Sexual Violence before the Police and in Court

This chapter analyzes how police and court dealt with sexual violence in the occupied territories. It explains that only certain crimes on the broad spectrum of sexual forms of violence were followed up during the German occupation, and that many victims did not dare to report the assaults on their own. The chapter identifies the various authorities responsible for investigating and trying sexual violence, and presents the range of punishments for German men – from admonishments to incarceration or being sent to the eastern front. The chapter then considers how the German police acted towards women complainants whom they judged on a moral level.

Policy and Politics of (Forced) Prostitution

This chapter examines the policy and politics of (forced) prostitution. One of the most important measures against the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) was the registration of regular sex workers and women the authorities suspected of prostitution. Once the women had been registered as prostitutes, they seem to have been unable to express a preference for street or brothel prostitution. There was a degree of compulsion to enter the official brothels, with their barracked daily life, in the occupied Polish territories. The vast majority of sexual enslavement affected women in the Warthegau. The perverted racial policies in the Warthegau contributed to the prostitution system there being a place of “organized rape in conditions of terror”. In the Warthegau, fraternization was punished by committal to the brothels. The chapter then looks at forced prostitution. The German occupation authorities acted not only as pimps, but also as traffickers.

Unsupervised Sex Work and Prostitution as a Means of Survival

This chapter focuses on illegal prostitution, including street prostitution and private prostitution, during the German occupation of Poland. Although this sex work took place outside the organized brothels, it was not beyond official controls. The authorities kept a particularly close eye on established streetwalking sites, which were a metropolitan and urban phenomenon. Known prostitution sites of this kind were far easier to control, however, than private residences — also frequently used for paid sex between the occupiers and the occupied. The chapter then considers why numerous Polish women sold sexual services during the occupation. Ultimately, for Polish women, sex work was a means of earning money and thus of survival.

Disciplinary Measures

This chapter explores the disciplinary measures against fraternizing women. Women's sexual behaviour was linked to ideas of national honour; patriotic opinion-makers classified intimate relationships with the German occupiers as a betrayal of the nation. As such, moralistic appeals to women were made throughout the German occupation. These appeals to women form part of the general work of public education carried out by the Polish Underground. Another level of action taken by the Underground was to spy on women with German boyfriends. Espionage would be followed by a forceful warning and one of the options open to the Polish executive of the Underground in cases of repeated contravention was the practice of shaving heads as an honour punishment. This penalty was well-enough known to be feared by Polish women: short hair stigmatized them for months. The Polish Underground also made use of other physical punishments, such as beatings and the death penalty. The chapter then looks at the disciplinary measures taken by Nazi authorities, including forced prostitution

Establishing and Organizing Occupier Brothels

This chapter discusses the establishment of a comprehensive network of occupier brothels during the German occupation of Poland. Taken as a whole, the German military leadership had a functional view of their men's sexuality. Their urges should be satisfied regularly so as to maintain their combat strength; the underlying image was one of a virile, soldierly masculinity. One of the chief grounds for a controlled system of prostitution — besides fear of fraternization and the betrayal of secrets — was concern about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), which could lead to avoidable gaps in the ranks of soldiers. With the general improvements in medicine and technology since the late 19th century, which had made it possible to identify and combat STDs, the top brass in many armies, including the Germans, were turning their attention to controlling such diseases, and to regulating prostitution. The chapter then details the process of establishing, organizing, and financing brothels in the occupied Polish territories, which were supervised by the German occupiers.

Types and Trajectories of Relationships

This chapter addresses the types and trajectories of relationships between German men and Polish women. There is a fundamental difference between brief flings that led to sexual intercourse but did not develop into affairs, flirtations, or serious relationships, and relationships that lasted weeks or months, which both partners ultimately sought to legalize. Couples might meet anywhere: at the women's homes, in parks, in rented rooms, and even in the men's accommodation or barracks. Sometimes, German men and Polish women lived in marriage-like relationships. The chapter then looks at how the wartime relationships of German–Polish couples ended. Some men championed their relationships, but other soldiers simply disappeared out of women's lives, having sometimes had a serious impact on them, especially if the relationship had resulted in a child.

Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the regulation of intimate interactions between the German army —as well as the police and the SS — and the local residents in Polish territory, following the invasion of Poland in September of 1939. The ban on the contact with Poles was based on their lower status in the Nazi racial hierarchy. During the “Third Reich”, the German nation was generally thought of as a biological-racial unit — a racial or ethnic body that has to be kept free of foreign and “inferior” racial influences. This book determines the meaning of this hierarchy for sexual encounters between German occupiers and Polish women, Jewish and Non-Jewish. There was a broad spectrum of sexual contact between German men and local women in the Polish territories: firstly, commercial contacts, i.e. both the occupier-controlled prostitution system and clandestine sex work; secondly, consensual contact, that is the (strictly-speaking banned) German–Polish wartime relationships, entered into varyingly voluntarily; and thirdly, forced contacts and sexual violence, such as rapes and assaults committed by German occupiers. By analyzing these sexual contacts, the book contributes to several fields of research, including the histories of everyday life and of violence during the German occupation, and expands knowledge of racial and ethnic policies.

Epilogue

This epilogue discusses the ongoing consequences of wartime rape, wartime encounters and prostitution in postwar Poland and Germany. Numerous victims of rape and forced prostitution would continue to suffer from the assaults, often for decades. Likewise, for many of the Polish women who had variously consensual relationships with German men during the occupation, the war continued after the German retreat. Some of them were subjected to honour punishments, or threatened with social ostracism after the war. Ultimately, the German men and Polish women alike took their experiences of commercial, consensual, and forced contact into their existing or future marriages and families.

Interactive Spaces in Times of Racial Segregation

This chapter assesses how German occupiers and Polish men and women interacted during times of racial segregation. Curiosity, a thirst for adventure, and specific offers gave rise to observable intimate relationships, especially in the first weeks and months of the German occupation. One measure intended to curb contact between German and locals was physical separation by the German racial thinking. However, in everyday life and in some places, the segregation between groups was enforced less strictly than the regulations demanded. Instead, the German men's need for female company was an open secret, and was, to some extent, tolerated by both military and civilian authorities. Most couples who had intimate relationships lasting for longer periods got to know each other at work, however. This was the most logical and least dangerous space for interaction because men and women met here daily anyway, meaning that neither side would attract suspicion. Contact with local women could also arise from military or professional duties: police and customs officers got to know women during questioning and arrests. Sexual barter transactions, and also sexual blackmail, could develop from such encounters.

Patterns of Sexual Violence in Occupied Poland

This chapter traces the patterns of wartime sexual violence in occupied Poland. Emotional overload, shame, and the desire to avoid questioning or investigations all prevented Polish women from accusing the offenders during the Second World War. But the most important inhibiting factor was the marked imbalance in power between perpetrators and victims. The chapter then distinguishes between three time periods and five types of sexual violence, relating to the various phases of the German occupation. During the invasion in 1939, gang rapes and individual assaults were frequent, also during Warsaw Uprising in 1944 sexual violence was a frequent tool. During occupation, German men, made use of their power. One of the most frequent clusters had been sexual extortion at the workplace.