Emotional Regimes and Refuges: Masculinity and Resistance in the Konzentrationslager

This article explores the emotional regimes and refuges developed by male inmates in Nazi concentration camps (KL), focusing on Dachau, Mauthausen and Sachsenhausen. Drawing on survivor testimonies and memoirs, it argues that the SS imposed a top-down emotional regime designed to dehumanize and control prisoners through emotional repression and behavioural conformity. Inmates internalized and enforced these norms, not only to avoid punishment but also to reclaim agency and masculine identity in an emasculating environment. Emotional control became a survival strategy and a moral imperative, with stoicism and selective apathy valued over vulnerability. However, friendships offered emotional refuge, enabling inmates to express care, trust and pride – emotions otherwise suppressed in camp society. These relationships allowed prisoners to reassert individuality and moral decency, subtly resisting SS efforts to destroy their humanity. The article situates emotional regimes and refuges within broader debates on resistance, arguing that conformity to emotional norms and the cultivation of friendship constituted symbolic and defensive resistance. By examining the gendered dimensions of emotional expression and repression, this study contributes to our understanding of inmate society, survival strategies and the emotional lives of men under extreme conditions.