‘I was so drunk with her enchanting words that I could not find my bed anymore’: remembering same-sex desire in Block 10
Abstract
Block 10 of Auschwitz, home to the experimental sterilization of over 400 Jewish women, witnessed years of intimacy between the women inside. Looking at the testimonies, memoirs, and correspondence from three women of Block 10, Margit Neumann, Ima Schalom Spanjaard van Esso, and Theresia Soetendorp, this article chronicles memories of same-sex intimacy. Rather than confirming homosexual identities, this article complicates sexual categories and offers queer readings of women's experiences drawn from the methodologies of Anna Hájková, Claudia Schoppmann, and Roseanna Ramsden. The findings echo extant scholarship while concomitantly proposing subversive methods to understand testimonies provided by same-sex partnered survivors.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies
Gender and Feminist Studies
European history and politics
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Holocaust Studies
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 386–412
- Publication date
- 5 February 2026
- Language
- EN