1 Liebe, Sexualität und Männlichkeit in der Lagergesellschaft: Das

1 Liebe, Sexualität und Männlichkeit in der Lagergesellschaft: Das

Liebe, Sexualität und Männlichkeit in der Lagergesellschaft:
Das Beispiel der deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in den Vereinigten Staaten im Zweiten
Weltkrieg
Matthias Reiss, University of Exeter
The so-called “War on Terror” and the discussion about the treatment of internees at Guantanamo
Bay, Abu Ghraib or other detention centers has also triggered a renewed interest in the United
States’ previous experiences with captured enemy personnel.1 In other countries, too, interest in
the history of prisoners of war (POWs) and other war time internees has increased in recent years.
Yet despite a growing body of scholarship, many questions of this multifaceted topic which
affected millions and often brought the population at the home front into direct contact with
enemy combatants remain unexplored or under-researched. Questions of gender and sexuality
behind barbed-wire, for example, are still largely dealt with in an anecdotal fashion, despite the
fact that the sexual humiliation of captives by western soldiers during the conflict in Iraq strongly
highlighted the importance of gender in the captor-prisoner relationship and the military in
general.2 For a long time, however, sexuality behind barbed-wire and the impact of captivity on
gender relations were largely the subjects of medical studies and debates.
Following in the footsteps of Magnus Hirschfeld’s pioneering study Sittengeschichte des
Weltkrieges, especially historians of the First World War have recently started to pay more
attention to these two categories.3 Alon Rachamimov and Rainer Pöppinghege have portrayed
“capture by the enemy as a metaphoric castration” and the camps as “emasculated all-male
A shorter version of this article was published under the title ‘The Importance of Being Men: The
Afrika-Korps in American Captivity’ in the Journal of Social History 46, 1 (Fall 2012), 23-47.
1
See, for example Harry P. Riconda, Prisoners of War in American Conflicts (Lanham, MD 2003). Paul J. Springer,
“American Prisoners of War Policy and Practices from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror” (PhD diss,
Texas A&M University, 2006). Arnold Krammer, Prisoners of War: A Reference Handbook (Westport, CT 2008).
Robert C. Doyle, The Enemy in Our Hands: America’s Treatment of Enemy Prisoners of War from the Revolution to
the War on Terror (Lexington, KY 2010). Stephanie Carvin, Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic
to Guantanamo (London, 2010). Antonio S. Thompson, Men in German Uniform: POWs in America during World
War II (Knoxville, TN 2010).
2
See, for example, Duncan Gardham and Paul Cruickshank, “Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos ‘Show Rape’,” Telegraph,
May 27, 2009, accessed Feb. 9, 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5395830/AbuGhraib-abuse-photos-show-rape.html. Laura Sjoberg, “Agency, Militarized Femininity and Enemy Others:
Observations from the War in Iraq,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 9 (no 1, 2007): 82-101. Ryan A.
Caldwell and Stjepan G. Mestrovic, “The Role of Gender in ‘Expressive’ Abuse at Abu Ghraib,” Cultural Sociology
2 (no. 3, 2008): 275-299.
3
Sittengeschichte des Weltkrieges, ed. Magnus Hirschfeld (Leipzig, 1930). All references in this article refer to the
2006 reprint of the 1941 English edition: The Sexual History of the World War (Honolulu, 2006).
1
societies.”4 Heather Jones has highlighted the contrast between the “proactive, virile image of
soldierly masculinity” with which the prisoners entered captivity and the reality of “the
domesticated, uniformly male, home front camp.”5 Historians of the Second World War have
largely adopted the same perspective on captivity and often assumed that sex was of little concern
for the vast majority of POWs in this conflict and that gender mattered only in regard to the
prisoners’ re-masculinization after captivity and repatriation.6
This article will challenge these assumptions. Already during their actual captivity, gender
was a highly relevant category for prisoners of war, and being behind barbed-wire was not
always an emasculating experience. Under certain conditions, it had the opposite effect and led
prisoners of war to over-emphasize their identity as masculine soldiers. Being in the hands of the
enemy is a crisis situation in which military unity and discipline provide obvious advantages. But
the latter two are also markers of a military ethos and professionalism the soldiers of the
detaining power will acknowledge and might respect. Historians have long recognized that the
“othering” of the military opponent often resulted in abuses or atrocities on the battlefield and in
captivity. However, very little attention has yet been paid to the reverse process. In western
military tradition, only the fellow military professional who subscribed to the same notions of
manliness, military conduct and code of fighting was recognized as equal and therefore able to
First quotation: Alon Rachamimov, “The Disruptive Comforts of Drag: (Trans)Gender Performances among
Prisoners of War in Russia, 1914-1920,” American Historical Review 111 (no. 2, 2006): 362-382, at 364. Second
quotation: “entmannte Männergesellschaft”, Rainer Pöppinghege, Im Lager unbesiegt: Deutsche, englische und
französische Kriegsgefangenen-Zeitungen im Ersten Weltkrieg (Essen, 2006), 165. See also Matthew Stibbe, British
Civilian Internees in Germany: The Ruhleben Camp, 1914-18 (Manchester, 2008), 99-101. Jennifer Kewley
Draskau, “Prisoners in Petticoats: Drag Performance and its Effects in Great War Internment Camps in the Isle of
Man,” Proceedings of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society 12 (no. 2, 2009): 187-204. Kurt W.
Böhme already proposed the concept of the “society of men” (Männergesellschaft) in his book Geist und Kultur der
deutschen Kriegsgefangenen im Westen (Munich, 1968), 6.
5
Heather Jones, “A Missing Paradigm? Military Captivity and the Prisoners of War, 1914-18,” Immigrants &
Minorities 26 (no. 1/2 , March/July 2008): 25.
6
Jonathan F. Vance, “Sexual Relations,” in Encyclopedia of Prisoners of War and Internment, ed. Jonathan F. Vance
(2nd ed.; Millerton, NY 2006), 357. Exceptions are, for example, Matthias Reiss, “Bronzed Bodies behind Barbed
Wire: Masculinity and the Treatment of German Prisoners of War in the United States during World War II,”
Journal of Military History 69 (no. 2, April 2005): 475-504; and Fabien Théofilakis, “La sexualité des prisonniers de
guerre français et allemands en guerre mondiale (1914-1949),” Vingtième Siècle: Revue d’histoire 99 (Sept. 2008):
203-219. The female western prisoners in Japanese captivity have also received substantial attention from historians.
Regarding the issue of homecoming and re-masculinization see, for example, Frank Biess, “Men of Reconstruction,
the Reconstruction of Men: Returning POWs in East and West Germany,” in Home/Front: The Military, War,
Gender and Gender in Twentieth Century Germany, ed. Karen Hagemann and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (Oxford,
2002), 335-58, and Prisoners of War, Prisoners of Peace: Captivity, Homecoming and Memory in World War II, ed.
Bob Moore and Barbara Hately-Broad (Oxford, 2005).
4
2
make a claim for human and respectful treatment in captivity. The “other” – armed civilians,
guerrillas, tribal warriors etc. – were often subject to mistreatment or summary execution.7
Maintaining a masculine-soldierly identity in captivity therefore had potential benefits.
One of the groups who tried to do so were the members of the Army Group Africa
(Heeresgruppe Afrika) who surrendered to the Allies in Tunisia in May 1943. Around 135,000 of
them were shipped to the United States, and other Axis prisoners followed in their path.
Eventually over 371,000 German, 51,000 Italian and 5,413 Japanese POWs were interned in
some 155 base camps and 511 branch camps in the United States.8 Based on oral history
interviews, unpublished memoirs, diaries and archival sources as well as published recollections,
this article argues that the members of the Army Group Africa employed a variety of strategies to
successfully avoid “metaphoric castration” in American captivity. By performing a masculinesoldierly identity they were also able to establish a common ground with their captors and helped
to build a bridge to the post-war world when German military expertise was yet again in
demand.9 In addition to highlighting the importance of gender when dealing with military issues,
this article also breaks new ground in other ways. Although Rüdiger Overmans already suggested
in 1999 that more research needs to be done on how prisoners of war tried to influence their
captors, little progress has been made in this field.10 Historians still tend to assume that prisoners
of war lacked any control over their lives behind barbed-wire and that only a small minority of
them was able to regain “a sense of agency and masculinity” by escaping from captivity either
7
This tradition of thought has also shaped international law. Only combatants who are members of regular armed
forces or fight in an organized, disciplined and open manner and “in accordance with the laws and customs of war”
are legally entitled to POW status today. Sibylle Scheipers, “Introduction: Prisoners in War,” in Prisoners in War,
ed. Sibylle Scheipers (Oxford, 2010), 10-15. Michael Howard, George J. Andreopoulos and Mark R. Schulman, The
Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World (New Haven, CT 1994). Stefan Oeter, “Die Entwicklung
des Kriegsgefangenenrechts: Die Sichtweise eines Völkerrechtlers,” in In der Hand des Feindes:
Kriegsgefangenschaft von der Antike bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg, ed. Rüdiger Overmans (Cologne, 1999), 41-59. The
only exception to this rule are civilians accompanying armed forces. Chia Lehnardt, “Private Military Personnel as
Prisoners of War,” in Scheipers, Prisoners of War, 223-224.
8
The total number of German POWs in the USA varies between 378,898 and 371,683. For the higher number see
Martin Tollefson, “Enemy Prisoners of War,” Iowa Law Review 32 (Nov. 1946): 51; lower number in George G.
Lewis and John Mewha, History of Prisoner of War Utilization by the United States Army 1776-1945 (Washington,
DC 1955), 90-91. For the number of camps see Edward J. Pluth, “The Administration and Operation of German
Prisoners of War Camps in the United States during World War II” (PhD diss., Ball State University, 1970), 128.
9
The oral history interviews with former prisoners of war were conducted by the author for his PhD in Germany
between 1994 and 1997. Many of the unpublished memoirs and diaries were given to him by German veterans
during the same period. See Matthias Reiss, “Die Schwarzen waren unsere Freunde”: Deutsche Kriegsgefangene in
der amerikanischen Gesellschaft 1942-1946 (Paderborn, 2002), 40-44.
10
Rüdiger Overmans, “‘In der Hand des Feindes’: Geschichtsschreibung zur Kriegsgefangenschaft von der Antike
bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg,” in Overmans, In der Hand des Feindes, 38-39.
3
literally or through cultural activities in the camps.11 This article argues that collective
maintenance of a masculine-soldierly identity provided another way of achieving these goals and
that all members of the group benefited from it, regardless of their rank or resources. It shifts the
perspective from how the prisoners were viewed and treated to how the prisoners viewed
themselves and how as well as why they tried to maintain and re-enforce this image in captivity.12
An Emasculating Experience?
As the first to arrive, the prisoners from North Africa were very influential in shaping the image
of German soldiers in the United States. Among them were the units of the already famous
Deutsches Afrika-Korps (German Africa Corps) whose campaign in Libya and Egypt provided
the foundation for the respect, if not adoration, the members of “Erwin Rommel’s Africa Army”
already received from their opponents during the war.13 Wherever the German prisoners arrived
in the United States, American soldiers and civilians turned out to get a glimpse of the famous
enemy and were usually impressed by what they saw. Newspapers frequently highlighted the
prisoners’ fitness, youthfulness and veteran status and described them as “fine specimen of
physical manhood”, “tall, blond, husky, very physically fit, and well disciplined” or other such
terms.14 Harvard Professor Sidney B. Fay reflected this widely held attitude in March 1945 when
he called them “a tough lot” who “had waged a remarkably heroic though ultimately unsuccessful
campaign ... in North Africa.”15 Ironically, the same prisoners also quickly acquired a reputation
for loyalty to the Nazi regime, and it was, according to Fay, “from this unusually tough group
that Americans have generally formed their notions of the hopelessly recalcitrant character of all
German war prisoners.”16
Jones, “A Missing Paradigm,” 25-26.
By focusing on the German prisoners of war who surrendered to the Allies in North Africa in 1943 and were
interned in the United States, this study complements the article “Bronzed Bodies behind Barbed Wire” which dealt
with the impact the prisoners’ masculine and disciplined appearance had on Americans who came into contact with
them.
13
Sidney B. Fay, “German Prisoners of War,” Current History 8 (no. 43, March 1945): 193-200, at 193. Many
historians still consider all German soldiers who fought in North Africa members of the Afrika-Korps. However, the
Afrika-Korps was only one of many formations surrendering to the Allies in Tunisia in May 1943. John Ellis, World
War II: A Statistical Survey. The Essential Facts and Figures for All the Combatants (New York, NY 1993), 158.
14
First quotation: Maurice Getchell, “German Prisoners Harvest Peanut Crop in Aiken Area,” The Augusta
Chronicle (12 Sept. 1943), reprinted in Kathy Roe Coker, World War II Prisoners of War in Georgia: Camp
Gordon’s POWs (Augusta, GA 1994), 24. Second quotation: Betty Cowley, Stalag Wisconsin: Inside WW II
Prisoner-of-War Camps (Oregon, WI 2002), 107. For more quotations see Reiss, “Bronzed Bodies,” 486-487.
15
Fay, “German Prisoners of War,” 193.
16
Ibid.
11
12
4
Many historians have later expressed similar judgments and used the terms “AfrikaKorps” and “Army Group Africa” interchangeably. They have referred to the “dreaded
Afrikakorps”17 as “Rommel’s elite”18 and “a highly feared, highly respected fighting force, noted
for its discipline and allegiance to National Socialism.”19 The soldiers “from Rommel’s once allconquering command”20 or “Erwin Rommel’s celebrated Afrika Korps” have been described as
“disciplined, highly trained”,21 “very sympathetic to National Socialism, well-disciplined, and
tough”,22 “hard core professional, young ... qualitatively superior”23 or “elitist, highly trained,
rigidly disciplined veterans.”24
Defeat and captivity did nothing to demolish the masculine-soldierly image of the
members of the Army Group Africa. This requires an explanation, as life behind barbed-wire had
indeed an emasculating dimension. Although the prisoners’ military achievements in North
Africa were acknowledged and respected by the Allies, the members of the Army Group Africa
were no longer actively involved in the military struggle at the front, “the epicenter of wartime
masculinity.”25 The front soldier is the epitome of masculinity in times of war, and at least some
prisoners professed pain at no longer belonging to this group. In the poem “Our Fate”, for
example, a German POW in the United States lamented that they “full of woe had to renounce
their male rights” while others were still “fighting with jubilant courage.”26
At the moment of surrender to the enemy, the prisoners were stripped of their weapons
and usually also of all other military items, medals and insignias which had souvenir value for
their victorious opponents. Armed guards, barbed-wire and the letters “P/W” stenciled on their
clothes were constant reminders that the Germans were now prisoners of war, and the Americans
17
Ruth Beaumont Cook, Guests Behind the Barbed Wire: German POWs in America. A True Story of Hope and
Friendship (Birmingham, AL 2006), 60.
18
Arnold Krammer, Nazi Prisoners of War in America (Chelsea, MI 1991), 44.
19
David Fiedler, The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri during World War II (Saint Louis, MO 2003), 153.
20
Terry P. Wilson, “Afrika Korps in Oklahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 52 (no. 3, Fall 1975): 362.
21
C. Calvin Smith, “The Response of Arkansans to Prisoners of War and Japanese Americans in Arkansas 19421945,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 53 (no. 3, Autumn 1994): 345.
22
David L. Dickinson, “Fort Niagara’s World War II Prisoners-of-War,” Fortress Niagara: Newsletter-Journal of
the Old Fort Niagara Association 2 (no. 2, Dec. 2000): 8.
23
Thompson, Men in German Uniform, 68-69
24
Merrill R. Pritchett and William L. Shea, “The Afrika Korps in Arkansas, 1943-1946,” Arkansas Historical
Quarterly 37 (no. 1, Spring 1978): 8.
25
Rachamimov, “Disruptive Comforts,” 382.
26
“Schweigenden Sinnes Alles Ertragen, Wo Andere Kämpfen Mit Jubelndem Mut, Voll Wehe Den Männlichen
Rechten Entsagen, Wo Äcker Aufdampfen Von Heiligstem Blut.” Poem “Unser Schicksal,” Deutsche Woche (Camp
Fort Washington, WA), Feb. 10, 1945, 1.
5
usually used this term instead of “soldiers” when addressing them.27 Collective displays of
military professionalism and high morale, such as singing while marching in formation, were
quickly banned by the U.S. War Department.28
In a similar fashion, the POWs were also banned from showing off their masculine
bodies. In the words of a contemporary journalist, the Germans were “mostly magnificent
physical specimens who gloried in exhibiting their rippling muscles down to the waist.”29
Wherever there was a POW camp, Americans encountered “half naked Nazis ... usually clad only
in a pair of denim shorts.”30 Inside the POW compounds, the prisoners often wore even less than
that.31 Rumors about the “brawny suntanned Germans” who walked around “without their shirts”
also reached American troops abroad and began to affect their morale so that the War Department
was forced to address the topic in one of its Orientation Fact Sheets.32 As a result, orders were
issued that, except for medical reasons or while actively engaged in athletic pursuits, the German
POWs would “appear in proper uniform at all times.”33
The work the prisoners had to do for their captors also challenged their masculine image.
According to international law, enlisted men could be made to work for the detaining power.
Non-commissioned officers only had to do supervisory work and commissioned officers did not
have to work at all, although they were allowed to volunteer.34 Most of the jobs performed by
German POWs were usually reserved for those at the bottom of the racialized-gendered social
hierarchy of American society, i.e. African Americans, migrant workers from the Caribbean or
The few occasions when they were addressed as “soldiers” by the Americans were keenly noted. K. W. interview
by Matthias Reiss, July 6, 1996, audiotape (in MR’s possession). Fritz Arnold, Freundschaft in Jahren der
Feindschaft (Munich, 1998), 98.
28
Regarding the ban on singing in formation see: Memo for General Bryan. From Lt. Col. Edwards, Assistant
Director, POW Division, March 30, 1944. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD
(NARA), Record Group (RG) 389, Entry 459A, Box 1612, “255 (Cp. Concordia) Gen.” The War Department’s
public relations problems are discussed in Pluth, “Administration,” 237-296.
29
“Nazi Have a Chance at Democracy,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 25, 1943, 12-13.
30
Lex Connelly, “German Prisoners of War at Work in Institute Stables,” The Pup Tent (7 Oct. 1943), quoted in
Arthur Carmody, “The Afrika Korps Comes to the Institute,” copy received from the author.
31
Melissa A. Marsh, “Still the Old Marlene: Hollywood at the Fort Robinson Prisoner of War Camp,” Nebraska
History 86 (2005): 59. See also Arnold, Freundschaft, 79. Hermann Jung, Die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in
amerikanischer Hand – USA (Munich, 1972), 99.
32
War Department, “What’s the Score on Our Prisoner of War Camps?” Army Talk: Orientation Fact Sheet 42,
Washington, DC, Oct. 21, 1944, 1. NARA, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1631, “Conference Manual - WD
Publication.”
33
Prisoner of War Clothing. To Commanding Officers, POW Camps, 6th Service Command, from Major Van Slyke,
Chief, POW Branch, Security and Intelligence Division, Headquarters, 6 th Service Command, Chicago, April 30,
1945. NARA, RG389, Entry 452, Box 1393, “334.”
34
Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva, 27 July 1929, Section III, Article 27.
27
6
Mexico, or white women.35 This did influence how the prisoners were perceived by the civilian
population in the United States. Historian Stephen E. Ambrose, for example, recalled that he first
encountered German soldiers in Whitewater, Wisconsin, in June 1944: “They were members of
the Afrika Corps and they were frightening to an eight-year-old – big, strong, blond,
hardworking, well disciplined. Next to them the GI guard, even with his tommy-gun slung over
his shoulder, looked puny.”36 However, Ambrose later “watched the Germans work alongside my
mother at the local pea cannery, sorting debris out of the shelled peas, and that helped take the
Superman image away.”37 American journalists sometimes tried to provide the wider public with
a similar experience. In June 1944, for example, the Washington Daily News published an article
about the German POWs at Camp Croft, South Carolina, “many of them veterans of Rommel’s
Afrika-Korps.” The paper highlighted that the POWs, “mostly strapping youngsters” had to work
in the camp laundry, a task which they disliked: “‘Women’s work’ they call it.” Others had to
work “alongside several Jewish women tailors.”38 The paper clearly hoped that such work and
company would help to deconstruct the Germans’ hyper-masculine reputation.
Such efforts, however, were largely in vain. The German POWs successfully maintained
their masculine-soldierly image during their captivity in the United States by maintaining military
drill and discipline, publicly expressing their heterosexual desires and by creating the illusion of a
female presence in the camps. All three aspects have so far been studied only in isolation or in an
anecdotal fashion. This article will suggest, however, that they represented different aspects of a
common strategy to prevent captivity from becoming a “metaphoric castration” or emasculating
experience and to reaffirm and maintain traditional notions of masculinity and gender in a period
of crisis and uncertainty.
Military Drill and Discipline
Contemporary observers frequently noted that the prisoners from Africa vigorously upheld
military discipline and order in the camps on American soil. Individuals who broke away for
political or personal reasons did so at their own peril, as the majority was ready to enforced unity
Reiss, Die Schwarzen, 232-245. Barbara Schmitter Heisler, “The ‘Other Braceros’: Temporary Labor and German
Prisoners of War in the United States, 1943-1946,” Social Science History 31 (no. 2, Summer 2007): 239-271.
36
Stephen. E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender
of Germany June 7, 1944–May 7, 1945 (New York, NY 1997), 361-362.
37
Ibid.
38
Ralph Heinzen, “Scribe, Once Prisoner of Nazis, Contrasts Our Care of POWs,” Washington Daily News, June 21,
1944, 20.
35
7
and conformity within the camp society through intimidation or even physical violence. Many
historians have subsequently interpreted such acts as political disputes between Nazis and antiNazi groups.39 The intimidation of individuals in the POW camps certainly had a political
dimension due to the fact that the soldiers in uniform were representatives of Nazi Germany.
Nevertheless, the use of physical violence to ensure cohesion in military groups was also a longstanding military tradition in armies all around the world, and it is not surprising that it continued
in captivity. The most common punishing ritual in the German POWs camps in America was the
so-called “Holy Ghost”, a nightly surprise attack during which the head of the victim was
covered by the attackers while the remaining members of the raiding party administered a
beating. German soldiers were familiar with this practice since basic training, and one American
journalist admitted in 1944 that it was “not unknown in our Army.”40 Allied prisoners in German
hands also resorted to intimidation and force against real or perceived traitors in their midst, and
“when compared to the POWs of other nations – both Allies and enemies – there is little doubt
that the reactions of German POWs in the United States were well within the boundaries of
typical military conduct associated with captivity.”41
The maintaining of military drill and discipline was aided by the fact that many members
of the Army Group Africa did not feel defeated. “We did not feel that we had been beaten; the
cut-off of supplies had forced us to lay down the arms”, a German general summarized this
widely held perception after the war: “This feeling together with a strong esprit de corps gave us
bearing and forced the Americans to respect us.”42 The prisoners from Africa frequently noted the
attention they received from the relatively unseasoned American troops. “If we were spoilt,
beyond our merits, with excellent and abundant food, we were likewise ‘spoilt’ by most
respectful, almost subservient, treatment”, one of them recalled his arrival at Camp Crossville,
Tennessee in October 1943: “The camp was relatively new. So were the guards, officers and
men. It almost seemed as if they were proud of being custodians of such redoubtable soldiers as
39
See, for example, Krammer, Nazi Prisoners, 154-174.
Robert Devore, “Our ‘Pampered’ War Prisoners,” Collier’s, Oct. 14, 1944, 6. On group violence in the German
army see Thomas Kühne, “Gruppenkohäsion und Kameradschaftsmythos in der Wehrmacht,” in Die Wehrmacht:
Mythos und Realität, ed. Rolf-Dieter Müller and Hans-Erich Volkmann (Munich, 1999), 534-549.
41
Ron Robin, The Barbed-Wire College: Reeducating German POWs in the United States during World War II
(Princeton, NJ 1995), 37.
42
“Wir hatten nicht das Gefühl[,] geschlagen zu sein; das Abschneiden der Zufuhr hatte uns gezwungen[,] die
Waffen zu strecken. Dies Gefühl[,] zusammen mit einem starken Korpsgeist[,] gab uns Haltung und nötigte den
Amerikaner[n] Achtung ab.” WKU-112, p. 1. Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv Freiburg, Germany, B 205/v.229. For
more examples see Reiss, Die Schwarzen, 178.
40
8
Rommel’s ...; and they looked with child-like interest at the insignia of higher-ranking officers
and the Iron Crosses and other medals dangling from chest pockets and, especially, at a few
Knight’s Crosses hanging from necks. In strange and converging ways, such attitudes pleased
both sides.”43
American sources confirm these reports. “Damn! They were a well-disciplined bunch of
guys”, a former American guard summarized his impressions of the prisoners from Africa,
“physically healthy, well-trained, and excellent soldiers. They still maintained the dignity and
discipline that they had learned in the German Army, and I – we all – respected them.”44 By April
1944, the U.S. Army General in charge of the POW program exasperatedly asked the Director of
the Morale Service Division for advice “as to how we can prevent our military personnel in close
contact with prisoners of war from being overcome with admiration for their charges.”45
Fantasying about Women and Sex
The respect the prisoners’ military record and bearing commanded was important because
manliness is constructed and measured in relation to other men as well as through interaction
with the female other. The German POWs, however, were denied the latter behind barbed-wire.
Many prisoners worked in the vicinity of American women during the day, but the U.S. War
Department was very concerned about fraternization between the two groups and did everything
to prevent it, although it was not always successful.46 Inside the barbed-wire compounds, contact
with women was almost non-existent. Until August 1944, the War Department even banned
female journalists and photographers from visiting POW camps.47
Such measures did little to dampen the prisoners’ obsession with the opposite sex. As
Paul Fussell has stressed, sex and women were the dominant conversation topics of soldiers all
around the world during the Second World War.48 Such talk was part of the ritual of acquiring
G. G. H., “Under the Crooked Cross, Book Four: The Barbed Wire” (Private Memoirs, no place, 1989), 24.
Sergeant R. Staff, quoted in Krammer, Nazi Prisoners, 149-150.
45
Letter from Major General Gullion, Provost Marshal General, to Major General Osborn, Director Morale Service
Division, April 4, 1944. NARA, RG389, Entry 459A, Box 1637, “383.6 General.”
46
There is extensive evidence of fraternization between German POWs and American women during the Second
World War, including romantic and sexual relationships. Reiss, Die Schwarzen, 123-128.
47
POW Policy. Memo for the Provost Marshal General, from Lt. Colonel Clark, Acting Assistant to Director for
Army Service Forces, War Department, Bureau of Public Relations, August 26, 1944. NARA, RG389, Entry 459A,
Box 1653, “680.2 General.”
48
Paul Fussell, Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War (New York, NY 1989), 109.
43
44
9
and maintaining a soldierly identity, and the German armed forces were no different to other
armies in this regard.
In the transient camps in Africa, poor food rations and living conditions largely prevented
the prisoners from fantasizing about women. German prisoner Robert Schulz, for example, noted
explicitly that they did not talk about women, “usually the all dominating ‘Topic 1’ among
soldiers”, while interned in North Africa and concluded that “only when the stomach is full can
one afford the luxury of dreaming of a naked woman!”49 When food is scarce, another prisoner
confirmed, “epicurean delicacies of all kinds” are the only topic in captivity. “If, however, one is
satisfied with the quality and quantity of the provided rations, another topic dominates, namely
the longing for the fair sex and the memories connected with it.”50
Once they arrived in the camps on American soil, however, the prisoners received the
same generous food rations as the allegedly oversexed American GIs and claimed that the
absence of women was becoming a problem as a result. Veterans who commented on sexual
deprivation in captivity stress that their desire for heterosexual intercourse was natural and only
second to their desire for food. With the latter provided in abundance, the “problem of
‘neutralising’ the normal urges” became a problem that was discussed with fellow prisoners.51
Disciplining the body was one possible way of action, as self-control was a marker of manliness,
but success was far from assured. One German for example concluded “that the natural longing
for kisses and tenderness, for women and sex, could best be overcome by exhausting physical
exercise and, as some fellow prisoners suggested, cold showers.” Even then, however, there was
“much boasting and slippery talk about the fairer sex” among the prisoners.52
“Gespräche über Frauen, sonst unter Soldaten das alles dominierende ‘Thema 1’, fanden in dieser Art innerhalb
des Stacheldrahtes nicht statt.... Nur wenn der Bauch voll ist, kann man sich den Luxus leisten, von einer nackten
Frau zu träumen!” Robert Schulz, Triologie hinter Stacheldraht: Als deutscher Kriegsgefangener in den Lagern der
Alliierten auf drei Kontinenten, 1943-1947 (2 nd ed.; Hildesheim, 1996), 28.
50
“Ist die Verpflegung knapp und Schmalhans der Küchenmeister, wird in Gefangenschaft fast nur von einem
Thema gesprochen, und zwar von lukullischen Köstlichkeiten jeder Art.... Ist man aber mit der Güte und Menge der
gereichten Verpflegung zufrieden, so ist ein anderes Thema ganz oben, nämlich die Sehnsucht nach der Weiblichkeit
und den damit verbundenen Erinnerungen.” Manfred Sonntag, Im Goldenen Käfig: Freiheit hinter Stacheldraht
(Hamburg, 1992), 63-64. See also: ibid., 74. It was only when the POWs’ rations were drastically cut back after VEDay that “[t]alk about women and sex shrank.” G. G. H., “Under the Crooked Cross,” 60. For the connection
between starvation and sexuality see also Ernst Günther Schenck and Wolfgang von Nathusius, Extreme
Lebensverhältnisse und ihre Folgen: Handbuch der ärztlichen Erfahrungen aus der Gefangenschaft, vol. V (Bad
Godesberg, 1961), 89-92.
51
“Jeder mußte dieses Problem der ‘Neutralisierung’ der normalen Triebwelt auf seine eigene Weise lösen.”
Reinhold Pabel, Feinde sind auch Menschen: Sieben Jahre in Chikago untergetaucht. Flucht und Abenteuer eines
deutschen Kriegsgefangenen (Oldenburg, 1957), 128.
52
G. H. H., “Under the Crooked Cross,” 25.
49
10
The POW camp newspapers reflected their readers’ preoccupation with women. Produced
by prisoners for prisoners, they started out from a desire to fight boredom and increase the
cohesion of the camp community. The Americans later encouraged their production, hoping they
would help the reeducation program for the Germans by offering a forum for free speech and
debate. Nearly every major German POW camp in the United States eventually had its own
newspaper, and some had more than one.53
The POW newspapers dealt repeatedly with the sexual distress the prisoners were
allegedly suffering from in the all-male camp society, thereby reassuring them that the
heterosexual norm was still in force. Sometimes, the issue was addressed through humor. The
paper of Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky for example, advertised a “new class nude drawings (just
for married men)” next to the drawing of a woman wearing only high heel shoes. Two pages
later, the readers were informed that the class had to be cancelled due to a lack of models.54 For
others, the topic was more serious. A prisoner at Camp Bowie, Texas warned his fellow POWs in
the camp’s newspaper that they exhausted themselves by fantasying about women and urged
them to conserve their energy for the upcoming task of reconstructing Germany. In his article
“Sexual Distress in Captivity” he stressed that “we [the prisoners] must guide our fantasy to
higher regions of interest, by willpower, away from primitive sexuality” and suggested that the
best way to achieve this was through “all kinds of physical and mental occupation.”55
As already said, he was not the only one to suggest that men should be able to master and
rise above the urges of their bodies, be it through cold showers or other means. An American
who visited POW camps during the war commented on the “[g]igantic murals ... on the walls of
mess halls and recreation rooms. Some were beautifully done; mountain lakes and the Bavarian
Alps competed with women as the favorite subject. One wall boasted a group of naked women
opposite the admonition, ‘Ein guter Soldat muss verzichten Koennen’–a good soldier must learn
to do without.”56
53
Thompson, Men in German Uniform, 208. See also Böhme, Geist und Kultur, 270-276.
“Achtung! Neuer Kursus Akt-Zeichnen (Nur für Ehemänner),” Die Brücke (Camp Breckinridge, KY), Feb. 16,
1946, 8 and 10.
55
Dr. Lehmann, “Sexualnot in Gefangenschaft? Sexual Distress in Captivity?” Translated by W. Nürnberg, Der
Lagerspiegel (Camp Bowie, TX), Nov. 1, 1945, 6-8. The paper was bi-lingual and the English text is quoted here.
56
Martha H. Byrd, “Captured by the Americans,” American History Illustrated 11 (no. 10, Feb. 1977): 28. Because
they showed semi-nude figures, the murals at Fort McClellan, AL were covered with panels in the early 1950s and
only rediscovered in 1979. Joseph T. Robertson, “Fort McClellan’s POW Camp, 1943-1946,” Alabama Review (Oct.
1996): 282.
54
11
However, learning how to “do without” did not mean that the prisoners would or could
ignore the topic altogether. The murals show that women not only featured in the POWs’
discourses as objects of heterosexual desires, but also as representatives of the “Heimat” (Home
Country). “All nationalisms are gendered” as Anne McClintock has pointed out, and the POW
newspapers’ repeated idolization of “our women” in Germany was more an expression of
German nationalism than an acknowledgement of sexual deprivation. It served to affirm the
POWs’ identity as Germans.57 But talking about heterosexual sex and expressing desire for
female company was also part of the ritual behavior through which the German prisoners
constantly reconstituted their identity as masculine soldiers. Sexuality was less important than
gender, for talking about women was part of the military bonding ritual, a way to affirm
heteronormativity in organizations which cramped hundreds and sometimes thousands of men
into confined homosocial spaces such as barracks or prisoner of war camps.
As a result, pictures of women were omnipresent in the camps, not only in the mess halls
and recreations rooms, but also in the barracks where the prisoners slept. The Germans were
given access to American newspapers and magazines, and the War Department actively
encouraged such literature after the launch of the reeducation program in the hope that it would
convince the POWs of the superiority of the American way of life. But the American press did
not just inform the prisoners about the military and political situation in the world. “The
supplement of the Sunday paper shows beautiful women” a German officer noted woefully in his
diary in June 1944 and added that this made them realize how wretched their situation was.58
Nevertheless, German prisoners all over the United States eagerly collected these pictures and
quickly began to plaster not only the walls of their barracks with pin-up girls, but occasionally
also the ceilings.59 “Pin-up girls are Nazi prisoners’ favorite decoration at Camp Blanding, Fla.”,
Life subtitled a picture from inside a POW barrack and added: “In true Germanic fashion, they
are not satisfied with one or two pin-ups but must have a profusion of Hedy Lamarrs and Ann
57
Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (Ann Arbor, 1995), 352.
See also Draskau, “Prisoners in Petticoats,” 193. For an example of how the camp newpapers wrote about German
women see “Unseren Frauen,” Der Spiegel (Fort Dix, NJ), Sept. 12, 1945, 2.
58
“Das Beiblatt der Sonntagszeitung zeigte schöne Frauen – wenn man so etwas sieht, wird einem das Trostlose
unserer Lage bewusst.” Diary of K.H.H., p. 366, copy received from K.H.H. The effect of the pin-up girls on the
prisoners is ironically summarized in the poem “Spuk” by the POW Sepp Nischelwitzer in Der Europäer (Camp
Campbell), Feb. 1945, no page number.
59
H.F., “Wir wundern uns,” Der Stacheldraht (Camp Fort Custer, MI), March 31, 1945, 6. The article explicitly
mentions that the custom of decorating the private area with pictures of women had gone on for quite some time.
12
Sheridans.”60 In the following month, another American newspaper headlined with a similar
sense of pride that “Nazis Like Our Pin-Up Gals” and reported that the prisoners had “Betty
Grable and Rita Hayworth in star positions among the pin-up girl pictures on their walls.”61 Such
enthusiasm for displaying images of seductive women went beyond compensatory functions and
assumed the character of a statement. The Germans’ appreciation of this particular bit of
American culture was probably not what the War Department had had in mind when it started the
reeducation program. However, if one accepts the premise that women come to represent the
nation in times of war, the prisoners’ admiration of the American pin-up girls was a step in the
right direction.
A few voices within the POW community criticized the prisoners’ love for pin-up posters
as tasteless. One prisoner urged his comrades to consider what their wives, fiancées or girlfriends
in Germany would think if they could see how they decorated their barracks.62 There is no
indication that such appeals had any effect on the popularity of the posters. And the prisoners did
not just have to content with still pictures. As part of the reeducation program, they were also
given the opportunity to see feature films in the camps. Many appreciated the distraction and the
chance to see female actors on screen. “Film tonight: Too Many Girls. Sounds like a nice one”,
Wolfgang Dorschel noted in his diary in early 1945.63 A German officer in Colorado reported in
his diary how uplifted he felt after watching the Esther Williams film Bathing Beauty: “It was a
very good color film ... – these beautiful women, in swimming costume and yet one has one them
across the great water at home, only too far away.”64
The Illusion of a Female Presence
Not all women were far away. The newspaper of Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky boasted that the
camp had “good looking, young girls and older ladies, too, according to need and taste” who
A U.S. Army Chaplain, “PWs: Nazis in U.S. Prison Camps are Arrogant and Study but far from being Supermen,”
Life 16, 2 (1944): 47.
61
United Press, “Nazis Like Our Pin-Up Gals, Prison Camp C.O. Reveals,” Washington Daily News, April 7, 1944,
32. See also image in Cowley, Stalag Wisconsin, 64 and John Fahey, “Reeducating Prisoners during World War II,”
Oregon Historical Quarterly 93 (no. 4, Winter 1992/1993): 373.
62
“Was wuerde deine Frau, deine Braut, dein Maedel sagen, wenn sie dich in einer solchen Umgebung vorfinden
wuerde?” H.F., “Wir wundern uns,” 6.
63
Marsh, “Still the Old Marlene,” 47.
64
“War ein sehr guter Farbfilm ... – diese schönen Frauen, im Badekostüm und dabei hat man eine solche über dem
grossen Wasser daheim, nur zu weit weg.” Diary of K.H.H., 387.
60
13
were “a nice feast for the eyes.”65 The paper was, of course, referring to the female impersonators
of the camp’s theatre group. Every major POW camp in the United States had at least one troupe
which presented regular and often quite elaborate performances behind barbed wire. Sometimes
under the direction of prisoners who had been professional actors in civilian life, the Germans
staged classical plays as well as comedies, musicals or wrote their own plays.66 These
performances were very popular, partly because they created the temporary illusion of a female
presence in the camps, and the soldiers who played the female roles on stage figure prominently
in the memoirs and recollections of many former POWs.
A German soldier at Camp Cooke, California, for example, recalled that he attended and
greatly enjoyed all the productions in the camp: “Especially memorable to me were the
individuals who played the female acting roles. They were so convincing in their speech and
mannerisms that one got the impression they had to be women.”67 After a performance at Camp
Trinidad, Colorado, in March 1944, the German officer who had enjoyed the Esther Williams
movie so much noted in his diary: “1 st Lt. E. was excellent as Princess, very realistic feminine
moves, nice features, flattering make-up. The whole thing was very charming and cheering,
everybody headed to their barracks contently.”68 The female impersonators continued to attract
his special attention. After seeing the comedy “Bachelor’s Paradise” [“Junggesellenparadies”] in
the enlisted-men’s compound, he found the play “excellent, I liked especially the female roles
(one has to imagine: bra, bathing suit, slip).”69 The camp’s newspaper also published a glowing
review of the play and admitted that the performance of the female impersonators “created an
amusing, tingly effect.”70
There can be little doubt that the men in women’s clothes were the stars of the camp
theatres. After a rehearsal at Camp Hood, Texas the members of the theatre group were in such
“Und dann – fiel mir ein – hatten wir ja auch im Lager unsere Frauen, im Theater natuerlich. Huebsche, junge
Maedles und auch aeltere Fraeulein, je nach Bedarf und Geschmack. Das sei doch auch eine schoene Augenweide
gewesen!” a.t.c, “Der Onkel aus Amerika,” Die Brücke (Camp Breckinridge, KY), Feb. 16, 1946, 11.
66
Jung, Die Deutschen Kriegsgefangenen, 96-97. Böhme, Geist und Kultur, 172-212.
67
Herbert Schaffrath, in Jeffrey E. Geiger, German Prisoners of War at Camp Cooke, California: Personal Accounts
of 14 Soldiers (Jefferson, NC, 1996), 109.
68
“O‘Ltn E. als Fürstin war ausgezeichnet, sehr echte frauliche Bewegungen, gute Gesichtszüge, vorteilhaft
geschminkt. Das Ganze war sehr charmant und aufheiternd, ein jeder strebte zufrieden seiner Baracke zu.” Diary of
K.H.H., 326-327.
69
“Abends ging ich ins Theater im Mannschaftslager 3: Lustspiel: ‘Junggesellenparadies’, war ausgezeichnet,
besonders gefielen mir die Frauenrollen (man stelle sich vor: Büstenhalter, Badekostüm, Höschen).” ibid., 273.
70
“Jedenfalls steht fest, dass sie einen heiteren, kribbelnden Effekt hervorriefen.” Annoym., “Das Paradies der
Junggesellen: Ein voller Lustspielerfolg im Lager 3,” Der Spiegel (Camp Trinidad, CO), Feb./Mar. 1944, 10.
65
14
high spirits that they spontaneously decided to escort the female impersonators back to their
barracks. The latter were still in costume and the camp’s band accompanied the procession while
playing marching music. The surprised and alarmed Americans responded by firing warning
shots into the camp, arresting the German camp leader and confiscating all musical instruments.71
The prisoners at Camp Fort Custer, Michigan, picked a less provocative way to honor those who
played female roles and simply published a group photo of them in the camp newspaper Die
Brücke.72 In camps all over the United States, the female impersonators “could be sure to receive
an especially forceful applause when they appeared” on stage.73 At Camp Edgewood Arsenal,
Maryland, for example, “Lillie Marleen – performed by an opera singer in a chic costume – again
and again created true storms of enthusiasms among the all-male company and made them forget
the present for a while.”74 Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, even had “a dance group consisting of
12 ‘girls’ trained by a ballet master.”75
The performances were reviewed in the camp newspapers and the female roles always
received a special mentioning. In its review of the play ‘In Love, Engaged, Married’, for
example, the camp newspaper of Camp Carson, Colorado reported that “[t]he biggest applause
received, as always, the performance of the actors who played the female roles, who had been
right in their element here.”76 In the following month, the same paper singled out the corporal
who played the female lead for special praise: “Perfect in speech, mimic, moves and versatility,
he played this zesty, tender and seductive girl very convincingly and real.”77
“Während einer Theaterprobe war die Theatergruppe in so guter Stimmung, dass sie beschloss, diejenigen die in
Frauenkleider waren, mit Marschmusik zu ihren Baracken zurückzubegleiten. Unsere amerikanischen Wachposten
betrachteten den Umzug als Demonstration, schlugen die höchste Alarmstufe an und schossen ins Lager.” Gustav
Illig in Wolfgang Schlauch, In amerikanischer Kriegsgefangenschaft: Berichte deutscher Soldaten aus dem Zweiten
Weltkrieg (2 nd ed.; Crailsheim, 2004), 37.
72
Die Brücke (Camp Fort Custer, MI), Nov. 17, 1945, 16.
73
“... der weiblichen Rollen, deren Darsteller bei ihrem Auftreten eines besonders stürmischen Beifalls sicher sein
konnten.” Schulz, Triologie, 119.
74
“Aber auch Lilli Marleen – von einem Opernsänger in schickem Kostüm vorgetragen – riß die Männergesellschaft
immer wieder zu wahren Begeisterungsstürmen hin und ließ vorübergehend die Gegenwart vergessen.” ibid., 123.
75
Fiedler, The Enemy Among Us, 190.
76
“Den groessten Beifall erntete wie immer das Spiel der Darsteller der weiblichen Rollen, die hier so richtig in
ihrem Element waren.” Annon., “Verliebt, Verlobt, Verheiratet – Eine gelungene Auffuehrung,” Lager-Runschau
(Camp Carson, CO), Mar. 3, 1945, no page number.
77
“Einwandfrei in Sprache, Mimik, Bewegung und Wandlungsfaehigkeit, stellte er ueberaus ueberzeugend und echt
dieses schaffensfrohe, liebevoll und verfuehrerische Maedel dar.” lz., “‘Magda-Lena’ – ein ganz grosser Erfolg”,
Lager-Runschau (Camp Carson, CO), April 14, 1945, no page number. See also: “Stimmung, Humor u. schöne
Frauen,” Echo (Camp Maxey, TX), July 24, 1945, 19.
71
15
Already during the war, the German prisoners insisted again and again that the “illusion”
created by the female impersonators was “perfect.”78 As one veteran put it in an interview, “there
are always men who look girlish, and it was amazing.”79 Photographs from the camp
performances hardly sustain this claim and show that the amateur actors fell well short of
perfectly impersonating women. However, very few prisoners were ready to admit that.80 The
claim that the impersonators created the perfect illusion of a female presence in the camps
appeared in camp newspapers, diaries, autobiographies and oral history interviews, frequently
accompanied by the assertion that even the American soldiers “wanted to get on stage and fall
upon our women. They did not believe that they were men!” 81 American participation was
important as it reassured the Germans that their enthusiasm for the female impersonators was not
just the result of their long and enforced separation from the other sex but of meticulous
preparation and extraordinary acting skills.82 The accomplished illusion also confirmed their
notion of Germany’s cultural superiority – an idea which remained important as a source of
national pride in the light of America’s overwhelming and obvious material superiority both in
military as well as in civilian goods.83
The fact that German prisoners in the United States played female roles is, of course, not
particularly surprising. Theatrical performances in captivity have a long tradition and are
recorded as early as the eighteenth century.84 Already during the First World War, some prisoners
rose to stardom in their respective camps through their ability to impersonate women on stage.85
Not only in captivity, but all around the world, male soldiers dressed up as women on stage or for
“Die Illusion ist vollkommen.” Memoirs of Helmut A., “In Gefangenschaft” (no place, 1947), 18.
“Also, das äh, das gibt ja immer Männer, die mädchenhaft aussehen, und das war verblüffend.” H.W. interview by
Matthias Reiss, April 1, 1997, audiotape (in MR’s possession).
80
See also the photos in Michael R. Waters, Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne (College
Station, TX 2004), 31 and Krammer, Nazi Prisoners of War, 60.
81
“Und die [amerikanischen Pioniere] wollten dann auf die Bühne steigen und wollten über unsere Frauen herfallen.
Die glaubten das nicht, daß das Männer waren, nicht!“ H.W. interview by Matthias Reiss, April 1, 1997, audiotape
(in MR’s possession).
82
See also, for example, Geiger, Camp Cooke, 107; Fiedler, The Enemy Among Us, 190-191; Waters, Lone Star
Stalag, 30-31. Böhme, Geist und Kultur, 174.
83
Summary Report on the Attitudes of German Ps/W towards the United States. SHAEF, Psychological Warfare
Division, Intelligence Section, June 19, 1945, p. 2. NARA, RG165, Entry 179 Box 711, no foldertitle.
84
Jonathan F. Vance, “Theater,” in id., Encyclopedia, 399-400.
85
Rachamimov, “Disruptive Comforts,” 362-382. Pöppinghege, “Im Lager Unbesiegt,” 166-168. Stibbe, “British
Civilian Internees,” 100-101. See also Hirschfeld, Sexual History, 234 and Hermann Pörzgen, Theater ohne Frau:
Das Bühnenleben der kriegsgefangenen Deutschen 1914-1920 (Königsberg and Berlin, 1933).
78
79
16
other occasions.86 American soldiers, too, routinely put on all-male shows during World War
Two which included performances by female impersonators. The War Department actively
encouraged these shows for their positive influence on GI morale and the press defended the
cross-dressing routines which were an integral part of them as “wholesome, patriotic, and
masculine.”87 POW camp commanders in the United States were therefore sympathetic to the
German prisoners’ obsession with putting women on stage and often assisted them in the
acquisition of costumes and civilian clothes.88
However, the routines performed by American soldiers were usually designed to make the
GIs laugh. As Allan Bérubé has highlighted, “pony ballets and chorus lines” were the most
popular type of drag routines in the American Army, and a lot of shows featured “husky GIs in
yellow curls and pink skirts as the graceful ballerinas” or similar numbers.89 In the German
camps, the aim was to make the female impersonators as convincing as possible. As Kurt W.
Böhme, himself a former POW and the author of one of the most detailed studies of German
camp theatres during this conflict, categorically stated: “Illusion was demanded, not
tastelessness”90
The requirement for realism also extended to the camp festivals the Germans organized
behind barbed-wire. By all accounts these were lively affairs which often included a fair share of
cross-dressing. The prisoners at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma for example, staged a New Year Eve
party in 1943 where “smart girls with strong male arms and muscular hairy legs danced in
colorful dresses under red light.”91 At Camp Fort Custer, Michigan, a bar was created where
Klaus Theweleit, Männerphantasien, vol. 2: Männerkörper – zur Psychoanalyse des Weißen Terrors
(Frankfurt/Main, 1978), 377-382. Midge Gillies, The Barbed-Wire University: The Real Lives of Allied Prisoners of
War in the Second World War (London, 2011), 290-304, 344-346.
87
Allan Bérubé, Coming Out under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two (New York, NY
1990), 77. A GI stationed in Germany explained his reason for organizing such a show in a letter to Variety: “It’s like
playing prisoner of war, so to overcome the boredom I’m staging and appearing in burlesque shows (with boys as
strippers).” ibid., 95.
88
Geiger, Camp Cooke, 107. Waters, Lone Star Stalag, 28-29.
89
Bérubé, Coming Out, 79.
90
“Illusion wurde gefordert, nicht Geschmacklosigkeit.” Böhme, Geist und Kultur, 176.
91
“Schmucke Mädels mit kräftigen Männerarmen und muskulösen, behaarten Beinen tanzten in bunten Kleidern zur
roten Beleuchtung.” Heinrich Rothauge, ‘Erinnerungen, Band IV: In Gefangenschaft” (No place, no date), 148.
Unpubl. ms., Institut für Zeitgeschichte München, Ms 626/4-5.
86
17
“handsome young ladies” served the drinks, while a “number-girl” provided the highlight at a
revue at Camp Forrest, Tennessee.92
The prisoners at Camp Alva, Oklahoma went even further. Alva was a special camp for
alleged hard-core Nazis and its prisoners formed a veterans’ organization after the war. In 1992,
this organization published a description of the camp’s 1943 “Oktoberfest” in its newsletter. It
offers an insight into how central the illusion of a female presence was for the prisoners on such
occasions. According to this report, one of the attractions was a coffee room which the prisoners
nicknamed “the brothel.” In this room “several ladies of the harem romped (from the enlistedmen’s camp, as young as possible), who brought quite a number of visitors into gay-trouble
[Schwulitäten], but good old H. had his eyes everywhere and ensured order and decency.”93 In a
circus tent, a German commissioned officer performed as the Arabic dancer “Anitra”,
“enchantingly dressed in a transparent veil, with snakelike moves and on top of it, shaven almost
everywhere.… There was complete silence in the audience during the dance in the face of so
much beauty – many of the spectators nearly got Basedow-eyes from staring so much and after
the dance the tent was shaken by a storm of applause.”94 A Lieutenant dressed in a mini-skirt
appeared as number-girl “Lissy.”95 During the performances, “Lissy” tried to sell peanuts and
other nibbles in the audience but quickly reappeared “completely distraught behind the stage and
refused firmly to continue mincing between the men. She (he) claimed to have bruises
everywhere, the guys had mainly targeted her (his!) bottom.” It was decided that he should not go
back into the audience: “How would this end?!? Unimaginable!! –.” 96
“Barbetriebe fanden regen Beifall. Da lachte die schwarze Seele, denn von zwei huebschen jungen Damen einen
Likoer serviert zu bekommen, das ueberstieg selbst unsere kuehnsten P.o.W.-Traeume.” L. Sch., “Aus dem Lager,”
Deutsche Lagerzeitung (Camp Fort Custer, MI), May 19, 1945, 9. Böhme, Geist und Kultur, 174.
93
“In der Kaffeestube, oder auch diskreterweise als Bordell bezeichnet, von O.-Insp. H. (Bärbeißig, laut, aber
trotzdem beliebt) tummelten sich diverse Haremsdamen (aus dem Landser-Lager, möglichst jung), die so manchen
Besucher in Schwulitäten brachten, aber der gute, alte H. hatte überall seine Augen und sorgte für Ordnung und
Sitte.” Eberhard Scheel, “Erinnerungen eines “alten” Mannes! 22. Kapitel: Oktoberfest 1943 in Mexia/Texas,”
Kameradenkreis Mexia-Alva-Dermott Trinidad. Mitteilungsblatt 46 (Sept. 1992): 45.
94
“... zauberhaft mit durchsichtigen Schleier bekleidet, schlangenhafte Bewegungen und dazu noch fast überall
rasiert.... Während des Tanzes herrschte im Zuschauerraum tiefstes Schweigen beim Anblick von soviel Schönheit vor lauter Hinstarren bekamen viele Zuschauer beinahe Basedow-Augen und nach Ende des Tanzes erbebte das Zelt
vor Beifallssturm.” ibid., 87-89.
95
“Lt. B. erschien zwischendurch als Nummernfräulein “Lissy” und knickste mit hinreißendem Lächeln und
Miniröckchen vor dem staunenden Publikum und das Volk strömte.” ibid., 65.
96
“Vor der nächsten Nummer ging “Lissy” Brandes als Nummerfräulein [sic] im Zuschauerraum mit einem
Bau[ch]laden herum und verkaufte Pea-Nuts und ähnliches Naschzeug, damit dadurch auch noch Geld in die Kp.Kasse kam. Nach ca. 5 Minuten völlig aufgelöst hinter der Bühne und weigerte sich energisch, weiterhin zwischen
dem Mannsvolk herumzutänzeln. Überall hätte sie (er) blaue Flecke, die Kerle hätten es hauptsächlich auf ihren
(seinen!) Po abgesehen - na, und das ginge ja wohl zu weit! Da Lissy fast den Tränen nahe war, entschloß sich
92
18
Such incidents should, of course, not be confused with homosexual or same-sex desire.
The very fact they are described in great detail in a veteran association’s newsletter show that the
prisoners certainly did not interpret them in this way. The camp festivals were part of the rituals
of soldierly masculinity. They represented episodes of controlled licentiousness which
complemented the rituals of military discipline and drill and emphasized the prisoners’
masculinity by sexualizing and objectifying the female other in the form of the impersonators.
There was no playing with and subversion of gender roles in these performances. The theatre
groups and camp festivals both affirmed and strengthened the heterosexual norm rather than
questioning it.
Love between Men
However, the camp theatres did offer a space for expressing feelings for fellow prisoners.
“Amateurs do not act emotions, they show them,” former POW Fritz Arnold argued in his
memoirs: “There were evenings when the eroticism crackled not only on stage but also in the
audience.”97 All the available evidence suggests that rank-and-file prisoners seemed to have
accepted same-sex relationships with relative ease. “In such a camp, with so many people, there
are homos [homosexuals]. It is unavoidable,” a former POWs summarized his position after the
war.98 “Yes, that is in a human being,” another veteran stated, and claimed that the other
prisoners were usually “tolerant […] we accepted, that such a thing existed.”99 Arnold himself
had a sexual relationship with a fellow prisoner of war despite being in a camp for uncooperative
“trouble-makers” and Nazis. When two prisoners in his camp were caught masturbating with
each other in the kitchen’s cold storage room the German company commander punished the
entire kitchen crew for not reporting the couple earlier. According to Arnold, the prisoners treated
the incident as a joke and it was quickly forgotten. One of the culprits was the much admired star
Zirkusdirektor T., diese Aktion nicht mehr weiterzuführen – wo kämen wir denn sonst hin?!? Nicht auszudenken!!–”
ibid., 71.
97
“Laien spielen Gefühle nicht, sie zeigen sie, ihre eigenen. ... Es gab Abende, da knisterte die Erotik nicht nur auf
der Bühne, sondern auch im Zuschauerraum.” Arnold, Freundschaft, 78.
98
“In so einem Lager, wo so viele Menschen sind, gibt es ja Homos. Ist ja unausweichlich.” Interview Wilhelm R.
with the author, 18. May 1996.
99
“Ja, das ist ja in dem Menschen drin…. Aber, meistens waren wir tolerant, also das, das haben wir akzeptiert, das
es so was gibt.” Interview mit Harry S., 3.8.1996.
19
of the compound’s football team and subsequently started to walk arm in arm with his friend
through the camp.100
In contrast, German camp leaders were openly hostile to what they considered
homosexual behavior. Any form of sexual interaction between men was punishable under
Paragraph 175 of the German Imperial Penal Code, and German camp leaders in the U.S. were
quick to remind the POWs that the Americans also persecuted “homosexuals” in the Armed
Forces. “Regrettable infractions against Par. 175 have occurred amongst us,” Camp Spokesman
Major Anton Sinkel for example informed his fellow prisoners in August 1943 and warned them:
“You all know that in Germany this is punishable severely, as well as confinement in
concentration camps. In America, too, this is punishable. Soldiers, guard yourselves against it.
Watch that one day you will not return home with this filthy disease. It is an infectious disease,
especially for those of weak character. Therefore, help your comrades and friends to remain
healthy. We can master this disease only by the unrelenting elimination of all such elements.”101
Elimination usually meant nothing more than transfer out of the camp. The offenders
were simply handed over to the Americans. While American sources did not reveal how often
this occurred, they do mention that these events far from rare and the Army struggled with the
question of what to do with these men.
The U.S. Army regarded homosexuals as “sexual psychopaths” unfit for military duty,
and by early January 1943 the War Department had developed a comprehensive policy for
dealing with those cases. War Department Circular No. 3 established three types of offenders: 1)
‘true’ or confirmed homosexuals; 2) those who were deemed ‘reclaimable’; 3) and offenders
whose misconduct was aggravated by independent offenses.102 True homosexuals were allowed
to resign their commission or were given a so-called ‘blue’ (i.e. less than honorable) discharge.
Alternatively they could demand a court-martial hearing. Those who were deemed ‘reclaimable’
faced hospitalization.103 Depending on the success of the medical treatment they were then either
100
Camp Forrest, Tennessee. Arnold, Freundschaft, 81-82.
Translation of Speech by Major Anton Sinkel, Aug. 6, 1943. Attachment to: Appointment of German Spokesman.
From Captain Eliot O. Chaudoin, Adjutant, to CG, 7 th SvC, Omaha, Nebraska. Undated. RG389, E433, B120, “1943
P/W Correspondence 383.6”. NA.
102
War Department (WD) Circular No. 3, 3 Jan. 1944.
103
First offenders, those who had acted out of curiosity or immaturity, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or had
been led astray by older or higher ranking individuals were listed as example for potential members of this group.
WD Circular No. 3, 2b.
101
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restored to duty in a different unit or separated from the service.104 A court-martial was still
mandatory for all individuals who had committed additional offenses in connection with their
violation of the 93rd Article of War which punished ‘Sodomy’.105
Under the Geneva Convention of 1929 the U.S. Army was obliged to apply these
regulations also to German prisoners of war, but this proved difficult as non-reclaimable POWs
could not be discharged. A number of German prisoners were indeed hospitalized or courtmartialed and ended up in psychiatric wards or disciplinary barracks in the United States.106 Most
American camp commanders, however, showed little enthusiasm for either approach and simply
segregated suspected or real offenders at camp level until it became possible to transfer them.
This could take a lot of time, as the case of prisoner of war WG15 shows who was segregated for
ten months at Camp Fort Sheridan, Illinois, before he was transferred to another camp.
To identify homosexual offenders the American camp commanders depended on their
German counterparts in the compounds. All in all, Germans and Americans seemed to have
cooperated rather smoothly in this matter. The joint interest in removing alleged or real
homosexuals from the camps thereby helped to undermine the friend/foe dichotomy in the
prisoner of war camps by creating opportunities for cooperation.
Conclusion
When Billy Pilgrim, the hero of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five arrives in a German POW
near the end of World War Two, he and his demoralized American comrades are greeted by fifty
lustily singing English prisoners of war who were “clean and enthusiastic and decent and strong.”
Captured early in the war, the English prisoners “were adored by the Germans, who thought they
were exactly what Englishmen ought to be. They made war look stylish and reasonable, and
fun.”107 Slaughterhouse Five is, of course, a novel, but Vonnegut stresses at the start of his book
that the parts which deal with the Second World War “are pretty much true.”108
104
WD Circular No. 3, 2b.
WD Circular No. 3, 2c.
106
Bérubé, Coming Out under Fire, 213. Report of Visit to U.S. Disciplinary Barracks Greenhaven, New York, by
Guy S. Metraux, International Committee of the Red Cross, March 20, 1946. NARA, RG59 Entry Lot 58D7, Box 28,
“United States Disciplinary Barracks Green Haven, N.Y.”
107
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (New York, 1969),
80-81, quotation on p. 81.
108
Ibid., 1.
105
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The episode suggests that the experience of the German POWs in America might not have
been unique. While it is self-evident that the behavior of the detaining power influences the lives
of prisoners of war, the behavior of prisoners can also influence those who guard them. Like the
English officers in Slaughterhouse Five, the Germans of the Army Group Africa looked like and
behaved in a way which matched their captors’ expectations. It is worth noting that they did so
despite enduring considerable hardship before their arrival in the United States. Most of the
Germans passed through a variety of transit camps in North Africa where living conditions were
basic, to say the least, and then crossed the Atlantic on converted Liberty freight ships. As the
official history of the Transportation Corps acknowledges, these “POW vessels were poorly
equipped to move personnel. The improvised sanitary facilities, which included overside latrines,
were unsatisfactory. The water supply usually was insufficient. The prisoners subsisted on C
rations, and at first they slept on blankets spread over the deck. [...] The POW Liberties were
obvious makeshifts, and their frequent overloading resulted in cramped, uncomfortable quarters
and excessive strain on the ships’ facilities.”109 When the prisoners arrived in the United States,
they were “emaciated, starved and helpless”, as one of them put it.110 Nevertheless, they went
into captivity singing and marching in step. “We simply gave them [the Americans] the creeps”,
an officer from Africa later recalled in his memoirs with a certain sense of pride: “Every one of
us a superman.”111
As this article has argued, the Germans from North Africa kept this image alive by
constantly performing a particular brand of soldierly-masculinity behind barbed-wire. The
maintaining of military drill and discipline, including the wearing of their distinct Africa
uniforms and military medals, emphasized their status as elite soldiers. Closely linked with this
was the constant talk about women, (heterosexual) sex and the almost obsessive desire to
decorate their camps with images of naked or semi-clad females. Such behavior also emphasized
their status as men, while the enthusiastic appreciation of the female impersonators on stage
109
“Later, when American soldiers had to be transported on the same POW ships, efforts were made to improve
such features as messing arrangements, sanitary facilities, and ventilation.” Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson, The
Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas (Washington, DC 1957), 181.
110
“Wir waren abgemagert, ausgehungert und hilflos.” K. H., “Story of a German PoW in Amerika and His Funny
Job!” (Unpubl. Ms, Bad Sooden-Allendorf, 1979), 4. Copy from the author. Despite its title, the text is written in
German.
111
Klaus W., “Erinnerungen an meine Kriegsgefangenschaft” (Unpubl. ms., Düsseldorf, 1996), 3. Several veterans
mentioned the term “supermen” in their recollections. See, for example, Kurt Glaser in Kriegsgefangenschaft:
Berichte über das Leben in Gefangenenlagern der Alliierten von Otto Engelbert, Kurt Glaser, Hans Jonitz und Heinz
Pust, ed. Wolgang Benz and Angelika Schardt (Munich, 1991), 146.
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served to reaffirm their support of traditional gender roles. The female impersonators did not
have compensatory function in the camp society. After all, the actors played young and seductive
girls “with rosy cheeks and fragrant dresses with longing expressions on their faces” as well as
“solemn matrons in grey costumes with put-up hair.”112 Instead, the female impersonators
complemented other rituals of masculinity which were performed in the camps and underlined
the POWs’ claim to the status of masculine-soldiers and support for pre-war gender roles.
The continuous performance of supposedly timeless and apolitical soldierly virtues and
traditional gender roles created a basis for cooperation and rapprochement between Germans and
Americans in the midst of a global total war. The common ground was wider than the shared
appreciation of American pin-up girls. American officers also worked together with German
camp leaders to locate and remove suspected or confirmed homosexuals from the camp
community. They provided crucial support for the theatres by giving the Germans access to
civilian clothes behind barbed-wire and sat in the first row, often together with their families,
when the prisoners performed on stage. At the same time, they apparently also took pride in the
military bearing and discipline of their prisoners. According to the testimonies of former German
POWs, for example, the commanding officers of camps as diverse as Concordia, Kansas, Alva,
Oklahoma and Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland had their charges parade past them in military
formation, some of them to the sound of military music.113
The focus on the masculine-soldierly qualities of the “Africa Corps” members made it
possible to depoliticize their role in the war. The prisoners taken in Northern Africa rejected any
notion of collective guilt or responsibility for the crimes committed by German forces, based on
the argument that they had fought far away from the places where the worst atrocities had
happened. They also frequently cited the respectful and excellent treatment they received from
their captors to exonerate themselves from any guilt.114 In the post-war period, the “Africans” and
their former enemies both continued to promote and accept the myth of a “war without hate” in
“Damen in jugendlichem Alter treten auf, mit rosigen Wangen und duftigen Kleidern mit schmachtendem
Gesichtsausdruck[,] und würdige Matronen im grauen Kostüm mit aufgesteckten grauen Haaren.” Memoirs of
Helmut A., 18.
113
Letter of H.K. to the author, Oct. 14, 1996, 6-7. W. G. interview by Matthias Reiss, Aug. 10, 1995, audiotape (in
MR’s possession). Schulz, Triologie, 129.
114
Andrea Weis, “‘On Behalf of My Comrades’: Transnational Private Memories of German Prisoners of War in
U.S. Captivity” (PhD diss., University of Kansas, 2008), 80-90, 179.
112
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North Africa which was “fair” and “civilized.”115 This myth of a clean and chivalrous war which
was fought in a professional manner according to long-standing customs and in which the
individual soldier still mattered provided the ground for the rehabilitation of entire German army
as “worthy enemy” after the war and a new military role for the former adversary in the Cold
War struggle against the Soviet Union.116 The behavior of the German prisoners of war in the
United States played a significant role in this process.
115
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s papers were published under the telling title War without Hate only five years
after the war. Krieg ohne Haß, ed. Erwin Rommel with Lucie-Maria Rommel and Fritz Bayerlein (Heidenheim,
1950). The second quote is from Obersturmbannführer Paul Carl Schmitt, aka Paul Carell, Die Wüstenfüchse: Mit
Rommel in Afrika (Klagenfurt, 1958), 417. See also: Wigbert Benz, Paul Carrell: Ribbentrops Pressechef Paul Karl
Schmidt vor und nach 1945 (Berlin, 2005).
116
Patrick Major, “‘Our Friend Rommel’: The Wehrmacht as ‘Worthy Enemy’ in Postwar British Culture,” German
History 26 (no. 4, Oct. 2008): 520-535. James J. Sadkovich, “Of Myths and Men: Rommel and the Italians in North
Africa, 1940-1942,” International History Review 13 (no. 2, May 1991): 286.
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