Nazi Germany’s Sex Dilemma
By: Thomas Brown
Tags: Nazis, Sex, History, World War II, Culture

Nazi sexuality: contradictory to its core

As they took power and WWII began, the Nazis faced a dilemma. On the one hand, conservatism, family values, and a religious commitment to serving the nation — as opposed to one’s self — were core elements of their belief system. On the flip-side, they also desperately needed ‘Aryan’ men and women to have children, so that they could populate their newly conquered land. Therefore, a very pro-natal attitude was adopted to ensure that the right people were having children. Meanwhile, a viscously anti-natal approach was taken to prevent the opposite: relying far more on the latter as the years went on.

In addition to this dual aim of being both pro and anti-natal at the same time, identity played a very important and complex role in shaping the Nazi approach to sex. In this regard, there’s a couple of important themes that we should explore.

Masculinity

Nazis were obsessed with the Masculine. Their understanding of what it meant to be a man was born out of this obsession, determined by a very traditional view on the male role as a defender of the nation and head of the family. Men were supposed to be reserved yet dominant, selflessly devoting themselves to the nation. However, when combined with the issue of low birthrates among ‘Aryan’ men, this identity could be somewhat of an issue.

On the one hand, this view of masculinity led to a Cult of Manhood. While women were important — as child bearers, caregivers, and housewives — they were very clearly still subservient to the man of the house.

However, as Nazi Psychotherapist Johannes Heinrich Schultz argued, when it came to sex, simply focusing on the needs of men was not enough. In his view, it was important that both men and women would regularly have orgasms to ensure higher chances of reproduction. And, as anyone who has experience with this will know, such a goal implicitly leads to a shift in focus away from the needs of one partner, to the needs of both.

The aspect of the masculine image that made them conservative and obedient to the State was then challenged by the aspect of masculinity which was — and needed to be — much more open-minded, less reserved, and, when necessary, promiscuous.

So — while the Nazis inherited a very conservative and reserved view of sexual relationships, they then also needed men to have regular and pleasurable sex as well. Beyond simply increasing birthrates, there was also another reason they wanted their men to engage in sex for pleasure, one which stemmed from a fear of what would happen if they didn’t.

Homosexuality

It should be a surprise to no one that the Nazis were violently homophobic, and not only because of the ‘practical’ concerns of reproduction. The notion of two men being attracted to one another so fundamentally undermined their view of manhood that extreme measures were taken to prevent this from happening.

Sourced from Britannica.com

Leaders such as Reichsführer of the SS Heinrich Himmler helped entrench nothing short of an institutional paranoia that men — deprived of sex while fighting on the front — would begin looking to one another for sexual relief and intimacy. So adamant was Himmler to avoid this that he ordered brothels to be placed around the camps in which the SS were staying.

Considering these brothels were founded to ensure soldiers could maintain the ‘correct’ sexual orientation in order to grow the German master race, this decision was very controversial, as these brothels would never use ‘pure Aryan’ women. In some cases, they would be filled with those captured from conquered regions of Eastern Europe. The extent to which Jewish women specifically were used is debated, given the Rassenschande Law strictly forbade this.

Understanding the environment in which they were placed and the reasons why they were founded, it becomes clear that the sexual dynamic in these brothels was not in keeping with either the conservative, family values, mentioned before, or the sex-positivity needed to increase birthrates.

To understand the nature of the sex taking place here, we can read a quote from a German sex worker who had been sent to one of these brothels:

“It was nothing personal, one felt like a robot. They did not take notice of us; we were the lowest of the low. We were only good for this. No conversation or small talk, not even the weather was on the agenda. Everything was so mechanical and indifferent. . . They finished their business and left.”

The nature of these sexual encounters demonstrates the deeply conflicted understanding of sex within the Nazi doctrine. At this point, we can see it was simultaneously understood as:

A natural and almost sacred bond between a husband and wife

A form of service to the Nation

Something to be desired and practiced with the pleasure of both partners in mind

An act that could be forced onto particular women purely for the pleasure of soldiers and workers

An act that could become ‘mechanical and indifferent’ when the situation required it

It is important to note that none of these understandings of sex existed in isolation. And as you can probably tell, the context in which sex was taking place would shape the nature of its purpose.

This idea becomes clear as we move away from the orchestrated view of sexuality as understood by Nazi command, and towards the sexual behavior of Nazis in places where there was less supervision.

Abuse in Prison Camps

Abuse — in all its forms — was a cornerstone of the Nazi war machine. In the context of prison camps, in particular, this abuse was justified through the belief that it was their right as the master race to not only eliminate, but torment, the ‘undesirables’ of society.

While sexual contact between Nazis and their Jewish prisoners was limited — although by no means unheard of — as mentioned before, its hidden nature makes the exact extent of this type of abuse incredibly difficult for historians to understand.

To illuminate just one case that we do have testimonies for, we can look at the story of Bergen-Belsen prisoner guard Irma Grese. Grese was a known abuser of women during her time at the work camp, and would be executed for her role in the Holocaust in 1945.

Through oral testimonies taken by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — a database I would strongly recommend anyone interested in this topic to browse through — we can come to learn how Grese was known for sexually abusing prisoners, as well as using them to hide her behavior from other guards. Although lesbian relationships were not made illegal in Germany in the same way homosexuality was among men, there would still likely have been dire consequences if she had been caught by other SS officials.

Abuse, while not an openly advertised part of the Nazi doctrine’s position on sex, came very naturally to many given the opportunity — not just Grese. This abuse would be justified by individuals based on key elements of the Nazi worldview — particularly their understanding of the racial hierarchy.

In 1942, Himmler expanded the presence of brothels to work camps as well, in an attempt to increase productivity among the forced laborers. In these brothels, many reports can be found of SS guards entering in order to humiliate and degrade those using them. This type of voyeurism was another extension of the Nazi sexual dilemma. On the one hand, Hitler called prostitution a “disgrace for mankind” in Mein Kampf, yet during the War allowed for these brothels to be created. Resulting from this, the violence and torture of the captees — that he sanctioned — manifested itself as sexual abuse throughout many work camps.

Here we see two polar ends of the spectrum: sex as being an act saved for an Aryan husband and wife, versus sex as being a tool to degrade other human beings. Both of these views were adopted, and both played important roles in the Nazi ideology.

Conclusion

What we have here is a very brief exploration of the multiple competing factors that influenced the Nazi’s understanding of sex. Sex is a natural part of life, and in a biological sense arguably its most foundational feature. By extension, its use and abuse are both natural and important parts of any period in history.

When looking at the competing ways sex was viewed in this context, we can see that the Nazis struggled to reconcile this very human need within the context of their rigid ideology. Serving multiple purposes — some individual, some ideological — sex within Nazism was complicated, to say the least. However, by studying it, we can better understand the mindsets of those people who operated one of history’s most murderous regimes.