With her close analysis of a wide variety of sources, she has achieved this in what is, altogether, an outstanding way.--Veronika Springmann ""H-Soz-u-Kult, May 2010"" Thanks to her innovative research focus, the study's multiple perspectives, her clear lines of argument, and her careful use of terminology, M�hlh�user has made an important contribution to this field of research.--Maren R�ger ""Zeitschrift f�r Geschichtswissenschaft, 58 (2010): 7/8, 671-672"""

Author Information

Regina Mühlhäuser is a Senior Researcher at the Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture and a founder of the 'International Research Group ""Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict""'. Jessica Spengler is a German to English translator specialising in the humanities and social sciences, who has worked as a translator and copyeditor on numerous museum exhibitions, academic publications and other projects.

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