Gwendoline Cicottini studied modern history at the University of Aix-Marseille (M.A.) 2010–2015. 2018–2020 she was a scholar of the Gerda Henkel Foundation. In 2020 she completed her binational doctorate at the University of Tübingen and the University of Aix-Marseille on forbidden relations between German women and French prisoners of war and their children. Since 2021 she has worked as a research intern at the Buchenwald Memorial.
Research Focus
History of National Socialism, history of forced labor (especially French prisoners of war), history of sexuality
Publications:
Monograph
Relations interdites. Prisonniers de guerre français et femmes allemandes pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Paris 2024.
Articles in specialist journals and anthologies
A Dangerous Game: The Forbidden Relationships between French POWs and German Women During World War II, in: Journal of War & Culture Studies, 16:2, 148-162, 2023, DOI: 10.1080/17526272.2023.2193764.
The forbidden relationships between German women and French prisoners of war during the Second World War: From criminal law consequences to the resulting children, in: Insa Eschebach/Christine Glauning/Silke Schneider (eds.), Verbotener Umgang mit ‘Fremdvölkischen’. Criminalisation and Persecution Practices under National Socialism. Berlin 2023, pp. 150-165.
Relations interdites, enfants oubliés? Les relations entre femmes allemandes et prisonniers de guerre français pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, in: Paul Maurice, Etienne Dubslaff, Maude Williams (eds.), Deutsch-französische Fraternisierungen in Kriegszeiten. Interdisciplinary approaches to fraternisation in the modern Franco-German conflicts (1799- 1945), Stuttgart 2019, pp. 133-150.
Collaboration on exhibitions:
Still there! - Children from forbidden relationships between Germans and prisoners of war or forced labourers. Travelling exhibition of the Sandbostel camp memorial (2024)
