Post-Holocaust conceptualizations of masculinity in Germanophone and Jewish men

The dissertation demonstrates that the Holocaust has irrevocably linked Germanophone and Jewish men together and continues to influence how they see themselves. Situated in the broader context of Holocaust Studies, Masculinity Studies and Cultural Studies, it explores how Jewish and non-Jewish Germanophone men re-conceptualized themselves and reestablished their place in the emergent society of post-World War Two Europe. It explores issues of the representation of masculinity in the wider context of culture, history and contemporary society in an interdisciplinary manner.

The collapse of Nazi Germany meant that Fascist, militarized masculinity was also defeated. Responding to the crisis of masculinity that followed, I show that new or modified constructs of controlled, softer masculinity were gleaned from screen culture (the American Western as well as Heimatfilm), and the sporting, economic, and political spheres. A literary analysis of the memoirs of three prominent, German and Austrian Jewish men provides insight into the interconnectedness of issues such as identity, Heimat, nation, personhood, justice and family with constructs of masculinity. Simon Wiesenthal's, Marcel Reich-Ranicki's, and Paul Spiegel's memoirs provide insight into the German-Jewish negative symbiosis that has often characterized the experience of Jewish men living in Germanophone Europe.

Continuing with its comparative analysis, the dissertation also examines the genre of Vaterliteratur (literature of/about the Fathers) to probe how Fascist masculinity continued to affect familial relationships in the post-Holocaust as well as the current eras. Three representative works of the genre - Traces of My Father by Sigfrid Gauch, The Man in the Pulpit by Ruth Rehmann, and The Himmler Brothers by Katrin Himmler provide insight into the transgenerational effects of Fascism on the descendants of Nazi perpetrators and complicit bystanders. Two chapters then examine post-Wende German and Austrian film and television productions. As a result, a new paradigm for understanding how Jewish and non-Jewish Germanophone men see themselves and each other is created, namely, one in which they have been unequivocally linked by the Holocaust, the genocide that shattered modernity and ushered in an era of post-Holocaust consciousness.