From: Snapshot-Content-Location: https://nationalpost.com/news/cross-dressing-nazis-a-german-artist-found-so-many-photos-of-them-he-published-a-book-about-it Subject: Cross-dressing Nazis: A German artist found so many photos of them he published a book | National Post Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2024 20:23:05 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; type="text/html"; boundary="----MultipartBoundary--iYTNFvKYmLhf2i5R786P7maK5EdXvi1WOaO0VwQvQw----" ------MultipartBoundary--iYTNFvKYmLhf2i5R786P7maK5EdXvi1WOaO0VwQvQw---- Content-Type: text/html Content-ID: Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: https://nationalpost.com/news/cross-dressing-nazis-a-german-artist-found-so-many-photos-of-them-he-published-a-book-about-it Cross-dressing Nazis: A = German artist found so many photos of them he published a book | National P= ost<= meta content=3D"2042" property=3D"og:image:height">Skip to Content
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Cross-dressing Nazis: A German a= rtist found so many photos of them he published a book

Ironically, all these cross-dressing soldiers were fighting f= or a regime that sent actual transvestites to concentration camps

Author of the article:
Tristin Hopper =
Published Nov 27, 2018  =E2=80=A2  Last updated Nov 28, 2018  =E2=80=A2  <= span class=3D"published-date__word-count">4 minute read
3D"MAIN"<= figcaption class=3D"featured-image__caption image-caption">Photo by =C2=A9 Collection Martin Dammann

Article content=

Over years of collecting amateur photography from the Second World = War, German artist Martin Dammann kept noticing something odd: An awful lot= of soldiers fighting for Nazi Germany seemed to enjoy dressing up like wom= en.

=E2=80=9CIf the photos did not exist, you would n= ot believe it,=E2=80=9D Dammann told the German n= ews magazine Der Spiegel earlier this month.

Cros= s-dressing among soldiers happened on all sides in both world wars. Most ph= otos of the phenomenon are as a result of a theatre performance put togethe= r by troops: With no women around to play Ophelia or Celia Peachum, a man w= ould be enlisted to fill the role for laughs. (Here, for instance, is a photo of a theatre tr= oupe of First World War-era Alberta soldiers, including a performer in drag= ).

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But the phenomenon seemed to happen way more in German ra= nks, according to Dammann. This may be due to a longstanding German traditi= on of carnival cross-dressing.

Where many countries celebrate Mardi G= ras with drinking and sexualized costumes, some German communities have a c= enturies-long tradition of treating it as a celebration of gender-bending.<= /p>

In Cologne, one of the central mascots of the Carniva= l parade is =E2=80=9Cthe virgin,=E2=80=9D a pigtailed maiden that has been = played by a man since the 1820s. There=E2=80=99s also Weiberfastnacht, a su= bversive German festival practice dating back to the Middle Ages in which w= omen are handed control of the community and are free to roam the streets <= a data-evt-val=3D"{"control_fields": {"mparticle": {&qu= ot;keys": {"click_source_type": "click_source_type"= ;, "anchor_text": "anchor_text", "target_url"= : "target_url", "layout_section": "layout_section&= quot;}, "mp_event_type": "Navigation", "extra_keys= ": ["click_vertical_position_percentage", "click_vertic= al_position_pixels"]}}, "click_source_type": "in-page l= ink", "anchor_text": "cutting off men\u2019s ties"= , "target_url": "https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/women-t= ake-charge-and-cut-ties-as-germany-s-carnival-season-enters-its-final-week-= 1.392141", "layout_section": "in-page-link"}" data= -evt=3D"click" data-evt-typ=3D"click" href=3D"https://www.stripes.com/news/= europe/women-take-charge-and-cut-ties-as-germany-s-carnival-season-enters-i= ts-final-week-1.392141" rel=3D"noopener" target=3D"_blank">cutting off men= =E2=80=99s ties.

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Dammann=E2=80=99s book, which carries the rather dry title= Soldier Studies, is a comprehensive catalogue of German soldiers dressed a= s women: In training, on the front lines and even behind the wire at Allied= P.O.W. camps.

And it=E2=80=99s not just dresses. The photos often de= pict men wearing nothing more than women=E2=80=99s underwear or skimpy impr= ovised cabaret costumes. In some cases the undergarments may have been loot= ed from towns invaded by German soldiers.

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The me= n in these photos were all fighting for a regime that pitilessly persecuted= gays, transsexuals, cross-dressers and anyone else seen as sexual =E2=80= =9Cdeviants.=E2=80=9D Several thousand homosexual men alone are estimated t= o have died in concentration camps under Nazi rule.

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Nazism had originally counted many gay men among its foun= ding leadership until they were ruthlessly purged after the ascension of Ad= olf Hitler. The most famous was Ernst R=C3=B6hm, the openly homosexual earl= y Nazi founder murdered in the 1934 Night of the Long Knives.

Nazi=E2= =80=99s also annihilated the burgeoning gay scene in Berlin, which until th= en had been known as one of the most sexually liberal cities on Earth.

<= p data-async=3D"">Berlin=E2=80=99s famous Eldorado club had been an adverti= sed interwar destination for transvestites and transsexuals, for example. S= oon after Hitler was appointed German chancellor in 1933, it was turned over under pressure to the SA, t= he Nazi Party=E2=80=99s paramilitary arm, and was soon shrouded with swasti= kas.

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A press release for Soldier Studie= s notes that the photos =E2=80=9Cmost definitely contradicted National Soci= alist ideology.=E2=80=9D Dammann also noted that many of the photos aren=E2= =80=99t inherent expressions of transvestism, but of men who were simply de= sperate to see a woman, even a fake one.

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One particularly striking pho= to shows a German forest encampment. Standing in front a tank, a man in a d= ress appears to be serenading the troops with a sensual cabaret number. =E2= =80=9CI think these actors were both homosexuals and heterosexual,=E2=80=9D= Dammann said in an interview= with DW English.

Many of the photos are stripped of any identify= ing features; Dammann would have simply found them in German family photo a= lbums without context. Names of most of the participants are not known, as = well as whether they survived the war or what they may have done.

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Th= e light air of many of the photos stands in contrast to the fact that they = still depict members of one of the most genocidal and destructive armies in= modern history. Even the German units at the front lines of the Holoc= aust left behind similar photo albums filled with similar innocent-looking = scenes of merry-making. A shocking 2007 pho= to exhibition by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, for insta= nce, showcased photos of SS officers dancing and decorating Christmas trees= only steps away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

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=E2=80=9CI very much hope by s= howing (the soldiers) in a more human light, it=E2=80=99s not misunderstood= that I want to relativize the war and their crimes,=E2=80=9D Dammann told = DW English.

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In an afterword to Sol= dier Studies, the sociologist Harald Welzer writes that the sheer quantity = of cross-dressing photos from the Second World War indicates just how norma= l the conflict came to be seen among the German soldiers fighting it.

=E2=80=9CAs paradoxical as it may seem, these photographs of Wehrmacht sol= diers in female underwear, on first glance so exotic, actually corroborate = the normality of the situation, and not its exceptionality,=E2=80=9D he wri= tes.

3D""

=E2=80= =A2 Twitter: TristinHopper | Email: thopper@na= tionalpost.com

Our website is the= place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provoc= ative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters <= a data-evt-val=3D"{"control_fields": {"mparticle": {&qu= ot;keys": {"click_source_type": "click_source_type"= ;, "anchor_text": "anchor_text", "target_url"= : "target_url", "layout_section": "layout_section&= quot;}, "mp_event_type": "Navigation", "extra_keys= ": ["click_vertical_position_percentage", "click_vertic= al_position_pixels"]}}, "click_source_type": "in-page l= ink", "anchor_text": "here", "target_url"= ;: "https://nationalpost.com/newsletters/", "layout_section&= quot;: "in-page-link"}" data-evt=3D"click" data-evt-typ=3D"click"= href=3D"https://nationalpost.com/newsletters/" target=3D"_blank">here.=

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