Gwendoline Cicottini | Associate Postgraduate
Former Member
Home Institution
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Aix-Marseille Université
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Position
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PhD Student in a Co-tutelle (Aix-Marseille Université / Tübingen Universität)
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Disciplines
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History
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Scholarship
Januar - Dezember 2018: Stipendium der Gerda Henkel Stiftung
Novembre - décembre 2017: Aide doctorale partielle du CIERA
Oktober 2016 - Juli 2017: Stipendium der Studienstiftung des Abgeordnetenhaus vom Berlin
Researchtopic
History of the 20th Century - History of the Second World War - History of the sexuality and women
Title of thesis
Forbidden relationships, forgotten children ? The relationships between german women and french prisoners of war during the Second World WarSummary of thesis
Huge population displacement during the Second World War lead women and men to living together in a exceptional context. Among them, the french prisoners of war ended up in the Reich in which remained mainly german women. Due to work and everyday life, meetings were unavoidable and people established contacts, contacts which were forbidden, but didn't happen less often. Indeed, these acts were trivial : the exchange of food, conversations, sharing of intimacy. But they were interpreted as a political danger, as an affront to the racial ideas of the Third Reich, or an a harm to german morals. This paper tries to analyse these relationships in the light of the concept of fraternisation. In this particular context, the classic pattern of the occupier/occupied is reversed : it's not the man, as victorious soldier, who imposes his domination over the mostly female population, but the conquered man, taken prisoner, who ends up « occupied » among the victorious, among the « occupier », the german women. The inverted balance of power leads to many interrogations : Which form of fraternisation are these relationships taking ? Is there necessarily an implied political aspect behind the exchanged acts between these men and women ? And eventually, do we have to talk inevitably about fraternisation for these type of relationships ?
Supervisor
Forbidden relationships, forgotten children ? The relationships between german women and french prisoners of war during the Second World War
Huge population displacement during the Second World War lead women and men to living together in a exceptional context. Among them, the french prisoners of war ended up in the Reich in which remained mainly german women. Due to work and everyday life, meetings were unavoidable and people established contacts, contacts which were forbidden, but didn't happen less often. Indeed, these acts were trivial : the exchange of food, conversations, sharing of intimacy. But they were interpreted as a political danger, as an affront to the racial ideas of the Third Reich, or an a harm to german morals. This paper tries to analyse these relationships in the light of the concept of fraternisation. In this particular context, the classic pattern of the occupier/occupied is reversed : it's not the man, as victorious soldier, who imposes his domination over the mostly female population, but the conquered man, taken prisoner, who ends up « occupied » among the victorious, among the « occupier », the german women. The inverted balance of power leads to many interrogations : Which form of fraternisation are these relationships taking ? Is there necessarily an implied political aspect behind the exchanged acts between these men and women ? And eventually, do we have to talk inevitably about fraternisation for these type of relationships ?
Publications
- Gwendoline Cicottini, « Relations interdites, enfants oubliés ? Les relations entre femmes allemandes et prisonniers de guerre français pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale », dans : Paul Maurice, Etienne Dubslaff, Maude Williams (dir.), Deutsch-französische Fraternisierungen in Kriegszeiten. Interdisziplinäre Ansätze zu den Fraternisierungen in den neuzeitlichen deutsch-französischen Konflikten (1799-1945) / Fraternisations franco-allemandes en temps de guerre. Perspectives interdisciplinaires des fraternisations lors des conflits franco-allemands contemporains (1799-1945), Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2019, p. 133 - 150.
- „Child of foreigner: Franco-german children of war, seventy years after“ in Glaesmer H, Lee S (Eds.) (2015). Interdisciplinary perspectives on Children born of War – from World War II to current conflict settings. Conference reader, 2015. http://medpsy.uniklinikum-leipzig.de/medpsych.site,postext,rueckblick,a_id,1412.html.