About my PhD project

My research project, supervised by Dr Anna Hajkova and Prof Christoph Mick, analyses the topic of ‘Homophobia in Nazi camps’. This topic is on the intersection of the history of Nazi Germany, the history of sexuality and the camp society, including the interaction of various prisoner groups. While many areas of camp history are well-researched historical topics, the area of gender beyond women’s history and the Nazi persecution of homosexuals and the camps largely remains a lacuna.

My study contributes to gender as well as sexual history by examining homophobia in the prisoner society. It furthermore scrutinizes gendered differences between men’s and women’s responses to same sex conduct. My research works with self-testimonies, early and late oral histories, and published testimonies from the 1980s-2000s, as well as court proceedings. My dissertation provides a lens through which the homophobia in the wider German society from Weimar to Nazism can be analysed, whilst also advancing our understanding of society under duress.

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Academic profile

2022 PhD at the University of Warwick, Department of History, dissertation entitled 'Homophobia in Nazi Camps'

2010 MSc in Educational Leadership and Management, University of Leicester

2004 Staatsexamen in History and Theology (1st class), Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany (MA equivalent)

2001 Erasmus/ Socrates scholarship exchange in History to the University of Wales, Swansea

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Research Interests

German and European History of everyday life, the society in the camps, history of gender and sexuality, history of war and genocide

Scholarships and Awards

European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, Fellowship, 2017

German History Society, Small research grant, 2018

Women's History Network, Supporting research cost grant, 2021.

Conference Papers

'Homophobia in Nazi Camps', Bedford Centre Conference 'Rethinking Gender: New perspectives and future directions', Royal Holloway University, 10 June 2017.

'Talking about Extremism in Secondary Education', Northampton University Conference 'Teaching on the Extreme Right', Northampton University, 12 April 2018.

'Female Homophobia in Nazi Camps', Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, Graduate Seminar Series, University of Warwick, 24 October 2018.

’Female Homophobia in Nazi Camps’, The Wiener Library, PhD and a cup of tea, 9 April 2019.

’Female Homophobia in Nazi Camps’, Lessons and Legacies Conference, Munich, 5 November 2019.

'Homophobia in Nazi Camps - the case of Philomena Musgüller', German Historical Institute London, Postgraduate Research Student Conference, 8 January 2021.

'Homophobia in Nazi Camps', Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford, History and Memory of the Holocaust Seminar series, 1 February 2022.

''Evil Asocials' and Homophobia in Nazi Camps', European History Research Centre, University of Warwick, 20 April 2022.

Public Engagement

‘LGBTQ+ histories and the Holocaust’, Postgraduate event, British Association for Holocaust Studies, 16 March 2022.

'Homophobia in Nazi Camps', Blog article for The Wiener Library, 20 May 2020.

'Women in the Holocaust', Holocaust Memorial Day Northampton Guildhall, 24 January 2018.

Book reviews

Review of 'Interpreting in Nazi Concentration Camps' by Michaela Wolf, Social History 42:3, pp. 447-449.

Memberships

German History Society

Royal Historical Society

Women's History Network

Uta Rautenberg

Uta dot Rautenberg at warwick dot ac dot uk