Miriam Vercher Diaz
Sexuality in nazi concentration camps
This project analyses the role that sexuality played in nazi concentration camps and to what extent it influenced the life and death of the people who where imprisoned there. From camp brothels to sex bartering, sexual abuse, or medical experimentation on inmate’s sexuality and reproductive health, among others, sexuality was present in the daily lives of many prisoners. Its instrumentalisation led to different outcomes, sometimes resulting in an opportunity to increase a prisoner’s chance of survival, or as it happened more often, in turning sexuality into a tool exploited by both guards and prisoners to add to the suffering of those who were perceived as the most vulnerable.
The employment of comparative analysis allows to better define the uniqueness and the patterns of those sexualised experiences, and to better understand the intersection between sex, sexuality, “race”, gender, and age, and how and why this translated into action in such an extreme and abnormal context.
Above all, this project sheds light into a less-known aspect of life in concentration camps, and helps complete the story of those who suffered and perished there.