Author: Yuliya von Saal, Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History)

Abstract: »In her chapter on sexual(ized) violence in partisan units in Belarus von Saal identifies strategies that women or young girls implemented to navigate their survival in the face of the ever-present threat of rape by the partisans and in “partly coercive sexual relationships with men.” Women would enter into forced marriages, typically with men higher in the power hierarchy among partisans like officers, which von Saal describes as situations with a “blurred line between consensual and forced relationships.” Gender and age predetermined the strategies that Holocaust survivors used to navigate their survival among partisan groups. Such strategies would entail efforts of little girls to seek the protection of a substitute parent, impersonating boys, or dressing like boys. Adolescent girls, von Saal argues, “were seeking the protection of a potential partner, with whom they usually (but not always) also had a sexual relationship.”« (Source: Paulovicova, Nina. »Introduction.« Shattered Liberation: Sexualized Violence Against Holocaust Survivors, 1943–1946. Edited by Nina Paulovicova et al. West Lafayette 2025: 19)

Contents:

	Historical Background (p. 222)
	Experiences of Rape and Sexual Coercion Among the Partisans (p. 226)
	Untold Stories (p. 229)
	Reflections and Interpretations: Age and Grey Zones of Sexual Behavior in the Soviet Union (p. 231)
	Conclusion (p. 233)
	Notes (p. 234)
	Bibliography (p. 243)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Belarus / German occupation of Byelorussia during World War II | Genocide: The Holocaust / The Holocaust in Belarus | Sex and the law: Sexual violence / Sexual violence during the Holocaust