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

This chapter argues that intimate contacts between prisoners of war (POWs) and local women on the Eastern Front of the Second World War were sporadic, often dangerous, without long-term prospects, and later marginalized in historical research. The chapter uses several case studies from either side of the front or the Iron Curtain after the war to highlight the multifaceted aspects of these particular contacts during a war of annihilation and the emerging Cold War. The case studies also illustrate the attempts to maintain a private life despite political, ideological, and military pressure to the contrary. The chapter suggests that the established overall picture of captives in German or Soviet hands will probably remained unchanged, but argues that more research can still expand our knowledge about important yet neglected aspects of existence in captivity and shed light on the human longings and desires held by German and Soviet POWs.