Sitting in meetings with her at the prominent literary agency where we both worked left me feeling weak. Usually never short of things to say, in her presence, I’d marvel at her ability to drain all quips from my mind, leaving my mouth bone-dry. But I knew the cliché and I refused to succumb to the stereotype of being the young, ambitious 25-year-old who screws the boss. To encourage Aryan procreation, the Nazis adopted a variety of programs and laws. One example is the Lebensborn program. It encouraged Aryan women to have many children, even outside of marriage. At the same time, the Nazi regime tried to prohibit or limit the procreation of other supposedly inferior groups. In July 1933, a new law mandated sterilization of people with supposedly hereditary disabilities. Other laws, such as the 1935 Nuremberg Laws , defined who could have sex with whom. It is difficult to know what role lesbians’ sexuality played in their detention. Sometimes their arrest had little or nothing to do with the fact that they were lesbians. At other times, their sexuality may have played a role. This was especially the case regarding arrests prompted by denunciations. Denunciations frequently affected people considered social outsiders. Denunciations of Lesbians Perhaps it’s trite to say that “representation matters,” but some things are cliché because they’re true. The first time I ever saw lesbians onscreen was when my high school’s Gay Bisexual Straight Alliance played part of the first scene of the original L Word series. (The “sweet little figs” scene, in case you were wondering—the girls who get it get it.) Even so, it wasn’t until years later, when I first saw Blue Is the Warmest Color , that I actually found a queer story that reminded me of my own.

It remains a research challenge to find historical sources related to lesbian experiences under the Nazi regime. Mexican cult horror directorJuan López Moctezuma castCristina Ferrare, later a top TV host, as a bisexual artist who visits Mexico with a bloodthirsty mission. The film stars John Carradine as her estranged vampire father, and features cinematography byMiguel Garzón (“Highway Patrolman,”“Red Dawn”). Leny wanted to hold hands. ‘I’ve changed women before,’ she’d tell me. ‘I can do things to you that no man can.’ I felt objectified and I’d get annoyed. ‘You can’t change me,’ I’d respond.Another difficulty is that very few lesbians shared testimonies about their experiences during this time. This is partially because the topic of sexual relations between women remained taboo for decades after the Nazi era. Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. But even in cases when lesbians were arrested and sent to concentration camps, the records can be hard to find. One of the greatest challenges is that lesbians were rarely identified as such in official records from the Nazi era. In the camps, women who self-identified or were identified as lesbians did not wear the pink triangle. Instead, they wore badges that corresponded to the official reason for their arrest and internment. Sexual Relations between Women in Concentration Camps

ThisSwedish / Swiss / German horror film was directed by sexploitation pioneer Joseph W. Sarno, who had a fruitful adult film career under various pseudonyms, working with Annie Sprinkle, Ron Jeremy, and Harry Reems (“Deep Throat”). A women’s cult resurrects their vampire queen, using the willing young vessel played by Swedish actress Marie Forså. Quentin Tarantino sparked renewed interest in this Spanish horror film, putting it on many of his top ten lists and naming a chapter of his “Kill Bill Vol. 1” book after it. DirectorVicente Aranda, the film attained cult status not only for its erotic horror themes, but for its rejection of fascism in Francoist Spain. During the Nazi regime, lesbians could not continue to live and socialize as they had during the Weimar Republic. Much of German society saw lesbians as social outsiders, meaning people who did not fit into the mainstream. As such, they had a higher risk of being denounced and then targeted by the Nazi regime. By eliminating gay and lesbian gathering places and presses, the regime effectively dissolved the lesbian communities that had developed during the Weimar Republic. Expanding the Persecution of Men Accused of HomosexualityThe Nazis did not create any separate policies that singled out lesbians as a problem for Aryan procreation. Their reasoning drew on widespread attitudes about the differences between male and female sexuality. The Nazis concluded that Aryan lesbians could easily be persuaded or forced to bear children. Lesbian Responses to the Nazi Regime Marking the first time the lesbian vampire appears onscreen, Universal Pictures was well aware that its “Dracula” sequel had sapphic overtones. In “The Celluloid Closet,” gay film historian Vito Russo noted the studio stoked the flames in its initial marketing. Russo also cites the film as an early example of the (albeit negative) predatory homosexual trope.

In addition, there was no specific law under which lesbians were prosecuted. Thus, there is not always an obvious place to look for criminal records pertaining to their arrests and detentions. For example, lesbians appear in court cases and police files relating to political opposition or asocial behavior. However, these are scattered across many files and in various archives. Scholars hoping to learn about lesbians’ stories are painstakingly combing through these files. This is common. Contrary to what you might guess, many prison relationships aren’t about sex-just like most relationships outside of prison.” First-hand testimonies, memoirs, and diaries of former prisoners reveal that prisoners had sexual encounters with each other in concentration camps. According to these sources, sexual encounters ranged from consensual intimacies to prostitution to brutal sexual assault. Both heterosexual and same-sex relationships took place in the camps. At least initially, Leny might not have been trying to seduce me, and was actually just in need of someone kind to distract her from her loneliness,” Knox writes.

Knox admits that prison relationships can be about sex. But mostly, she writes, it’s about human connection. The relationships inmates establish with each other are treated as nothing more than kinky lies to be ashamed of upon returning to the real world,” she writes. “But they’re not.

Mandy has just turned 18, still an innocent virgin who day dreams about a boy at her college. She comes home for the summer break and her mom tells her they have arranged to visit all the boring, dim and distant family relatives; definitely the last thing she needs to do on holiday, so she asks if she can go and stay with her friend Suzie instead. Reluctantly her mom finally agrees. There were German lesbians who took the risk of resisting the Nazi state for political and personal reasons. Some continued to seek out underground meeting places, especially in major cities. There were lesbians who joined underground anti-Nazi resistance groups or helped hide Jews. Arrest and Detention of Lesbians in Concentration Camps The Nazis did not systematically prosecute or persecute lesbians solely because of their sexuality. Under the Nazi regime, there was no official law or policy prohibiting sexual relations between women. This is unlike the case of gay men. The Nazis believed that German women had a special task to perform: motherhood. According to Nazi logic, lesbians were women and should thus be mothers. They had a responsibility to give birth to racially pure Germans, called “ Aryans .”

Desert Hearts (1985)

The Nazis classified prisoners in concentration camps into groups according to the reason for their imprisonment. By 1938, these groups were identified with various colored badges worn on camp uniforms. Men imprisoned for allegedly violating Paragraph 175 had to wear a pink triangle. The badge identified them as “homosexual” ( homosexuell ) according to the classification system. Public discussions of sexuality had occurred in Germany since the late 19th century. However, the social atmosphere during the Weimar Republic created more space for these conversations. There were discussions about homosexuality at the time. 1 Physician and sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld and others organized gay and lesbian “friendship leagues” ( Freundschaftsverbände ), which also included heterosexual members. These groups advocated for the decriminalization of sexual relations between men. In this endeavor, they found allies on the political left and center. Among the supporters were: Based on the French novella “Carmilla,” which would also inspire Hammer Films’ Karnstein Trilogy a decade later, “Blood and Roses” is notable for launching Roger Vadim’s fruitful collaboration with cinematographer Claude Renoir, who would later shoot Vadim’s cult classic, “Barbarella.” StarringMel Ferrer as Leopoldo De Karnstein and Elsa Martinelli as Georgia Monteverdi. Bloodlust and lesbians — what could be a more winning combination? In honor of Halloween month, the programmers at New York arthouse cinema The Quad are showcasing 12 staples of the lesbian vampire genre, because who doesn’t love a broad with bite? Titled “ A Woman’s Bite: Cinema’s Sapphic Vampires,” the series also complements an excellent Jean Rollin retrospective, Très Outré: The Sinister Visions of Jean Rollin, the French horror auteur who put women at the center of his lush, gothic cinema. “A Woman’s Bite” runs October 26-November 1 at The Quad.