Prisoners of War and Local Women in Europe and the United States, 1914-1956

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction

   • Matthias Reiss, Brian K. Feltman

   Pages 1-14

3. Prologue: Captive Labor and Fraternization Before the First World War

   • Matthias Reiss

   Pages 15-27

4. Sexual Desire in Enemy Hands: The Sex Lives of German Prisoners of War in the UK, 1914–1919

   • Brian K. Feltman

   Pages 29-53

5. “Dishonorable” Women and “Foreign” Men: Illicit Sexuality as Challenge to the German Volksgemeinschaft, 1914–1918

   • Lisa M. Todd

   Pages 55-75

6. Encounters Beyond Front Lines: Prisoners of War and Locals in the Habsburg Empire During the First World War

   • Julia Walleczek-Fritz

   Pages 77-94

7. “Undesirable Familiarity”: British Women and Italian Prisoners of War, 1941–1946

   • Bob Moore, Barbara Hately

   Pages 95-116

8. Fueling the Morale Panic: Axis Prisoners of War and American Women in the United States During World War II

   • Matthias Reiss

   Pages 117-141

9. Community, Gender, and Race During War: The Amorous Relationships of POWs and German Women in World War II

   • Raffael Scheck

   Pages 143-168

10. “Helmut Can Be a Worker, Not a Lover”: Relationships Between Germans POWs and French Women in Postwar France (1944–1948)

    • Fabien Théofilakis

    Pages 169-198

11. Intimacy, “Treason,” and “Ideological Transgression”: POWs and Women on the Eastern Front of the Second World War

    • Andreas Hilger, Oskars Gruziņš

    Pages 199-229

12. Epilogue: Captive Labor and Fraternization After the Second World War

    • Matthias Reiss

    Pages 231-236

13. Back Matter

    Pages 237-310

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This book brings together historians from Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Austria, and Latvia who have worked and published on fraternisation between Prisoners of War and local women during either the First or Second World War, providing the first comparative study of this multi-faceted phenomenon in different belligerent countries. By focusing on prisoners as wartime migrants and studying the nature and impact of their interactions with the local female population, this book expands the existing framework on prisoner of war studies. Its substantial scope and comparative approach make it an important point of reference in the growing research field of POW studies. 

• First World War
• Second World War
• fraternisation
• intimacy
• war studies

“The contribution of this book is a welcome addition for anyone interested in the history of war captivity. This book would be particularly useful as a teaching tool. … This material is not only useful for a better understanding of the chapters, but also for undergraduate students exploring methodological approaches and interpretation of archival documents. … The enormous effort made by the contributors is a most welcomed achievement.” (Jean-Michel Turcotte, Canadian Military History, Vol. 32 (1), 2023)

• History, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

  Matthias Reiss

• Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, USA

  Brian K. Feltman

Matthias Reiss is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Exeter, UK.  

Brian K. Feltman is Associate Professor of History at Georgia Southern University, USA.

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