Crossing the Threshold of Sexual Violence: Sexual Humiliation and the Practice of Performative Masculinity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines acts of sexual humiliation by German perpetrators against women and men during the Holocaust. It argues that such acts of humiliation not only proved the easiest line to cross for the perpetrators, but often created a context in which additional acts of sexual violence became normalized. Sexual humiliation served as a critical first step in the dehumanization of the victims and included forced disrobement under the perpetrators’ gaze, often accompanied by crude and salacious comments concerning the bodies and features of those being abused. Furthermore, such acts were a ‘threshold activity’ and often moved beyond the salacious gaze and lewd comments of the perpetrators into acts of physical violation, whether through touching, beating of genitalia, body cavity searches, or rape. This article uses memoirs and testimonies to examine the various ways in which acts of sexual humiliation were an expression of ideas about militarized and performative masculinity among the perpetrators. It also focuses on the ways in which this abuse was perceived by the victims, both male and female as well as interrogating the interpretation of these acts by witnesses.