Understanding Sexual Violence during the Holocaust: A Reconsideration of Research and Sources

Abstract This article revisits research on sexual violence during the Holocaust since the 1970s and asks why it was so difficult to get this subject on the agenda and why it continues to be a challenge to grasp what actually happened. Discussing the difficulties in distinguishing between fact and fiction and rereading the concept of ‘genocidal rape’, I propose that we need to undertake thick descriptions of different situations of sexual violence and, furthermore, to explore victims’ and perpetrators’ sexualities alongside one another.