Des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre : participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales-socialistes, à la déportation et au génocide (1939-1945)

National Socialism as a movement and mode of exercising power generated a new set of relationships between the sexes that can only be understood by using categories of race and class. The context of the war and National Socialist policies of race and colonization are elements of primordial importanc...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Elissa Mailänder
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Association Mnémosyne
Series:Genre & Histoire
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/2202
_version_ 1797310948377100288
author Elissa Mailänder
author_facet Elissa Mailänder
author_sort Elissa Mailänder
collection DOAJ
description National Socialism as a movement and mode of exercising power generated a new set of relationships between the sexes that can only be understood by using categories of race and class. The context of the war and National Socialist policies of race and colonization are elements of primordial importance, which radically modified the relationship between the sexes in occupied Poland (General Government). In the regime’s aggressive policies of conquest and persecution, the social role of “Aryan” women was important, because of their active support for the regime and the great power of action at their disposal. This article is shaped around the discussion of three recent works of research: Elizabeth Harvey, in her study Women and the Nazi East. Agents and Witnesses of Germanization, published in English in 2003, examines the way that women participated in the National Socialist policy of colonization. In 2009, Franka Maubach published Hold the Line [German: Die Stellung halten] examining the female corps of the Wehrmacht. The same year, Elissa Mailänder published her work on the violence of female concentration camp guards in occupied Poland [German: Gewalt im Dienstalltag]. Although the commanding roles largely remained in the hands of men, with women occupying subaltern positions, all three studies demonstrate that German women in the most diverse stations and levels found themselves endowed with considerable power to act and to give orders (Heinrich Popitz). In the context of National Socialist domination, violence represented for women an entirely concrete mode of action that was used in multiple ways. Taking as an example the three groups of women studied, this contribution first proposes to analyze the lives and experiences of women before their engagement in the war; secondly, the article examines the behavior and concrete spaces of action of women working in the occupied territories of the East, in order to determine in the third section the individual responsibility of women in the Nazi occupation, persecutions and murders. Using “gender” as a category to analyze social and political power allows us to shed light on the violent acts of these women, all born between 1918 and 1928.
first_indexed 2024-03-08T01:50:26Z
format Article
id doaj.art-dbc7902a99ae419dba6dd7bc6ae9e8aa
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2102-5886
language fra
last_indexed 2024-03-08T01:50:26Z
publisher Association Mnémosyne
record_format Article
series Genre & Histoire
spelling doaj.art-dbc7902a99ae419dba6dd7bc6ae9e8aa2024-02-14T10:20:04ZfraAssociation MnémosyneGenre & Histoire2102-58861510.4000/genrehistoire.2202Des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre : participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales-socialistes, à la déportation et au génocide (1939-1945)Elissa MailänderNational Socialism as a movement and mode of exercising power generated a new set of relationships between the sexes that can only be understood by using categories of race and class. The context of the war and National Socialist policies of race and colonization are elements of primordial importance, which radically modified the relationship between the sexes in occupied Poland (General Government). In the regime’s aggressive policies of conquest and persecution, the social role of “Aryan” women was important, because of their active support for the regime and the great power of action at their disposal. This article is shaped around the discussion of three recent works of research: Elizabeth Harvey, in her study Women and the Nazi East. Agents and Witnesses of Germanization, published in English in 2003, examines the way that women participated in the National Socialist policy of colonization. In 2009, Franka Maubach published Hold the Line [German: Die Stellung halten] examining the female corps of the Wehrmacht. The same year, Elissa Mailänder published her work on the violence of female concentration camp guards in occupied Poland [German: Gewalt im Dienstalltag]. Although the commanding roles largely remained in the hands of men, with women occupying subaltern positions, all three studies demonstrate that German women in the most diverse stations and levels found themselves endowed with considerable power to act and to give orders (Heinrich Popitz). In the context of National Socialist domination, violence represented for women an entirely concrete mode of action that was used in multiple ways. Taking as an example the three groups of women studied, this contribution first proposes to analyze the lives and experiences of women before their engagement in the war; secondly, the article examines the behavior and concrete spaces of action of women working in the occupied territories of the East, in order to determine in the third section the individual responsibility of women in the Nazi occupation, persecutions and murders. Using “gender” as a category to analyze social and political power allows us to shed light on the violent acts of these women, all born between 1918 and 1928.https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/2202GenderNazismViolenceWWII/2OccupationColonialism
spellingShingle Elissa Mailänder
Des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre : participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales-socialistes, à la déportation et au génocide (1939-1945)
Genre & Histoire
Gender
Nazism
Violence
WWII/2
Occupation
Colonialism
title Des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre : participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales-socialistes, à la déportation et au génocide (1939-1945)
title_full Des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre : participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales-socialistes, à la déportation et au génocide (1939-1945)
title_fullStr Des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre : participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales-socialistes, à la déportation et au génocide (1939-1945)
title_full_unstemmed Des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre : participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales-socialistes, à la déportation et au génocide (1939-1945)
title_short Des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre : participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales-socialistes, à la déportation et au génocide (1939-1945)
title_sort des femmes allemandes au service de la guerre participations actives aux politiques raciales nationales socialistes a la deportation et au genocide 1939 1945
topic Gender
Nazism
Violence
WWII/2
Occupation
Colonialism
url https://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/2202
work_keys_str_mv AT elissamailander desfemmesallemandesauservicedelaguerreparticipationsactivesauxpolitiquesracialesnationalessocialistesaladeportationetaugenocide19391945