Love between Enemies explores the forbidden relationships which formed between foreign prisoners of war and German women during the Second World War. From the desire to have fun to deep love commitments, this study examines the range of motivations which lay behind these relationships, tapping into new documents and drawing on thousands of court cases to offer a transnational analysis of personal relations between enemies. Highlighting gender roles, the contradictory reactions of the communities surrounding the couples, and the diplomatic tensions resulting from the severe punishments, this is a history of everyday life which throws light on this subversive aspect of intimacy in wartime Nazi Germany. Comparing the 'transgressing' couples to other groups persecuted for their cultural or private choices, Scheck demonstrates how the relationships were silenced or justified in the post-war memory of prisoners, while the German women, who had been publicly shamed, continued to live with the stigma, and even illegitimate children, for the years that followed.

‘A scholarly masterpiece. It tackles one of the most fascinating problems and most flaunted prohibitions of the Nazi racial state, the love affairs between prisoners of war from the western Allies and German women. Drawing on an unparalleled range of sources from all sides, Raffael Scheck has written the definitive account. A must read.'

Nicholas Stargardt - University of Oxford

‘Scheck’s meticulous investigation of the military prosecution of illicit relationships reveals the contradictions and absurdity of the Nazi faith in ‘the healthy feeling of the Volk’ as a means of enforcing racial consciousness. His juxtaposition of surprising tolerance and harsh punishments demonstrates the power of the human need for connection in face of the hatreds of war.’

Annette Timm - University of Calgary

‘Based on wonderfully rich archival sources, this important addition to scholarship takes seriously intimate relationships between prisoners of war and civilians in twentieth-century Europe. Raffael Scheck is to be commended for his on-going insistence that narratives of ‘everyday’ women and men in wartime deserve to be highlighted.’

Lisa Todd - University of New Brunswick

‘This ground-breaking work brings to light the many intimate relationships between Western POWs and local women in Nazi Germany. Resisting simple narratives of guilt, innocence or heroism under duress, Scheck underlines the complexities of relationships ‘between enemies’. With consummate skill, he connects these moving individual stories to much broader questions about wartime justice, ground-level war experiences, and international relations.’

Julia Torrie - St. Thomas University

‘… fascinating … Scheck is to be congratulated, not only for the sheer amount of legwork he has put into archival research in several different countries, but also for his careful, nuanced interpretations.’

Matthew Stibbe Source: European History Quarterly

‘Built from a rich collection of archival material across six countries, Scheck’s rigour and insightful analysis is due wide applause. This is much more than a study of the policing of illicit relationships on the German home front. Love Between Enemies will be of great interest and influence to those studying everyday lives and emotions during wartime.’

Alan Malpass Source: International Journal of Military History and Historiography

‘… a fascinating insight into everyday life on the German home front, the wartime politicisation of the private sphere, and the gap between propaganda and lived experience.’

Fionnuala Walsh Source: Family & Community History

‘Raffael Scheck’s study is characterized in particular by the impressive wealth of the source material that he analyzed and evaluated for this project. It therefore greatly enriches the scholarly historiography of the Second World War.’

Ann-Kristin Kolwes Source: Historische Zeitschrift

‘The book is placed at the crossroads of historiography on diplomatic relations between Germans, Allied powers and the Swiss agencies as well the working of German military and civilian legal frameworks. Steeped in rich archival sources, the monograph’s eight chapters span the dual legal framework, forbidden relations between Western POWs and German women, their discovery, POWs’ court-martial records, Special Court trials of German women, case studies, and memory.‘

Vandana Joshi Source: Cultural and Social History

‘Scheck’s masterful gendered analysis of the relationship dynamics, as well as what the denunciations, trials, and punishments reveal about the workplace, society, and the legal system under Nazism, is most compelling … Scheck’s excellent study will be useful to gender historians, legal historians, and even historians of memory.’

Melissa Kravetz Source: Journal of Modern History

‘In this groundbreaking work, Raffael Scheck draws upon an impressive range of German, French, Swiss, Belgian, Austrian, and American archives to tell their stories … Love Between Enemies is a remarkable book.’

Sandra Ott Source: Central European History