Queer Women in Nazi Germany

Have you ever wondered how queer life survived under Nazism? Join award-winning historian Samuel Huneke in conversation with writer and curator Elena Gross for an exploration of I Will Not Abandon You: Queer Women in Nazi Germany.

A history of queer and trans life in the harrowing years of Nazi rule, I Will Not Abandon You showcases tales of love, resistance, and complicity under fascism. Based on a decade of archival research, it takes readers into a hidden world, from the balls that lesbian activists organized in wartime Berlin to the concentration camps where women accused of loving women were murdered. Following a diverse cast of characters, this history reveals both the oppression that queer women faced and how they resisted fascism in solidarity with one another. Arguing that this solidarity offers a compelling alternative to today’s fractured identity politics, I Will Not Abandon You is a vital, new history of queer life under fascism and a call to rethink the foundations of progressive politics today.

Samuel Huneke is a historian of Modern Europe and associate professor of history at George Mason University. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany and A Queer Theory of the State. He writes regularly for public venues and has consulted for museums and on documentary films. He is currently at work on a new book titled Queer: A History of the World.

Elena Gross (she/they) is an independent writer and curator living in Oakland, CA. She has presented her writing and research at institutions and conferences across the U.S., including Nook Gallery, Southern Exposure, KADIST, Harvard College, YBCA, California College of the Arts, and the GLBT History Museum. Her most recent writing can be found in the publication Blood Sweat & Time: Emerging Perspectives on Mildred Howard and Adrian Burrell (Sming Sming Books). Elena is the co-editor, along with Julie R. Enszer, of OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture (Rutgers University Press), winner of the 2023 Lambda Literary Awards for LGBTQ Anthologies.

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