CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/29/2019

Fascinating vernacular photos of cross-dressing Nazis in 'Soldier Studies'

Featured image is reproduced from Soldier Studies: Cross-Dressing in the Wehrmacht, Hatje Cantz's strange and haunting new collection of vernacular photographs of German Nazi soldiers dressed as women. "Even if the majority of soldiers were heterosexual, we can see evidence of homo- and transsexual orientation with unusual clarity," Martin Dammann writes. "This is remarkable, given that, if there is one genuine taboo in German photo albums of World War II (in contrast to, say, American ones), then it is the explicit representation of sexuality. This is even more striking if one considers that in the Third Reich homosexuality could lead to imprisonment in a concentration camp. Above all, it is surprising how openly these men express their desires: even in photos which show a larger group of men watching a performer whom one might assume to have a homo- or transsexual orientation, it does not appear that the heterosexual men are keeping their distance. Without exception, all these men seem to be completely abandoned to the moment and to their own desires, in a unique state of bliss that makes itself evident in all the photos, no matter how different the situations in which they came about."