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ABSTRACT
Over the last several decades there has been an attempt to gender genocide by focusing on sexual as well as lethal violence during the Holocaust. While there has been tremendous consideration of women's experience of rape and sexual abuse during the Holocaust, the rape of men had not been previously engaged as a matter of study or archival investigation. This article is one of the first to study the rape of Jewish men and boys during the Holocaust through survivor testimonies and theorize the implications these testimonies of male sexual victimization have for our understanding of sexual violence and rape more broadly.
Acknowledgments
I must thank the USC Shoah Foundation for their support and resources during my research stay as an A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation Teaching Fellow in January of 2017. The enthusiasm the center showed for this project drove me to bring it to fruition.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 See Jones, Gendercide and Genocide for a well done collection of essays on gendercide as a form of lethal violence targeting men and boys, but one which nevertheless does not emphasize rape. Also see the edited collection by Randall, Genocide and Gender in the Twentieth Century. Randall’s collection offers a fantastic survey of sexual violence throughout various genocides, but operates in a binary where men are victims of the initial gendercidal elimination and women experience rape and sexual violence as a form of dehumanization accompanying root and branch killings. Throughout multiple essays, gender is framed as understanding the sexual violence against women and girls or the initial killings of men and boys. In Part Two of the collection, entitled “Sexual Violence and Mass Rape,” the essays by Holslag, Waxman, Weitsman, and Burnet, comprising that section, primarily if not completely analyze rape through the experiences of women and girls. Men and boys are not considered by any great measure.
2 Jones, “Gendercide and Genocide,” 186.
3 Ibid., 185–6.
4 Miller, Men at Risk, 342.
5 Jones discusses the repetitive nature of subordinate male death, “Gendercide and Genocide,” 186. The paradigm he draws upon was introduced by Errol Miller. Miller explains his theory of male marginalization and alien male subjugation within patriarchy in several works, see Miller’s Men at Risk, Marginalization of the Black Male, and “Male Marginalization Revisited.”
6 See von Joeden-Forgey, “Gender and Genocide.” Also see Joeden-Forgey’s essay, “Gender and the Future of Genocide Studies,” which argues for the need to understand the gendered vulnerabilities of men in genocide and ethnic conflicts, while nevertheless conveying a trepidation in the inclusion of men and boys in discussions about gender for fear of erasing women and girls.
7 Misra, The Landscape of Silence, 1.
8 See Féron, Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men; Storr, “The Rape of Men”; and Solangon and Patel, “Sexual Violence Against Men.”
9 See Touquet and Gorris, “Out of the Shadows?”; Loncar, Henigsberg, and Hrabac, “Mental Health Consequences in Men”; Christian et al., “Sexual and Gender Based Violence”; Clark, “Masculinity and Male Survivors”; and Ferrales, Brehm, and Mcelrath, “Gender-Based Violence Against Men.”
10 See Jones, “Straight as a Rule”; Turshen, “The Political Economy of Rape”; and Dolan, “Victims Who are Men.”
11 Ashraph, “Acts of Annihilation,” 20.
12 Sinnreich, “And it was something we didn’t talk about,” 3.
13 Waxman, Writing the Holocaust, 138.
14 Hedgepeth and Saidel, Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women, 2.
15 For an overview of the works exploring rape and sexual violence against women during the Holocaust, see the articles by Zoë Waxman and Na’ama Shik in this Special Issue.
16 At the time that this article was written, there was only one article mentioning the rape of Jewish men during the Holocaust. Flaschka’s article “Only Pretty Women Were Raped” does acknowledge the case of male on male rape during the Holocaust. However, Flaschka explains Jewish males’ experience of sexual violence through effeminization. Her work does not explore the testimonies of Jewish males or consider any first-person accounts of sexual violence and rape. Because Flaschka prefers to think of them as “female,” she resists considering the rape of Jewish males as an experience they suffered as “males.” Consequently, Flaschka argues that Jewish men and boys were raped because they were pseudo-women–a position this article adamantly rejects. Jewish males were not raped because they were thought of as women, but because they were in fact subordinate men. See Flaschka, “‘Only Pretty Women Were Raped’.”
17 See Sinnreich, “And it was something we didn’t talk about,” 4; and Waxman, Women in the Holocaust, 92.
18 Hedgepeth and Saidel, Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women, 1.
19 Randall, “Gendering Genocide Studies,” 2.
20 Ibid., 4.
21 Eichert “‘Homosexualization’ Revisited,” 425.
22 Plant, The Pink Triangle.
23 Oosterhuis, “Male Bonding and the Persecution of Homosexual Men,” 27.
24 Oosterhuis, “Medicine, Male Bonding and Homosexuality,” 188.
25 In October of 2018, the Azrieli Foundation hosted a conference called “Buried Words: A Workshop on Sexuality, Violence and Holocaust Testimonies.” The discussions in this workshop were integral to expanding the concept of race and gender-based violence during the Holocaust. See Debórah Dwork’s article in this Special Issue for another discussion of Jewish boys being sexually coerced and assaulted during the Holocaust.
26 Misra, The Landscape of Silence, 13–14.
27 Ibid., 14.
28 Zalewski, “Provocations in Debates about Sexual Violence,” 30–1.
29 See Element of Crimes, specifically Article 7 (1) (g)-1, the “Crime against Humanity of Rape,” and Article 8 (2) (e) (vi)-1, the “War Crime of Rape.”
30 Carbon, “An Updated Definition of Rape.”
31 Ibid.
32 See Sjoberg, Women as Wartime Rapists; and Johnson et al., “Association of Sexual Violence.”
33 Dolan, “Victims Who are Men,” 94.
34 Ibid.
35 See Johnson et al., “Association of Combatant Status”; and Johnson et al., “Association of Sexual Violence.”
36 See Loncar et al., “Mental Health Consequences in Men.”
37 Frank, Interview 28165. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 15, Accessed July 1, 2019.
38 Auerbach, Interview 24423. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 27, Accessed July 1, 2019.
39 Gever, Interview 1416. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 10, Accessed July 1, 2019.
40 Ibid.
41 Katz, Interview 28672. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 149, Accessed July 1, 2019.
42 Silberstein, Interview 36981. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 15, Accessed July 1, 2019.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Traub, Interview 34791. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 24, Accessed July 1, 2019.
47 Roman, Interview 40310. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 171–180, Accessed July 1, 2019.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid.
50 Auerbach, Interview 24423. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 27, Accessed October 1, 2018.
51 Altmann, Interview 26994. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 15, Accessed October 1, 2018.
52 Gelbart, Interview 24368. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 21, Accessed October 1, 2018.
53 For a discussion of sexual bartering, see Hájková, “Sexual Barter in Times of Genocide.”
54 Burstin, Interview 37151. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Segment 133, Accessed July 1, 2019.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid. Segment 134.
59 See Fein, Accounting for Genocide.
60 Ibid., 7.
61 Ibid., 6.
62 Ibid.
63 Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men,” 267–8.
64 Ibid., 268.
65 Ibid., 270.
66 David Eichert has pointed out that Sivakumaran’s system is incomplete and rests on several undemonstrated assumptions about homosexualization. Eichert notes that some victims of male rape are already homosexual, so “Individuals who are homosexual or who claim some other non-heterosexual sexuality cannot be ‘homosexualized’ by having their social status reduced,” and adds that “it is also important to recognize the role that other frames of analysis such as race and class (which are absent from Sivakumaran’s dynamics) play in the decision to use sexual violence during armed conflict.” See Eichert, “‘Homosexualization’ Revisited,” 413–14.
67 Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men,” 271.
68 Ibid., 273.
69 Jones, “Straight as a Rule,” 452–3.
70 See Hooper, Manly States.
71 See Jones, “Straight as a Rule,” 453–4; and Connell, Gender.
72 Jones, “Straight as a Rule,” 459.
73 Ibid., 462.
74 Ibid.
75 Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men,” 274.
76 See Moses and Stone, Colonialism and Genocide; Short, Redefining Genocide; and Smith, On Inhumanity.
77 Moses, “Conceptual Blockages and Definitional Dilemmas,” 33.
78 See Whitman, Hitler’s American Model.
79 Haas, “German Science and Black Racism,” 337.
80 For a discussion of the German folk idea as the basis of racialization, see Stone, “Race Science, Race Mysticism.” For a discussion of the negative stereotypes associated with Jewish masculinity, see Hoberman, “Otto Weininger.”
81 See Baader, “Jewish Difference.”
82 Hoberman, “Otto Weininger,” 143.
83 Quoted in Hyams, “Weininger and Nazi Ideology,” 159.
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid.
86 Brod, “Of Mice and Supermen,” 287–8.
87 Hyams, “Weininger and Nazi Ideology,” 159.
88 See Curry, The Man-Not.
89 JanMohamed, “Sexuality on/of the Racial Border,” 112.
90 Bhattacharyya, Dangerous Brown Men, 87–8.
91 See Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, 110–14.
92 Ibid., 157.
93 Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew, 33.
94 See Connell, “Masculinity Research and Global Change”; Connell and Messerschmidt, “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept”; and Connell, “Masculinities in Global Perspective.”
95 See Curry, The Man-Not; Curry, “Killing Boogeymen”; and Woodard, The Delectable Negro.
96 See Curry, “Killing Boogeymen.”
97 See Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, especially Chapter 6, “The Negro and Psychopathology”; Frazier, “The Pathology of Race Prejudice”; and Woodard, The Delectable Negro. The sexual savagery of racial groups often occurs through simianization, see Smith and Panaitiu, “Aping the Human Essence.”
98 Phallicism illuminates how gender, sexuality, and maleness operate outside of the Western anthropology. Feminist analyses often presume a global gender hierarchy organized around a patriarchal masculinity that is fundamentally tied to aggression and the perpetration of sexual violence against women. In racialized contexts, however, sexuality and gender operate differently, because gendered relations are organized around the use of gratuitous violence against the subjugated male populations as an indication of the distance between the superior and inferior race. As the negation of the masculine and feminine characteristics defining the dominant and more civilized racial group, the racialized male is identified by his savagery. Racialization is a form of dehumanization that creates a kind of being that is male but not-Man. In previous work, I refer to this as the Man-Not construct, and explain that it reorients gender-based violence since death as well as rape are enacted upon racialized male bodies by the men and the women of the dominant racial group.
99 Féron, Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men, 1.
100 Ibid., 2.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tommy J. Curry
Tommy J. Curry is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and Chair of Africana Philosophy and Black Male Studies. He is the author of The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood (2017), which won the 2018 American Book Award, Another white Man’s Burden: Josiah Royce’s Quest for a Philosophy of white Racial Empire (2018), which won the 2020 Josiah Royce Prize in American Idealist Thought, and numerous articles analyzing the vulnerability of racialized males to sexual violence and rape. His research interests are Critical Race Theory, Masculinities, and Social Political Philosophy.