Masculinity and friendship between male prisoners in KL Dachau, Mauthausen, and Sachsenhausen

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Project Summary (Please do not exceed 4000 characters, including spaces): My research looks at friendships, broadly defined, between male prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps Dachau, Mauthausen, and Sachsenhausen. Taking inspiration from interdisciplinary literature from fields such as psychology, gender studies, and the history of emotions, I will analyse the role that friendships between male prisoners played in prisoner society within these camps. Gender plays a key role in my research as I will be highlighting the role of masculinity in shaping behaviours and sentiments within these male friendships. Having studied the nature and functions of these friendships I shall then go on to assess the role these relationships played within black market and resistance networks, and prisoner hierarchies and power structures.Ultimately my research should be of value to the historiography of concentration camps and other sites of detention, gendered behaviour in extreme situations, and the history of friendship.