Prisoners of War and Local Women in Europe and the United States, 1914-1956: Consorting with the Enemy PDF
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GENDERS AND SEXUALITIES IN HISTORY Prisoners of War and Local Women in Europe and the United States, 1914–1956 Consorting with the Enemy Edited by Matthias Reiss · Brian K. Feltman Genders and Sexualities in History Series Editors Joanna Bourke Birkbeck College University of London London, UK Sean Brady Birkbeck College University of London London, UK Matthew Champion Australian Catholic University Melbourne, Australia Palgrave Macmillan’s series, Genders and Sexualities in History, accom- modates and fosters new approaches to historical research in the fields of genders and sexualities. The series promotes world-class scholarship, which concentrates upon the interconnected themes of genders, sexuali- ties, religions/religiosity, civil society, politics and war. Historical studies of gender and sexuality have, until recently, been more or less disconnected fields. In recent years, historical analyses of gen- ders and sexualities have synthesised, creating new departures in historiog- raphy. The additional connectedness of genders and sexualities with questions of religion, religiosity, development of civil societies, politics and the contexts of war and conflict is reflective of the movements in scholar- ship away from narrow history of science and scientific thought, and his- tory of legal processes approaches, that have dominated these paradigms until recently. The series brings together scholarship from Contemporary, Modern, Early Modern, Medieval, Classical and Non-Western History. The series provides a diachronic forum for scholarship that incorporates new approaches to genders and sexualities in history. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15000 Matthias Reiss • Brian K. Feltman Editors Prisoners of War and Local Women in Europe and the United States, 1914–1956 Consorting with the Enemy Editors Matthias Reiss Brian K. Feltman History, University of Exeter Georgia Southern University Exeter, UK Statesboro, GA, USA ISSN 2730-9479 ISSN 2730-9487 (electronic) Genders and Sexualities in History ISBN 978-3-030-83829-4 ISBN 978-3-030-83830-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83830-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: The Print Collector / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland S e P erieS ditor reface In Prisoners of War and Local Women in Europe and the United States, 1914–1956: Consorting with the Enemy, Matthias Reiss and Brian K. Feltman bring together the most recent and robust scholarship on war- time captivity (which often continued long after the signature of peace treaties) and fraternization with local women. The chapters focus on the impact of being a prisoner on gender relations, including issues of sexual treason, infections, cohabitation, and resistance. Themes of honour and dishonour are contextualized. The book’s geographical spread is wide, including Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Soviet Union, France and the United States. In this way, the volume serves as the basis for a true comparative analysis of war, sexuality, and captivity. By including a selec- tion of edited primary sources (many of which have been translated for the first time), the volume will prove invaluable for readers curious about sex- uality in the context of militarized conflicts. Joanna Bourke London, UK Sean Brady M elbourne, VIC, Australia Matthew Champion v a cknowledgmentS At the November 2018 meeting of the German Studies Association in Pittsburgh, PA, Heather Perry, Lisa Todd, Raffael Scheck, and ourselves participated in the panel “Sex and Desire Between Enemies: Prisoners of War and Local Women in the Two World Wars.” Based on the success of the panel, we began plans for an edited volume with a broader geographic reach and assembled a team of leading scholars from different countries before encountering the previously unimaginable challenges posed by a global pandemic. The chapters contained in this volume were written and edited during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021, and we would like to thank our contributors for their perseverance and dedica- tion to completing their chapters in a time of uncertainty, instability, and often increased stress while working and teaching “from home.” We would like to thank the team at Palgrave Macmillan, especially Emily Russell, Paul Smith Jesudas, and Joseph Johnson, for their patience and guidance as we encountered inevitable delays. Our colleagues at the University of Exeter and Georgia Southern University offered support and advice at critical moments, and we appreciate their collegiality. Finally, we would like to thank our respective partners, Iris and Carrie, and daughters, Jana, Naomi, and Maxine, for tolerating the irregular schedule and late nights that come with any project of this magnitude. Without your emotional support and understanding, this volume would not have been possible. March 2022 Matthias Reiss and Brian K. Feltman vii Praise for Prisoners of War and Local Women in Europe and the United States, 1914–1956 “Until now, most studies of POWs have focused on their internal experiences of isolation and captivity: prisoner health and welfare; activities and relationships inside the camps; or resistance and escape attempts. Through their focus on the sexual and emotional relationships that developed between imprisoned enemy sol- diers and their nearby civilian neighbors – relationships which transcended both barbed wire and bellicose propaganda – the essays in this collection offer impor- tant new perspectives on the total wars of the twentieth century. In addition to further blurring the boundaries between “homefront” and “battlefront”, the research here reveals as much about the war-time culture and society of the nations that imprisoned these men as it does about the prisoners themselves.” —Prof. Heather Perry, UNC Charlotte, USA c ontentS Introduction 1 Matthias Reiss and Brian K. Feltman Prologue: Captive Labor and Fraternization Before the First World War 15 Matthias Reiss Sexual Desire in Enemy Hands: The Sex Lives of German Prisoners of War in the UK, 1914–1919 29 Brian K. Feltman “Dishonorable” Women and “Foreign” Men: Illicit Sexuality as Challenge to the German Volksgemeinschaft, 1914–1918 55 Lisa M. Todd Encounters Beyond Front Lines: Prisoners of War and Locals in the Habsburg Empire During the First World War 77 Julia Walleczek-Fritz “Undesirable Familiarity”: British Women and Italian Prisoners of War, 1941–1946 95 Bob Moore and Barbara Hately xi xii CONTENTS Fueling the Morale Panic: Axis Prisoners of War and American Women in the United States During World War II 117 Matthias Reiss Community, Gender, and Race During War: The Amorous Relationships of POWs and German Women in World War II 143 Raffael Scheck “Helmut Can Be a Worker, Not a Lover”: Relationships Between Germans POWs and French Women in Postwar France (1944–1948) 169 Fabien Théofilakis Intimacy, “Treason,” and “Ideological Transgression”: POWs and Women on the Eastern Front of the Second World War 199 Andreas Hilger and Oskars Gruziņš Epilogue: Captive Labor and Fraternization After the Second World War 231 Matthias Reiss Appendix 237 Selected Bibliography 271 Index 295
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