Abstract This article investigates the impact of ghettoization on the masculinity of German Jewish ghetto policemen in Łódź, Riga, Minsk, and Terezin (Theresienstadt). Although the Nazi ghettos in Eastern Europe were a central component in the Nazi machinery of exploitation and annihilation, the writings of Jewish policemen suggest that ghettoization provided the potential for men to revitalize and redefine their gender identities. The Nazi ghettos created new power structures, institutions, and hierarchies, affording certain men opportunities to practice key elements of their traditional masculine roles, which would have been unthinkable years earlier in Germany. This is most evident in the Jewish ghetto police, where Jewish men could use their authority within the ghetto to assert their status and thereby their male self-worth. With very few exceptions, the Jewish police were entirely staffed by men, mainly former soldiers, equipped with distinctive uniforms and badges, and trained in military customs. Its members saw themselves as protectors of the Jewish prisoner community, a role that reinforced the link between action, self-sacrifice, and a strong male identity. A study of German Jewish policemen has broader implications, throwing light on how ghettoization enabled some Jewish men to cope under Nazi oppression by reclaiming their masculine honor, even during the darkest hours of the “Final Solution.”
Michael Geheran (Fri,) studied this question.