Wartime Rape and Sexual Violence

Given the extensive body of Holocaust literature, it may be surprising to note that there is a distinct gap of reflection, analysis, and qualification in the area of sexual violence. The subject of sexual violence during the Holocaust—in particular, the sexual violation of Jewish women—is a subject that has been largely repressed and silenced. Thus, this thesis is an attempt to not only rectify the omission of sexual violence from Holocaust history, but to bring a level of analysis to this under-examined aspect of National Socialism to a point commensurate with that devoted to other aspects of Holocaust studies.

During the Holocaust, sexual violence against Jewish women was both unique and typical. It was typical in the forms that sexual violence manifested-sexual humiliation, rape, gang rape, sexual slavery-but unique in the patterns it followed and the functions it served for the Nazi regime. Unlike other genocides, sexual violence was not a state-sanctioned policy of the Final Solution; it was employed in a haphazard manner that was horrific, multifaceted, and deadly. Perpetrators were motivated by a diversity of factors, including a desire for power, camaraderie, sexual pleasure, and masculine ego-gratification. Moreover, sexual violence was multifunctional for the Nazi regime, operating as a powerful tool of humiliation and dehumanization.

As the Nazi regime moved into full-scale genocide, sexual violence became an increasingly integral component to the process of annihilation. By dehumanizing Jewish women through varied forms of sexual violence, German perpetrators increasingly saw their victims as less than human, thereby further removing them from the realm of moral and ethical obligation. Sexual violence was clearly an essential component to the continued functioning of genocide, because through the process of Jewish women's dehumanization, perpetrators were able to more easily continue fulfilling their murderous tasks.