Acknowledgements, List of abbreviations; Current place names; Introduction; 1. The prisoners of war and the German women; 2. The legal framework, 3. The relations; 4. Discovery; 5. The trials; 6. Behind bars; 7. Case studies; 8. Memory; Conclusion. Resistance, dissent, opposition?; Bibliography.
An innovative study of empathy, sex, and love between prisoners of war and German women during World War II.
Raffael Scheck is Audrey Wade Hittinger Katz and Sheldon Toby Katz Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at Colby College, Maine. He is the author of six books including Hitler's African Victims: The German Army Massacres of Black French Soldiers in 1940 (2006), and French Colonial Soldiers in German Captivity during World War II (2015). He is currently working on a new book project on the meaning of the German victory in the West in 1940.
'A scholarly masterpiece. It tackles one of the most fascinating
problems and most flaunted prohibitions of the Nazi racial state,
the love affairs between prisoners of war from the western Allies
and German women. Drawing on an unparalleled range of sources from
all sides, Raffael Scheck has written the definitive account. A
must read.' Nicholas Stargardt, University of Oxford
'Scheck's meticulous investigation of the military prosecution of
illicit relationships reveals the contradictions and absurdity of
the Nazi faith in 'the healthy feeling of the Volk' as a means of
enforcing racial consciousness. His juxtaposition of surprising
tolerance and harsh punishments demonstrates the power of the human
need for connection in face of the hatreds of war.' Annette Timm,
University of Calgary
'Based on wonderfully rich archival sources, this important
addition to scholarship takes seriously intimate relationships
between prisoners of war and civilians in twentieth-century Europe.
Raffael Scheck is to be commended for his on-going insistence that
narratives of 'everyday' women and men in wartime deserve to be
highlighted.' Lisa Todd, University of New Brunswick
'This ground-breaking work brings to light the many intimate
relationships between Western POWs and local women in Nazi
Germany. Resisting simple narratives of guilt, innocence or
heroism under duress, Scheck underlines the complexities of
relationships 'between enemies'. With consummate skill, he connects
these moving individual stories to much broader questions about
wartime justice, ground-level war experiences, and international
relations.' Julia Torrie, St. Thomas University
'… fascinating … Scheck is to be congratulated, not only for the
sheer amount of legwork he has put into archival research in
several different countries, but also for his careful, nuanced
interpretations.' Matthew Stibbe, European History Quarterly
'Built from a rich collection of archival material across six
countries, Scheck's rigour and insightful analysis is due wide
applause. This is much more than a study of the policing of illicit
relationships on the German home front. Love Between Enemies will
be of great interest and influence to those studying everyday lives
and emotions during wartime.' Alan Malpass, International Journal
of Military History and Historiography
'… a fascinating insight into everyday life on the German home
front, the wartime politicisation of the private sphere, and the
gap between propaganda and lived experience.' Fionnuala Walsh,
Family & Community History
'Raffael Scheck's study is characterized in particular by the
impressive wealth of the source material that he analyzed and
evaluated for this project. It therefore greatly enriches the
scholarly historiography of the Second World War.' Ann-Kristin
Kolwes, Historische Zeitschrift
'The book is placed at the crossroads of historiography on
diplomatic relations between Germans, Allied powers and the Swiss
agencies as well the working of German military and civilian legal
frameworks. Steeped in rich archival sources, the monograph's eight
chapters span the dual legal framework, forbidden relations between
Western POWs and German women, their discovery, POWs' court-martial
records, Special Court trials of German women, case studies, and
memory.' Vandana Joshi, Cultural and Social History
'Scheck's masterful gendered analysis of the relationship dynamics,
as well as what the denunciations, trials, and punishments reveal
about the workplace, society, and the legal system under Nazism, is
most compelling … Scheck's excellent study will be useful to gender
historians, legal historians, and even historians of memory.'
Melissa Kravetz, Journal of Modern History
'In this groundbreaking work, Raffael Scheck draws upon an
impressive range of German, French, Swiss, Belgian, Austrian, and
American archives to tell their stories … Love Between Enemies is a
remarkable book.' Sandra Ott, Central European History
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