Gender and Postwar Justice: The Denazification of Women in the British Occupation Zone of Postwar Germany, 1945-1955

This project examines women's denazification in the British occupation zone of postwar Germany. It asks how assumptions about femininity (particularly regarding women's roles in Nazi Germany) shaped British denazification policy, and how women's personal narratives produced for denazification purposes contributed to popular myths of female wartime victimhood. It is methodologically grounded in the gendered analysis of primary sources, including British policy documents, women's political screening questionnaires, and records from women's trials. It makes an original contribution to scholarship by bridging the gap between research on denazification and a feminist historiography skeptical of sweeping narratives of female victimhood in Nazi society.