Journal Articles and Book Chapters by Pascale Bos
Experience and Expression: Women, the Nazis, and the Holocaust, 2003
Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 2014
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2006
Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture, 2003
... too, have access to a form of "secondhand" postmemory (Hirsch, Family Frames 249).1... more ... too, have access to a form of "secondhand" postmemory (Hirsch, Family Frames 249).13 ... certain extent is for those growing up without such a clear family connection) gives ... Educational and artistic projects that use domestic, pre-Holocaust photography often providean invitation ...
The Journal of Holocaust Research , 2024
Early postwar narratives by Holocaust survivors contained many
descriptions of sexual exchange, ... more Early postwar narratives by Holocaust survivors contained many
descriptions of sexual exchange, sexual coercion, and sexual
violence. However, Holocaust scholars have hardly investigated
these experiences until the mid-1990s. And although their inquiry
has grown considerably since, the ways in which researchers deal
with experiences of sexual exchange remain problematic. Well into
the 1970s, sexual barter between women and men was generally
thought of as either sexual promiscuity or as prostitution. To
counter this, feminist scholars since the late 1980s have stressed
the structural power imbalance present in such sexual exchanges.
Yet while the assessment has shifted significantly, the issue
remains complicated due to the often unclear and hierarchical
nature of such transactional relationships, obscuring the line
between sexual consent and coercion. This article discusses two
challenges central for scholarship on sexual barter: how to
conceive of consent and choice when survival is at stake, and how
to reconcile divergent interpretations if the researcher’s assessment
differs from that of the survivor. It does so by examining sex and
sexual exchange in the works of two female survivors – Olga
Lengyel’s Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz and Molly
Applebaum’s Buried Words. A consideration of sexual exchange in
these two works and their respective reception, alongside scholarly
work on sexual barter, allows for an analysis of the changes in the
understanding of this subject and highlights the challenges that it
continues to present.
Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft , 2024
Anfang des Jahres 2024 erschien im spanischen Verlag Espasa ein "Tatsachenroman" der Autorin Ferm... more Anfang des Jahres 2024 erschien im spanischen Verlag Espasa ein "Tatsachenroman" der Autorin Fermina Cañaveras mit dem Titel "El Barracón de las Mujeres" ("Die Baracke der Frauen"), der das Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück als "das größte Bordell des Dritten Reiches" darstellt. Es ist nicht das erste Mal, dass Ravensbrück ohne Rücksicht auf die historischen Fakten als Projektions äche für Fantasien über Sex und Gewalt genutzt wird. Tatsächlich hatte die SS im System der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager Bordelle eingerichtet, allerdings nicht in Ravensbrück. Hier wurden vielmehr die weiblichen Gefangenen rekrutiert, die dann in den Bordellen der Männer-Konzentrationslager Sex-Zwangsarbeit leisten mussten. Anders als von Cañaveras kolportiert, richtete die SS diese Bordelle auch nicht für sich selbst oder die Wehrmacht ein, sondern für eine bestimmte Gruppe männlicher KZ-Hä linge, die sie als "arisch" einstu e. Dass Männer sexuelle Dienste von Frauen in Anspruch nahmen, die wie sie das Schicksal der KZ-Gefangenscha teilten, war zwar bekannt, erschien der Nachkriegsgesellscha aber als äußerst befremdlich. Und bis heute hat sich diese Tatsache nicht ins ö entliche Gedächtnis eingeprägt. Viel einfacher war und ist es, sich vorzustellen, wie es auch Cañaveras auf exzessive Weise tut, dass die SS die weiblichen Gefangenen für die eigenen Männer sexuell versklavte. Auch der Verlag hat diese Geschichte publiziert, ohne die historischen Fakten zu überprüfen. Und bereits kurz nach der Verö entlichung wurde das Buch in Spanien als vermeintlicher Tabubruch und Fortschritt in der Forschung rezipiert. Das zeigt einmal mehr, dass sich bestimmte sensationslüsterne Vorstellungen über sexuelle Gewalt während des Nationalsozialismus, des Krieges und des Holocaust hartnäckig halten, auch wenn sie nichts mit der historischen Realität zu tun haben. 1 Die Leidtragenden dieser Mythenbildung sind die ehemaligen Gefangenen
As a community of researchers and practitioners who participate in the workshops and seminars of ... more As a community of researchers and practitioners who participate in the workshops and seminars of the International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC) we recognise that our work presents unique challenges. Like all scholars we are committed to producing credible accounts of our research. Like all scholars we understand the limitations of our situated positions. In providing analyses of sexual violence, however, we find that the epistemological relationship between us as researchers and the issues we investigate is complicated by the affective horizon of the social and cultural imaginaries that surround sexual violence in general and sexual violence in armed conflict in particular. We also recognise that our work is inherently political in the sense that in seeking to understand this violence we cannot avoid addressing such political questions as: What is the relationship between sexual violence in war times and times of peace? What power structures are served by this violence? How is this violence normalised/excused by social and cultural ideas/ideologies?
The following conversation shows how these issues have arisen in our discussions; how we have struggled with them; how we see our role as scholars and activists who, in exposing the realities of sexual violence, are committed to undoing the politics that enable it.
With Debra Bergoffen, Pascale R. Bos, Joanna Bourke, Kirsten Campbell, Louise du Toit, Júlia Garraio, Elissa Mailänder, Gabriela Mischkowski, Regina Mühlhäuser, Fabrice Virgili and Gaby Zipfel
Eurozine, 2009
What conceptions of gender underlie military policy towards sexual violence? Is the specific form... more What conceptions of gender underlie military policy towards sexual violence? Is the specific form the violence takes determined by the type of warfare? To what extent is sexual violence in wartime different to that in peacetime? And what does a closer examination of homosexual violence add to our understanding? A roundtable discussion organized by the Hamburg Institute of Social Research.
Mittelweg 36, 2009
Gaby Zipfel: Empirische Daten verweisen darauf, dass sowohl Formen als auch Häufigkeit sexueller ... more Gaby Zipfel: Empirische Daten verweisen darauf, dass sowohl Formen als auch Häufigkeit sexueller Gewalt an unterschiedlichen Kriegsschauplätzen stark variieren. In manchen Konflikten ist deren Ausübung weit verbreitet, in anderen tritt sie eher als Randerscheinung auf. Sie kann im Verlauf eines Konflikts zu-, aber auch abnehmen. In manchen Fällen scheint sexuelle Gewalt ein Einzelphänomen zu sein und nur in bestimmten Kampfsituationen aufzutauchen, in anderen geht sie mit einer Eskalation militärischer Gewalt einher, die üblicherweise mit der Triade Mord – Plünderung – Vergewaltigung beschrieben wird. Sexuelle Gewalt kann offenbar sowohl Teil einer militärischen Strategie als auch Folge einer zunehmenden Missachtung von Verhaltensregeln und disziplinarischen Vorgaben sein. Militärische Befehlshaber rechnen damit, dass Normen, die die Ausübung von Gewalt kontrollieren und begrenzen sollen, sich im Kampfgeschehen auflösen können. Strategische Überlegungen können darauf abzielen, sexuelle Gewalt als Mittel der Kriegführung einzusetzen, sofern dieser Einsatz geeignet ist, Kampfziele zu unterstützen. Zugleich können Verstöße gegen die militärische Disziplin mit harten Strafen belegt werden, wenn sie diesen Zielen zuwiderlaufen.
Ist das Vorkommen oder Ausbleiben sexueller Gewalt demnach fundamental abhängig von der Art der Kriegführung? Welche Genderkonstruktionen liegen dem Umgang mit sexueller Gewalt zugrunde? Lässt sich möglicherweise gar eine kulturübergreifende verdeckte Übereinkunft beobachten, der zufolge Männer sich grundsätzlich das Recht zugestehen, auf einen als weiblich identifizierten Körper zuzugreifen, und die dem Umgang mit sexueller Gewalt in kriegerischen Konflikten als Subtext unterlegt sind?
Books by Pascale Bos
German-Jewish Literature in the Wake of the Holocaust, 2005
German-Jewish Literature in the Wake of the Holocaust, 2005
German-Jewish Literature in the Wake of the Holocaust, 2005
German-Jewish Literature in the Wake of the Holocaust, 2005
Studies in European Culture and History edited by Eric D. Weitz and Jack Zipes University of Minn... more Studies in European Culture and History edited by Eric D. Weitz and Jack Zipes University of Minnesota Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, the very meaning of Europe has been opened up and is in the process of being redefined. European states ...
Table of Contents in attachment, 2019
In the mid 1970s, at the peak of the women’s movement, feminist activism and research opened the ... more In the mid 1970s, at the peak of the women’s movement, feminist activism and research opened the door to questions that are still pressing today. While sexual violence has gained public awareness and become a subject in academic debate, national and international politics, efforts to understand and strategies to prevent this form of violence remain inadequate. Who are the perpetrators? How is sexual violence tied to other forms of violence? What are the consequences for individual victims and societies?
Compiled by the International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC), this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach. Its enquiry employs four key relationships: War/Power, Violence/Sexuality, Gender/Engendering and Visibility/Invisibility. Through these, the authors aim to develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of sexual violence in armed conflict.
Currently available via Zubaan books (https://zubaanbooks.com/shop/in-plain-sight/ ); will soon be distributed by Chicago University Press (https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo46812960.html)
Uploads
Journal Articles and Book Chapters by Pascale Bos
descriptions of sexual exchange, sexual coercion, and sexual
violence. However, Holocaust scholars have hardly investigated
these experiences until the mid-1990s. And although their inquiry
has grown considerably since, the ways in which researchers deal
with experiences of sexual exchange remain problematic. Well into
the 1970s, sexual barter between women and men was generally
thought of as either sexual promiscuity or as prostitution. To
counter this, feminist scholars since the late 1980s have stressed
the structural power imbalance present in such sexual exchanges.
Yet while the assessment has shifted significantly, the issue
remains complicated due to the often unclear and hierarchical
nature of such transactional relationships, obscuring the line
between sexual consent and coercion. This article discusses two
challenges central for scholarship on sexual barter: how to
conceive of consent and choice when survival is at stake, and how
to reconcile divergent interpretations if the researcher’s assessment
differs from that of the survivor. It does so by examining sex and
sexual exchange in the works of two female survivors – Olga
Lengyel’s Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz and Molly
Applebaum’s Buried Words. A consideration of sexual exchange in
these two works and their respective reception, alongside scholarly
work on sexual barter, allows for an analysis of the changes in the
understanding of this subject and highlights the challenges that it
continues to present.
The following conversation shows how these issues have arisen in our discussions; how we have struggled with them; how we see our role as scholars and activists who, in exposing the realities of sexual violence, are committed to undoing the politics that enable it.
With Debra Bergoffen, Pascale R. Bos, Joanna Bourke, Kirsten Campbell, Louise du Toit, Júlia Garraio, Elissa Mailänder, Gabriela Mischkowski, Regina Mühlhäuser, Fabrice Virgili and Gaby Zipfel
Ist das Vorkommen oder Ausbleiben sexueller Gewalt demnach fundamental abhängig von der Art der Kriegführung? Welche Genderkonstruktionen liegen dem Umgang mit sexueller Gewalt zugrunde? Lässt sich möglicherweise gar eine kulturübergreifende verdeckte Übereinkunft beobachten, der zufolge Männer sich grundsätzlich das Recht zugestehen, auf einen als weiblich identifizierten Körper zuzugreifen, und die dem Umgang mit sexueller Gewalt in kriegerischen Konflikten als Subtext unterlegt sind?
Books by Pascale Bos
Compiled by the International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC), this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach. Its enquiry employs four key relationships: War/Power, Violence/Sexuality, Gender/Engendering and Visibility/Invisibility. Through these, the authors aim to develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of sexual violence in armed conflict.
Currently available via Zubaan books (https://zubaanbooks.com/shop/in-plain-sight/ ); will soon be distributed by Chicago University Press (https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo46812960.html)
descriptions of sexual exchange, sexual coercion, and sexual
violence. However, Holocaust scholars have hardly investigated
these experiences until the mid-1990s. And although their inquiry
has grown considerably since, the ways in which researchers deal
with experiences of sexual exchange remain problematic. Well into
the 1970s, sexual barter between women and men was generally
thought of as either sexual promiscuity or as prostitution. To
counter this, feminist scholars since the late 1980s have stressed
the structural power imbalance present in such sexual exchanges.
Yet while the assessment has shifted significantly, the issue
remains complicated due to the often unclear and hierarchical
nature of such transactional relationships, obscuring the line
between sexual consent and coercion. This article discusses two
challenges central for scholarship on sexual barter: how to
conceive of consent and choice when survival is at stake, and how
to reconcile divergent interpretations if the researcher’s assessment
differs from that of the survivor. It does so by examining sex and
sexual exchange in the works of two female survivors – Olga
Lengyel’s Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz and Molly
Applebaum’s Buried Words. A consideration of sexual exchange in
these two works and their respective reception, alongside scholarly
work on sexual barter, allows for an analysis of the changes in the
understanding of this subject and highlights the challenges that it
continues to present.
The following conversation shows how these issues have arisen in our discussions; how we have struggled with them; how we see our role as scholars and activists who, in exposing the realities of sexual violence, are committed to undoing the politics that enable it.
With Debra Bergoffen, Pascale R. Bos, Joanna Bourke, Kirsten Campbell, Louise du Toit, Júlia Garraio, Elissa Mailänder, Gabriela Mischkowski, Regina Mühlhäuser, Fabrice Virgili and Gaby Zipfel
Ist das Vorkommen oder Ausbleiben sexueller Gewalt demnach fundamental abhängig von der Art der Kriegführung? Welche Genderkonstruktionen liegen dem Umgang mit sexueller Gewalt zugrunde? Lässt sich möglicherweise gar eine kulturübergreifende verdeckte Übereinkunft beobachten, der zufolge Männer sich grundsätzlich das Recht zugestehen, auf einen als weiblich identifizierten Körper zuzugreifen, und die dem Umgang mit sexueller Gewalt in kriegerischen Konflikten als Subtext unterlegt sind?
Compiled by the International Research Group ‘Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict’ (SVAC), this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach. Its enquiry employs four key relationships: War/Power, Violence/Sexuality, Gender/Engendering and Visibility/Invisibility. Through these, the authors aim to develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of sexual violence in armed conflict.
Currently available via Zubaan books (https://zubaanbooks.com/shop/in-plain-sight/ ); will soon be distributed by Chicago University Press (https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo46812960.html)