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The Hugo Valentin Centre The Hugo Valentin Centre Master Thesis Male Rape in Auschwitz? An Exploration of the Dynamics of Kapo- Piepel Sexual Violence in KL Auschwitz during the Holocaust Laura Jule Landwehrkamp Programme: Holocaust & Genocide Studies (Two-Year) Year: 2019 Points: 45 c Supervisor: Dr Stefan C. Ionescu Word Count: 29,734 Table of Contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 4 Research Problems and Aims ....................................................................................... 5 Disposition .................................................................................................................... 6 RESEARCH OVERVIEW, THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY ...... 8 Research Overview ....................................................................................................... 8 Initial Academic Reluctance to Address the Topic of Sexual Violence during the Holocaust ....................................................................................... 9 The Trajectory of the Male Master Narrative ............................................... 11 Continuing Neglect towards Male-Male Sexual Violence ........................... 16 Critical Overview of the Literature on Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals .. 19 The Focus of this Thesis ............................................................................... 23 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................. 28 Feminist Theory ............................................................................................ 28 Gender and Masculinity Theory ................................................................... 31 Wolfgang Sofsky - Theory of Absolute Power ............................................ 33 Social Identity Theory .................................................................................. 35 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 38 Methodology ............................................................................................................... 40 Primary Sources and Relevance to the Research Questions Posed .............. 40 Oral Testimonies ........................................................................................... 41 Written Accounts .......................................................................................... 45 Rationale for the Use of these Ego Documents ............................................ 47 EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................... 52 Historical Context ....................................................................................................... 52 The Establishment of Auschwitz .................................................................. 52 Structure and Population of Auschwitz Camp .............................................. 54 Auschwitz Administrative Procedure, Inmate Composition and Gender Segregation ................................................................................................... 56 Daily Life in Auschwitz ................................................................................ 57 The Kapos and Camp Hierarchy ................................................................... 58 Young Inmates in Auschwitz ........................................................................ 60 Interpretation of Primary Sources .............................................................................. 63 Part I: Victim Experiences ............................................................................ 63 PART II: Kapo-Piepel Sexual Violence – Selection, Initiation, and Evolution ....................................................................................................... 78 Part III: Witnesses’ Perceptions of Piepel .................................................... 93 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 104 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................ 107 GLOSSARY ........................................................................................................................... 119 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 122 1 ABSTRACT Male-male sexual violence during the Holocaust is under-researched. Despite being a widespread occurrence in the Nazi concentration camps, very few accounts from primary sources are available of the sexual violence perpetrated against the Piepel: male Jewish children, adolescents, and young adults, by male Kapos or senior prisoner functionaries. Until now this phenomenon has been understood to be an exchange of sexual favours for food and protection, but little else was known. This study therefore aims to examine the dynamics of Kapo-Piepel sexual violence in the Auschwitz concentration camp through the perceptions of victims of, and witnesses, to this violence, within a framework of feminist theory, gender and masculinity theory, and group dynamics. Based on written accounts in the form of memoirs and oral testimony from audio-visual archives, this study finds that the Piepel were forced into sexual relationships to survive; that the Kapos used them as sexual substitutes for women; and that survivors’ attitudes towards the Piepel have become more sympathetic in more recently published ego-documents. This study therefore calls for a wider examination of this phenomenon, and of male-male sexual violence during the Holocaust, given the resultant improvement in attitudes towards these victims who for too long have not been heard due to the shame and stigma attached to being a male victim of rape. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Stefan C. Ionescu for his supervision, comments and support that were invaluable to my writing process, and without whom this thesis would not have been possible. My special appreciation goes to Dr Tolga Esmer at the Central European University who encouraged me to delve deeper into subject matter that many advised me would lead to a futile investigative endeavour; whose door was always open to me whenever I had questions, and who repeatedly pointed me in promising directions. Lastly; to all those who were part of the process, who engaged in thoughtful discussions on my topic that helped me consider it from all possible angles, and who provided me with unwavering support throughout, even and especially when the going got tough, stubbornly sticking with me against all better reason, like a bramble: Thank you, so, so much. 3 INTRODUCTION While research on sexual violence against female Holocaust victims has evolved significantly in the last three decades, male-male sexual violence remains one of the most poorly researched areas in Holocaust studies. Following World War II (WWII), most Holocaust research was written from a male-centric view and did not account for the female experience of the Holocaust. This, however, began to be rectified from the late 1960s to the 1980s following the Civil Rights and Second-Wave Feminist movements, culminating in a more comprehensive examination of the phenomenon by female scholars in the 1990s-2010s, due to which we now possess a significantly richer and nuanced understanding of sexual violence against women during the Holocaust. However, research on male-male sexual violence has remained as unaddressed as it was through the mid-late 20th century. Apart from research on the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis in the 1970s-1990s, which largely addressed it to cement its place in the historical record rather than to explore its dynamics and effects, male-male sexual violence has received negligible attention from researchers, despite the fact that it is widely acknowledged that male-male sexual violence was rampant in Nazi concentration camps. The silence around this issue is probably caused by the fact that male victims of sexual violence suffer an even greater degree of shame and stigmatisation than female victims, largely due to the endemicity of male gender stereotypes and male rape myths that prevents victims from speaking out. Male rape was a stark reality of life in the concentration camps, and homosexual males were not the only victims. The phenomenon of sexual violence perpetrated against young male Jewish children and adolescents, and/or young Jewish male adults, who would become known colloquially as Piepel, in the Nazi concentration camps, by prisoner functionaries or Kapos, is referred to in memoirs, autobiographies and, very rarely, in secondary literature, without ever being addressed in an empirical or theoretical manner, despite the shocking nature of these crimes.1 These victims bore the shame and 1 Piepel is a slang term for the young boys, adolescent males and young adult males that provided or were forced to provide sexual services in the concentration camps. The members of the Kameradschaftspolizei or Kapos, were prisoner
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