@article{ref1,
title="Physical exertion and gender in Nazi death camps",
journal="International review on sport and violence",
year="2014",
author="Gomet, Doriane",
volume="8",
number="",
pages="84-99",
abstract="Rooted in the history of the Second World War, this study is a gender analysis of the use of physical exertion as a tool of control, means of repression and extermination in Nazi death camps.  Camp archives and testimonies make it possible to show that physical exertion was an integral part of the repressive arsenal used by SS guards on both male and female prisoners. Yet, depending on gender and the reasons for deportation, the forms and purposes of such physical exertion could vary. If in the case of deportation as repressive measure, the SS degraded men and women so much that they deprived them of their gender identity, the most common punishments were inflicted according to various gender norms: where men were subjected to motion, women were to motionlessness. In death camps however, things were quite different. There gender was not taken into account and women submitted to the same atrocities as men:  Strafstehen (lengthy motionless standing position), Sportmachen (physical exercises), “selection processes” for the gas chamber through physical exercises. Female inmates only escaped those murders committed during sham physical exercises such as fake boxing matches. However, this near similarity of treatment had unequal consequences in terms of survival: women had neither the same physical abilities, nor the same body culture from the pre-war period as men.  Finally, this study highlights the complex relationships SS had with gender issues, and also establishes that in the camps, the hierarchy of races established by Nazis prevailed over gender: punishments were different when inmates were still considered as human beings; they were similar when this was no longer the case.  Key-words: WWII - Nazism - Concentration camps - Deportation - Body practices - Gender",
language="fr",
issn="2105-0953",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}