Rape as a Weapon of War and Genocide? Terminology and Understandings of Sexual Violence by German Soldiers during the War of Annihilation in the Soviet Union, 1941–1945
The notion that sexual violence constitutes a weapon of war and genocide has become commonplace in media coverage, political analysis and policy. In the light of this new visibility, scholars have been prompted to look for sexual violence in earlier wars. In this context, new questions about the German war of annihilation in the Soviet Union arose: Was sexual violence part of the strategy of German warfare? Did German soldiers use sexual violence as a tool in the genocide against the Jews?This article draws on Michel de Certeau’s discussion of strategy and tactics, and argues that it is crucial to explore the complex relationship between strategic calculations by the military command and tactical actions by the soldiers in the field in order to understand the functionality and intentionality of soldiers’ perpetration of sexual violence.Through a re-reading of historical sources the article demonstrates that sexual violence was a crucial part of the military strategies of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (OKW) and the Supreme High Command of the German Army (OKH) from the very first day of the war against the Soviet Union. Regardless of the motives of the individual soldiers, the Wehrmacht command did anticipate sexual violence by its men, calculated its effects and exploited it for its own strategic goals
