Make Love and War

Abstract

In Nazi offices across occupied Europe, secretaries became involved romantically with their bosses. Century uses these relationships, in their various guises, as a tool to examine and determine the status of women under the Nazis. As their secretaries, these women had access to a certain amount of sensitive and confidential material; as their partners, lovers, or the mothers of their children, they were in a more privileged position. These romances serve to illustrate contradictions within Nazi policy and Century uses examples to show the societal impact of both permitted and illicit liaisons.