Description:
The interrelationship of fascism and sexuality has attracted a great deal of interest for some time now. This collection offers fresh perspectives by leading scholars on the history of sexuality under national socialism on such topics as the persecution of Jewish-gentile sex in the "race defilement" trials, homophobic propaganda and the prosecution of same-sex activity within the Wehrmacht and SS, representations of female sexuality in film, prostitution on home and battle fronts, sexual relations between Germans and foreign forced laborers, and reproductive practices among Jewish survivors. Moreover, the authors provide new insights into the relationships between Nazi sexual politics and antisemitism and challenge assumptions of Nazism as sexually repressive; instead they emphasize the interrelationships between incitement to sexual activity and persecution and mass murder.
Brief description:
Dagmar Herzog is Professor of History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York and the author of Sex after Fascism: Memory and Morality in Twentieth-Century Germany (Princeton 2004) and Intimacy and Exclusion: Religious Politics in Pre-revolutionary Baden (Princeton 1996).
Review Quotes:
"...this volume makes a significant contribution to the field of German history, allowing experts in the field as well as researchers in other areas a forceful immersion into the workings and deployment of sexual categories and policies during and following the Third Reich. There is little doubt that it will become a standard text for teaching and future research." - Sexuality & Culture
"...by bringing together the threads of an ongoing scholarly discussion and placing that discussion in a fresh interpretive framework, this volume... makes an exciting contribution to our understanding of the sexual politics of National Socialism and the connection between sexual politics and 'politics' more traditionally defined...essential reading for the historian of twentieth-century Germany." - Central European History