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‘A hussy who rode on horseback in sexy underwear in front of the prisoners’ : the trials of Buchenwald’s Ilse Koch
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Drumbl, Mark and Mouthaan, Solange (2021) ‘A hussy who rode on horseback in sexy underwear in front of the prisoners’ : the trials of Buchenwald’s Ilse Koch. International Criminal Law Review, 21 (2). pp. 280-312. doi:10.1163/15718123-bja10047 ISSN 1567-536X.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15718123-bja10047
Abstract
Ilse Koch’s trials for her role in atrocities at the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp served as visual spectacles and primed her portrayal in media and public spaces. Koch’s conduct was credibly rumored to be one of frequent affairs, simultaneous lovers, and the sexual humiliation of prisoners. The gendered construction of her sexual identity played a distortive role in her intersections with law and with post-conflict Germany. Koch’s trials revealed two different dynamics. Koch’s actions were refracted through a patriarchal lens which spectacularized female violence and served as an optical space to (re)establish appropriate feminine mores. Feminist critiques of Koch’s trials furthermore also spun problematic narratives of womanly innocence and victimized powerlessness, or at times ignored her as a perpetrator. In the end Koch’s actual story—‘her’ story—becomes lost amid prurience, politics, and burlesque.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DD Germany | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Koch, Ilse, 1906-1967, Buchenwald (Concentration camp), Women war criminals -- Germany, World War, 1939-1945—Atrocities, War crimes -- Germany, Criminal justice, Administration of | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | International Criminal Law Review | ||||||
| Publisher: | Brill | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1567-536X | ||||||
| Official Date: | 13 April 2021 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 21 | ||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 280-312 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1163/15718123-bja10047 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Copyright Holders: | koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 20 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 30 September 2022 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 30 September 2022 | ||||||
| Related URLs: |
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