Love between Enemies

Rezensionen / Stimmen

'A scholarly masterpiece. It tackles one of the most fascinating problems and most flaunted prohibitions of the Nazi racial state, the love affairs between prisoners of war from the western Allies and German women. Drawing on an unparalleled range of sources from all sides, Raffael Scheck has written the definitive account. A must read.' Nicholas Stargardt, University of Oxford 'Scheck's meticulous investigation of the military prosecution of illicit relationships reveals the contradictions and absurdity of the Nazi faith in 'the healthy feeling of the Volk' as a means of enforcing racial consciousness. His juxtaposition of surprising tolerance and harsh punishments demonstrates the power of the human need for connection in face of the hatreds of war.' Annette Timm, University of Calgary 'Based on wonderfully rich archival sources, this important addition to scholarship takes seriously intimate relationships between prisoners of war and civilians in twentieth-century Europe. Raffael Scheck is to be commended for his on-going insistence that narratives of 'everyday' women and men in wartime deserve to be highlighted.' Lisa Todd, University of New Brunswick 'This ground-breaking work brings to light the many intimate relationships between Western POWs and local women in Nazi Germany. Resisting simple narratives of guilt, innocence or heroism under duress, Scheck underlines the complexities of relationships 'between enemies'. With consummate skill, he connects these moving individual stories to much broader questions about wartime justice, ground-level war experiences, and international relations.' Julia Torrie, St. Thomas University '... fascinating ... Scheck is to be congratulated, not only for the sheer amount of legwork he has put into archival research in several different countries, but also for his careful, nuanced interpretations.' Matthew Stibbe, European History Quarterly 'Built from a rich collection of archival material across six countries, Scheck's rigour and insightful analysis is due wide applause. This is much more than a study of the policing of illicit relationships on the German home front. Love Between Enemies will be of great interest and influence to those studying everyday lives and emotions during wartime.' Alan Malpass, International Journal of Military History and Historiography '... a fascinating insight into everyday life on the German home front, the wartime politicisation of the private sphere, and the gap between propaganda and lived experience.' Fionnuala Walsh, Family & Community History 'Raffael Scheck's study is characterized in particular by the impressive wealth of the source material that he analyzed and evaluated for this project. It therefore greatly enriches the scholarly historiography of the Second World War.' Ann-Kristin Kolwes, Historische Zeitschrift 'The book is placed at the crossroads of historiography on diplomatic relations between Germans, Allied powers and the Swiss agencies as well the working of German military and civilian legal frameworks. Steeped in rich archival sources, the monograph's eight chapters span the dual legal framework, forbidden relations between Western POWs and German women, their discovery, POWs' court-martial records, Special Court trials of German women, case studies, and memory.' Vandana Joshi, Cultural and Social History 'Scheck's masterful gendered analysis of the relationship dynamics, as well as what the denunciations, trials, and punishments reveal about the workplace, society, and the legal system under Nazism, is most compelling ... Scheck's excellent study will be useful to gender historians, legal historians, and even historians of memory.' Melissa Kravetz, Journal of Modern History 'In this groundbreaking work, Raffael Scheck draws upon an impressive range of German, French, Swiss, Belgian, Austrian, and American archives to tell their stories ... Love Between Enemies is a remarkable book.' Sandra Ott, Central European History