The Holocaust Is Having a #MeToo Moment

Long silenced and denied, the question of sexual violence during the Holocaust has been the focus of growing interest in the past two decades. As Marisa Fox-Bevilacqua has argued, it is time for a #MeToo moment in Holocaust studies. A particular sore spot is the fact that not all instances of sexual violence were perpetrated by Nazis or bystanders: A significant number of cases of rape and sexual coercion took place among Holocaust victims themselves. The realization that some, overwhelmingly male, victims assaulted other victims makes for a particularly disturbing insight. How are we to make sense of it in our understanding of the Shoah? Some may ask whether it is even relevant to the bigger picture; in most cases, both victims and perpetrators were murdered by the Nazis.