The book starts with an description of the Berlin high society scene in 1910, which was fueled by champagne and cocaine. The book quickly moves on to post-WWI, the Weimar Republic. The author immediately launches into a description of the gay social scene at this time; gay men and women felt free enough to mingle in clubs that catered to the other, all avoiding clubs where heterosexuals mingled. It was a wild time, a good time had by most: I am left with the insecapable sense that the Nazis of the early 1920s were the incels of their time.

Moving on to the Reich: Morals were supposed to be spotless, and there was even a prohibition of girls under 16 having sex. This was thought to drive young people to marry as soon as they could; with a hard push from the Reich for couples to have as many children as they could and a virtual prohibition of contraceptives for young married couples, this caused many to do as the Reich wanted. There were medals given out for “motherhood,” which was a euphemism for having a litter of children for the Reich to use as “manpower,” or more likely cannon fodder. There was widespread deep depression of women in the Reich having to get married and crank out child after child. The husband was not expected to contribute anything to the household except a cash flow from a job and sperm. Love was not in the picture; couples were to do their duty to the Fatherland. It was GRIM. This definitely gives the lie to the visuals of the surviving of old newsreels, of the shapeless, beaming women with vacant eyes and medals around their necks, happy to do their duty.

With the face of the Reich being so (falsely) moral and family oriented, there seems to have been a bonanza of pedophilia. Many abusers hid behind connections in the Nazi party, and sadly many were a part of the organized religions. Now WHICH religion(s) is a point of contention for me with the writing in this book. The author uses many 1st hand accounts, which is good. Why not go direct to the source? BUT, in his narrative he refers to “the Protestant Church.” Who exactly is he referring to, as I would like to know especially since the first-hand narratives refer generally to a “priest.” Protestant religions usually do not have “priests,” they have ministers. But does he mean Hitler’s state-run religion instead? I am genuinely confused; and as there weren’t any explanatory footnotes or endnotes, I have to point this out as a real problem. This takes the focus off of the abused and puts it on the mystery religion. Also, the author states that the protestant religions aided the Nazis; which ones? I have read specifically the opposite and with supporting sources as stated by other authors; this includes that the Lutheran Church refused to sign an accord with Hitler for the duration of the war. Hitler relented and left them alone because of the sheer numbers of members in Germany, but that the Pope signed an accord right away. So what this author is stating is the opposite of what I have read and reviewed for NetGalley in the past. I just wish I could see the author’s sources!

The author moves on to torture in the concentration camps now and later in the book, which I knew would be disturbing. I thought there would be more ground covered here with how sadistic the Nazis were so I was surprised. The author does cover forced prostitution using both prisoners and the young women of invaded countries. This was done not only for the German soldiers but also those foreigners who joined their ranks. Showing the great disregard the Nazis had for all women, they used female prisoners as prostitutes to reward male prisoners for good behavior. They also forced young women to be prostitutes at the infamous “Salon Kitty” in Berlin which served top Nazis and foreign dignataries.

Also covered are the occult practices that seemed to always involve, you guessed it, sex with some drugged young woman. About this time you should be realizing what a bunch of pervs they all were. The “thousand-year shining Reich” my foot.

The author refers to the inner circle of the Third Reich and their philandering ways. Notables include Reinhard Heydrich, Martin Bormann, Joseph Goebbels, and Hitler and Eva Braun. His discussion of them is somewhat scathing, but he makes a positive example (as far as sex obsession is concerned) of Hermann Goering. Apparently he was the only non-womanizer in the bunch. I would note in this section about the “Inner-Circle’s” sex lives that there is a listing of all of the people that Goebbels hated; it includes the word “coloured.” I would suggest that this word be put in parenthesis or otherwise set apart as it is an antiquated and offensive term (and perhaps this is already planned for the final manuscript). Also, there is a refernce to a jibe leveled at a young woman who was forced to be a prostitute, and that was that she had a “sandpaper vagina.” It only appeared once, not twice (as I recall), and thus was confusing.

The book has a section on the Lebensborn. Essentially you can sum up the program as starting out as a slush fund for SS officers and their wives for having children, which morphed into a program of deep deception and abuse of young girls. Girls as young as 14, and many other unmarried teenagers were brainwashed into having babies and then giving them up to state-run orphanages. The orphanages had rooms full of barely-cared for screaming infants, which sounds like the making of a James Bond villain.

Much to the amusement of the Allies, pornography was used as psychological warfare against them. Or the Nazis tried at least, and there is a brief discussion of that.

There is a section on the conscription of children as young as 13, including girls as helpers for the Luftwaffe. I’m not sure how this is related to sex as a topic, but it does illustrate that the Nazis’ front of having only men fighting was just another lie, because when it got right down to it, they weren’t afraid to use women and children of both sexes.

The inclusion of the Pipistrelle was bizarre at the beginning of the section on rape by the Red Army. I and a lot of other people are very aware that rape was used as a tactic of conquest by the Soviet Army. This is a section that should make you angry.

The last section about Nazi fetishism and the Afterword went on much longer than what I thought was interesting. As far as fetishism is concerned, I really don’t care what some racist 21-year-old thinks about dressing up in Nazi uniforms to get attention. Nothing says “serious political commentary” like prancing around in a costume that’s probably unbuttoned down to THERE.

I realize that the author has researched this topic for decades and has a lot to say, but it felt like he repeated himself in the Afterword. All the same it is an interesting book that in a couple of places seemed to lack cohesion. The topics were far-ranging with the nexus being “sex;” some descriptions were a bit cringeworthy. Not for the squeamish.

Thank you to publisher Pen & Sword, author Tim Heath, and NetGalley for providing me with a pre-publication eGalley. I received nothing for my review and my opinions are my own.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Let me start by saying if you have triggers, DO NOT READ this book. It hit on so many. The abuse is very graphic. Everything is just very graphic. Well written and worth the read. It was almost too overwhelming but I'm glad I pushed through. I love how the author used both interviews and eyewitness accounts to show us some of the horrors under the Nazi regime.

Sex under the Swastika is a journey through the dark secretive corridors of the Third Reich’s powerbase and it’s near-pathological sexual obsession with young women, sex, Satanism and the occult.
Based on interviews, eye-witness accounts and using newly revealed material from the sons and daughters of former SS officers who were part of Adolf Hitler and Reinhard Heydrich’s personal staff, we learn about the sexual conduct, affairs, scandals and fetishes of some of Hitler’s most trusted advocates, who used their positions of trust to execute their warped fantasies.

I picked this book by mistake I will not be giving my review on it,I thought mistakenly it would be dealing with the nazis breeding program for blue eyed aryan people who would be the new generation of people who would be the next generation of nazis.therefore I can only give it a two star review.

smart nonfiction historical work that is both interesting and provocative. Absolutely enjoyed learning about this topic.

A word of caution to anyone interested in this book: it’s going to be an extremely hard read. There’s several very detailed and graphic accounts of molestation, child pornography, grooming, sexual assault, and rape told by the victims themselves that are going to be distressingly and disturbingly explicit. If you happen to have a past of abuse or are at risk of being triggered, you shouldn consider this detail before picking up this book.

And that’s merely the pathological sexual behaviours that were and still are criminal offences, because other sexual behaviours that aren’t, are also described very explicitly in this book. With or without pre-existing triggers, you’re not going to find this an easy book. It’s a R-rated read on the whole and should come with a warning.

Personally, I found the book wasn't up to snuff for me. On one hand, I commend that the author dared to undertake an explosive topic that has so many traps and elicits opinionated reactions. Sex and sexuality in the Third Reich is indeed not a subject that has produced many books, although it isn’t an ignored and swept under the carpet topic as it used to be. From prior reads of WWII era history books, I was already aware of all the cases and scenarios this book discusses, and others it doesn’t, so the only novelty for me were the personal testimonies, which honestly didn’t have the impact they were meant to have as I wasn’t looking for more testimonies on events I already knew had happened.

My issues with this book are fourfold: presentation, commentary, sourcing, and scope.

On the presentation: The book is rather disorganised and the testimonies are spread all over the place with no chronology or semblance of following a thematic pattern. Each chapter has its own independent topic that’s not related to the chapter prior or the chapter after, so it reads like a collection of separate sex-related anecdotes whose only link is that it all happened under the Nazis.

On the commentary: The book doesn’t include much social commentary from the author, sometimes it’s up to the narrators to do all the talking, with the author as merely a typist relaying their story. I get that the goal was to give them a chance to tell their story, but it shouldn’t be overlooked that this is a history book, or aims to be, and not their testimony for the sex crimes policeman so commentary and authorial intervention were needed. The author should’ve known when and what to include or exclude, and to give context to the narrator’s story instead of letting them talk whatever they wanted and then slavishly transcribe even the “then he put his thing in my mouth” parts. Remember your worries about your book being labelled as titillation? One way to avoid that charge is presentation. A serious and painful topic such as this isn’t going to escape accusations of titillation, and to be honest some degree of titillation is normally present by the very nature of the topic, so don’t make it worse with your delivery.

And since we are on the subject of titillation, there’s a bad case of “Doth Protest Too Much” here. The author is so concerned about getting trolled over using this topic in a prurient manner that he ends up sounding defensive and sometimes doing the titillation he wants to avoid. There’s passages where he says things along the lines of “lest this be accused of not being serious” and pre-emptively “debunks” possible claims of titillation when nobody is accusing him of it, just to resort to writing that can be construed as prurient and tititllating in other parts.

The thing about titillation is that you have to SHOW you aren’t doing it, not SAY you aren’t, and let the reader judge. A good way to have done that would’ve been:
- Organise the topics better, by parts preferably, and group the chapters with similar topics in one part. For example, the chapters about Göring, Goebbels, Heydrich, Himmler, etc., could’ve been Part II dedicated to the Nazi top bosses. The chapters with the testimonies and diaries about the time before WWII could’ve been Part I dedicated to the Weimar Republic, etc. It’d have been orderly and given an impression of seriousness and academic rigour.
- Avoid the defensiveness in your commentary, especially if you’re not quoting who have accused you of what you’re pre-emptively dismissing. No more “they’ll accuse me of titillation, but…” You’re not going to convince anyone with words but with deeds.
- Another good way to avoid such a charge is to get rid of Hollywoodesque chapter titles like “The Sturmbannführer’s Lolita.” How do you think such a title is going to sound given the awful topic of a minor girl being groomed and raped by a SS officer? That girl wasn’t a Lolita, that isn’t what a Lolita is, and it’s a disservice to give her and others’ testimonies titles like that. Like it or not, this IS titillation.
- And lastly but most importantly: the author should’ve avoided speculating about the thoughts, feelings, and even nightmares of the victims that they weren’t willing to elaborate on. Seriously, there’s many passages in which he wonders about what the sexual thoughts of the people giving their testimonies could’ve been. Why? It’s not done respectfully and it isn’t phrased seriously either, because there are some passages like that one where a narrator refused to elaborate on their traumatic nightmares, but the author goes on to actually speculate about them in an uncomfortably salacious manner. Again, this IS tititllation.

On the sourcing: The author claims to have spent thirty-six years researching this topic, which I don’t question at all. But I do find it curious that the lack of much bibliography is so glaring: there’s only six books named by the end here. It wasn’t all oral testimonies used for writing this, to be sure, but the written sources are omitted. The written sources from historical archives should’ve been included. I also find it curious that there’s this level of willingness to include unverified people’s accounts, like that “Jörg” person with the weird conditions that claimed to know the sexual rituals performed at occult ceremonies by the SS. Problem is, that person doesn’t even have secondhand knowledge but thirdhand, and that’s assuming it’s not made up. There should’ve been more scepticism about “sources” like him, and more thought put into reproducing rumours about the Nazi hierarchy’s supposedly more perverted sexual habits. How the hell are we ever going to find out whether the rumours that Himmler had sex with animals were true, for example? And in any case, what does it matter in a serious book? There’s lots of outlandish claims about the top Nazis’ sex life that don’t merit but dismissal.

On the scope: I get that this is a divulgative work for the general public, but the scope I found so very narrow in many chapters because it:
a) cherry-picks certain aspects of a situation and omits others. Case in point: sex in the concentration camps; Heath does mention rapes of Jewish inmates and the existence of brothels in the camps, but doesn’t say a word about inmate-on-inmate rape (it wasn’t just the SS raping & abusing & extorting inmates for sexual favours) and doesn’t say anything about consensual relationships within the camps either, or even about the non-Jewish professional prostitutes servicing the camps.
b) On the use of the camp brothels, Heath says, rather hilariously, that most inmates were too weak to have sex and they went for the company. Whilst that did happen indeed, the inmates that were “rewarded” with time in the camp brothels were the camp elite, who were better fed and were in better shape than your average prisoner, so it’s not like they all were going to the brothel for hugs. In fact, they were so crafty they used the camp brothels to cover up their black market trading, info gathering, and even rebellion. The famous Auschwitz uprising was planned in good part at the camp’s brothel where the Sonderkommandos went. I didn’t particularly care for the omission of these details and the oversimplification of this and other topics. It’s not just a matter of the book being short.
c) There’s a marked bias towards the psychopathological throughout the book that favours the more grotesque aspects of sex during Nazism to the detriment of the instances where there was something at least relatively normal. There’s very few chapters in which normal and healthy sexuality is on display, like what the adolescents of the Hitlerjugend and BDM were doing behind their elders’ back (the same as any hormonal teenager throughout history), but most chapters are about the negative, the pathological, the criminal, and the grotesque. So much so that at times I thought the book should’ve been entitled “Sexual Deviancy Under the Swastika,” such a title would’ve been definitely truer to the book’s content and style. But then, I suppose that’d have fueled mocking “Fifty Shades of the Third Reich” remarks as the author feared, wouldn’t it? Again, to avoid such possibilities, presentation and delivery are key.

In sum, I wish the topic had been done justice. It’s a very important part of history that historians don’t want to touch with a bargepole because it’s a difficult one to write about in the right manner, and there’s so much to unpack yet; so much that is still omitted that needs be told.

A sincere thank you providing me an advanced copy of “Sex Under the Swastika” in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity and leave my review voluntarily.

A remarkable study about everyday sexual habits under a liberal Weimar republic in comparison to the later tainted hypocritical attitude of the so called pure in mind and body Aryan german race overseen by the Nazi party. The writing is engrossing and at times erotic openly destroying the propaganda orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels. Hitler and his circle of evil would have us believe that their form of facism promoted good clean living backed up by strong bodies toned and shaped to perfection. The truth is more sombre, a diary of torture and loose sexual habits hidden behind a litany of lies. It is somewhat ironic that Goebbels preached abstinence and perfection when he himself presented as a small man, with a large head, crippled foot, and fragile body. He wanted to be accepted as a family man with a devoted wife Magda and six adoring children. He openly had numerous affairs, in particular Lida Baarova, an aspiring actress whose career was ruined and nearly ended with her being put to death at the end of world war 2. Hitler in his early political career had a strange relationship with his niece Geli Raubal, he was 19 years older. He was obsessed with her to the point of banishing friends and suitors from her side, keeping her alone and solely for his pleasure. There is evidence to suggest a sexual side to this relationship indeed rumour of gros kinky acts with Hitler insisting that his niece urinate on him. There is much reference made to the deplorable treatment of women during this time, so many violated and raped by advancing armies and attractive internees in concentration camps being offered the life of a prostitute as an alternative to death..” We learned we would be offered as prostitutes to the German forces, and those Latvian members of the German military, in one of their brothels. The idea filled me with dread in an instant. I was 17 years old and had never experienced sexual intercourse at that point in my life. I was scared of what was going to happen to me. I was the youngest of the seven of us and the other women who were in their twenties tried to offer some comfort to me, but they could do nothing else”.

This is a remarkable book compiled mostly from endless research and interviews with eyewitnesses and victims who lived through the horror of that time. It is not always an easy read and the sexual element, often described in great detail, is in my opinion an important part of the text if we are to fully understand the evil perpetrated by many on a defenceless few. Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written. Recommended.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into this book as hard as I tried. I couldn’t even finish it. The best part was the jacket synopsis.

What an incredibly engrossing read! I consider myself well-versed in WWII history, but from this book I learned so many things I had not come across before! The level of detail and historical research this author undertook was impressive and he showed great attention to detail. This read was unputdownable and I will be purchasing this in print. Anyone who reads this will be getting a unique inside look into the madness that was the upper echelons of the Nazi elite. I highly recommend this to all WWII history buffs who want to learn more and are tired of the same old stories.

There is a lot of interesting material here, including many personal accounts which are heartbreaking. There is also a lot of detail so not one for the prudish or squeamish. It’s very interesting and shines a spotlights on how sex is used to manipulate and control in a political and social sense. The author slipped into personal perspectives and almost value judgements on a couple of occasions, which made it less objectively credible for me.