Can't Women Kill?: Women, Violence, and Power in Nazi Germany

This thesis examines the role of women as perpetrators of violence within the Nazi apparatus, challenging traditional narratives that depict them as passive supporters or victims of their circumstances. Through a Foucauldian analysis, it explores how ordinary German women were conditioned by Nazi propaganda, manipulated discourses, and social expectations to engage in acts of brutality, often without direct orders. Case studies, including Erna Petri and Ilse Koch illustrate how women actively participated in the mechanisms of state violence without rank or official status, raising critical questions about complicity and moral responsibility. This study interrogates the bounds of guilt, arguing that participation in a system of oppression does not always require orders or aggressive coercion, but often stems from the normalization of cruelty and the internalization of and commitment to harmful ideological frameworks. The Nazi state’s rigid stratification of gender both confined and enabled women, shaping their capacity for violence, while reinforcing expectations of obedience and conformity. This research contributes to an ongoing and broader discussion of power, complicity, and the ways individuals become enmeshed in structures of oppression by examining the motivations and agency of the women who participated in genocide. Understanding this historical dynamic offers insight into how ideological radicalisation and social conditions continue to shape participation in and resistance to state violence and injustices in the modern world.