Stalag fiction () was a short-lived genre of

erotic literature Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros (concept), eros (passionate, romantic or sexual relationships) intended to arouse similar feelings in readers. This contrasts erotica, which focuses more specifically ...

which flourished in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

during the 1950s and 60s. The genre consisted of pornographic Nazi exploitation books, depicting female

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

officers in

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

s (

stalag In Germany, stalag (; ) was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for ''Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschaftsstammlager'', literally "main camp for enlisted prisoners of war" (officers were kept i ...

s) sexually abusing male Allied prisoners. Many of these books purported to be real accounts from actual Allied prisoners-of-war, and avoided featuring Jewish characters in an effort to prevent them from becoming controversial. The genre came to an end during the

Eichmann trial The Eichmann trial was the 1961 trial of major Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann who was Operation Eichmann, captured in Argentina by Israeli agents and brought to Israel to stand trial. Eichmann was a senior Nazi party member and served at t ...

due to being banned by the

Israeli government The Israeli system of government is based on parliamentary democracy. The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of government and leader of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government (also known as the cabinet). Legislat ...

. They are mostly no longer available in traditional publication format, but with the advent of the Internet works in the genre have been circulated via

peer-to-peer file sharing Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program th ...

Premise

Purported to be translations of English-language books by prisoners in

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s, these books were highly

pornographic Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

accounts of imprisonment, generally of Allied prisoners of war,

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...

by female

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It beg ...

guards (or in some cases by Japanese guards), and the prisoners' eventual revenge, which usually consisted of the

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

of their tormentors. The books, with titles like ''I Was Colonel Schultz's Private Bitch'', were especially popular among adolescent boys, often the children of concentration camp survivors.

History

Groups of Israeli publishers began to publish

dime novel The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century American popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related form ...

-format memoirs, describing abuse, particularly sexual abuse, in the concentration camps. Sold in magazine kiosks, the novels, ostensibly first-person memoirs, became best-sellers. According to Israeli filmmaker Ari Libsker, "the Holocaust pictures that I saw, as one who grew up here, were of naked women." They disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared. Within two years of the appearance of the first publication, the publishers were accused by an Israeli court of distributing pornography and the books were discontinued. Although still available underground, certain titles earned the ire of the establishment, and efforts were made to find and destroy them. The advent of the Internet has allowed for peer-to-peer

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

and thus made censorship attempts far harder. In 2003, the genre re-entered public debate in Israel with the research of popular culture analyst Eli Eshed. As a result of that research, Libsker featured the books in a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

, which was titled '' Stalags''.cinephil.co.il
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References

External links

* {{cite web, url=http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/kultur_und_medien/feuilleton/?em_cnt=1305201, title=Oberst Schultz und seine Hündin, publisher=Frankfurter Rundschau, author=Daniel Kothenschulte
Village Voice
Israeli literature Pornography in Israel Holocaust literature Pulp fiction Nazi exploitation

Premise

History

See also

References

External links