Awards

• Short-listed for The Wallace K. Ferguson Prize Awarded by the Canadian Historical Association 2023 (Canada)
• Short-listed for WCGS Book Prize 2022 Awarded by The Waterloo Centre for German Studies 2023 (Canada)
• Short-listed for WCGS Book Prize 2022 Awarded by The Waterloo Centre for German Studies 2023 (Canada)

Overview

Fighter, Worker, and Family Man explores how German-Jewish men tried to maintain their understandings of masculinity under Nazi rule. When the Nazis came to power, they used various strategies to expel German Jews from social, cultural, and economic life. Fighter, Worker, and Family Man focuses on the gendered experiences and discrimination that German-Jewish men faced between 1933 and 1941. Sebastian Huebel argues that Jewish men's gender identities, intersecting with categories of ethnicity, race, class, and age, underwent a profound process of marginalisation that destabilised accustomed ways of performing masculinity. At the same time, in their attempts to sustain their conceptions of masculinity these men maintained agency and developed coping strategies that prevented their full-scale emasculation. Huebel draws on a rich archive of diaries, letters, and autobiographies to interpret the experiences of these men, focusing on their roles as soldiers and protectors, professionals and breadwinners, and parents and husbands. Fighter, Worker, and Family Man sheds light on how the Nazis sought to emasculate Jewish men through propaganda, the law, and violence, and how in turn German-Jewish men were able to defy emasculation and adapt at least temporarily to their marginalised status as men.

Full Product Details

9781487541248

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Reviews

At last, a book that foregrounds the masculinity of German-Jewish men in the Nazi dictatorship. Sebastian Huebel's most welcome study brings extraordinary nuance and sensitivity to capturing the subjective experiences of German-Jewish men - fathers, husbands, veterans, and workers - as they struggled to survive and retain their dignity in the face of persecution, defamation, and deportation. - Paul Lerner, Professor, Department of History and Director, Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies, University of Southern California Full-length studies that focus on the experiences of Jewish men as 'men' during the Nazi regime and the Holocaust can still be counted on one hand. Huebel's critical and detailed investigation of Jewish-German masculinity in Nazi Germany is a welcome and needed addition. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of gender and the Holocaust. - Bjoern Krondorfer, Regents' Professor and Director of the Martin-Springer Institute, Northern Arizona University Sebastian Huebel's important and innovative book explores the lived experiences of German-Jewish men in Nazi Germany, a subject neglected by historical research far too long. The book focuses on the gendered everyday challenges, victimizations, reactions, and negotiations of these men, whose masculinity was increasingly stifled and repressed by the Nazis in public discourse, by laws, and in practice since 1933. Anybody interested in German-Jewish history should read this book. - Karen Hagemann, James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"""Huebel shares the hope that a study of the erosion of Jewish male masculinity under Nazism can ‘sharpen our understanding of contemporary issues related to gender.’"" -- Graham Forst * <em>Jewish Independent</em> * ""This is a story of the gradual adaptations German Jewish men and their families made in the face of increasing legal restrictions, defamation, and violence. Huebel tells it very well. This is crucial reading."" -- M. A. Mengerink, Lamar University * <em>CHOICE</em> * ""Huebel’s book invites us to further investigate the history of masculinities in the Third Reich. It will not only enrich historiographical debates about this period, but also enliven discussion in the classroom."" -- Javier Samper Vendrell, University of Pennsylvania * <em>Monatshefte</em> *"

Author Information

Sebastian Huebel is a faculty member in the Department of History at the University of the Fraser Valley and head of the Department of Humanities at Alexander College in Vancouver.

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