Rape as a Form of Sexual Violence During the Holocaust (Evidence From General District Volyn-Podillia)

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to uncover rape as the most criminal form of sexual violence directed at Jewish women during the Holocaust (in the example of the General District Volyn-Podillia). The scientific novelty of the paper is in the fact that rape as sexual violence directed at Jewish women during the Holocaust in a single territory (Volyn and Podillia) has been singled out and analyzed for the first time in a separate study. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientism, historicism, objectivity, problematic-historical, and searching methods, as well as methods of analysis and systematization. The oral history method has become important in the study. Conclusions. Rape, in the context of sexual violence, was a common practice during the Holocaust. Such crimes were committed by German soldiers, the Gestapo and other occupiers, their minions – collaborators, the Ukrainian police, as well as civilians, neighbors, rescuers, and ‘ordinary men’. Despite the prohibition of sexual relations between Germans and Jewish women, that rule was not enforced either in Germany or in the territories it occupied. The waves of sexual violence in the analyzed territories of Volyn and Podillia could be considered the initial period of the occupation, staying in the ghetto, and ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’, as well as the period of hiding. The conclusions of the study show that the committed sexual crimes depended more on mercantile reasons, satisfying the sexual needs of the rapists than on their ideological/anti-Semite or political preferences. Enforcers of the Ukrainian police during their service in the civil administration of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, who, by virtue of their official duties, were most often in contact with Jews and had the opportunity to commit violence against them, were widely involved in the crimes committed. Gang rapes were frequent, indicating the impact of brutalization and violence during the war, and the perpetrators’ belief that they would not be punished. Sometimes after rape, women were tried to be killed in order to conceal the traces of the crimes. Jewish women had a ghost of a chance of defending themselves. They succeeded only in some cases. Sexual violence affected not only women and girls but also men, for whom it was an act of humiliation, a manifestation of their inability to protect women. Funding. This project has received funding through the EURIZON project, which is funded by the European Union under grant agreement No. 871072. Also, this study was carried out thanks to access to sources from the collection of ‘Visual History and Education’ of the Shoah Foundation (University of Southern California, USA) and oral testimonies of Yahad-In unum (Paris, France).