Nationale Solidarität und ihre Grenzen. Die deutsche “Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt” und der französische “Secours national” im Zweiten Weltkrieg By Daniel Hadwiger. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2021. Pp. 405. Paperback €64.00. ISBN: 978-3515130257.

Abstract

being forced into prostitution, both as punishment for their transgression of official policy and as moral judgment regarding their sexual behavior. By highlighting this example, Röger takes a phenomenon thathadhitherto “remainedafootnote in academia” (39) andplaces it at the centerof her study. Characteristic of the dignity with which Röger handles women’s stories is her emphasis on their individual humanity; women who were trafficked from their hometowns to brothels in other Polish cities had families, meaning that “children were left without mothers, men without wives” (42). The example of forced prostitution also exposes the gendered assumptions that were so foundational to the occupiers’ regulation of sexuality—that men’s active sexual desire was a givenanddeserved tobe sated, and thatwomen’sexpressionof sexualdesirewasdeemed tobewanton,corrupt, anddeviant, andthereforeneededtoberegulated.Thesphereof regulatedprostitution ismore easily documented than other forms of sexual contact and therefore offers a clearer picture ofwhatdaily lifemayhave looked like forPolishprostitutes: howmanyclients visited certainbrothels each day? What did prostitutes get paid? What was their average age and typical class background? Röger answers these questions in a frank, straightforward manner, pointing to gaps in the archives when necessary and noting patterns while avoiding sweeping generalizations. Röger’s steadfast commitment to nuance is evident throughout the book. Despite clear differences in age, education, and gender privilege—German political power notwithstanding—not all Polishwomenwere victims, andnot all Germanmenwere perpetrators. Soldierswerenot anundifferentiated mass, nor were the women who may have seen those soldiers as their only means of survival when food and money were scarce. Some Polish women recognized the power relations that existed in their country and used them to their and their family’s own advantage. Some were even Nazi sympathizers, and some were declared ethnic Germans by having their names added to the Volksliste. Power was not always split according to a gender binary; there were Polish women who exploited underage Polish girls, and there were German occupiers who raped Polish men. This degree of nuance does not lapse into moral relativism, however; Röger makes it very clear to her readers who had more agency, who regulated the public sphere, and who was denied rights. Jewishwomen are the clearest example of the latter; theywere systematically disenfranchised,manywere coerced into sex by the Poleswhohid them, andmanywere rapedorabused before they were murdered by the Nazis. Röger’s book does not gloss over these facts; it presents readers with individual examples of sexual violence against Jewish women which remind us that occupied Poland was the ground on which the mass murder of Jews was carried out. Eminently readable, rigorously researched, and thoughtfully constructed, Maren Röger’s book demonstrates how important nuanced studies of sexuality and gender can be for our understanding of one of the most broadly researched eras in German and Polish history and for the silences that followed.