Nazi exploitation
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Nazi exploitation (also Nazisploitation) is a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film that involves villainous National Socialists committing criminal acts of sexual nature often as camp or prison overseers in World War II settings. The most famous title (and the one that set the standards of the genre) is perhaps Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1974), a Canadian production. However, European countries, especially Italy had produced a large number of Nazi exploitation films until the 1980s. Prominent directors of the genre include Paolo Solvay (La bestia in calore (Beast in Heat aka SS Hell Camp)) (1977), Cesare Canevari L'ultima orgia del III Reich (Caligula Incarnated as Hitler aka Gestapo's Last Orgy)) (1977), and Alain Payet (Train spécial pour SS (Hitler's Lust Train aka Love Train for SS)) (1977).
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[edit] History
A blend of sexual imagery and Nazi themes was to be found as early as Des Teufels General (The Devil's General) (1955) by Helmut Käutner but many believe that the advent of the European Nazi exploitation film came as an attempt to leech off the success of Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1974). Whereas this is partly true, the Nazi exploitation subgenre presented an opportunity for Italian studios to make very low cost horror pictures whilst tapping a previously ignored market - the exploitation war film. The Italian films are different from "Ilsa" in many ways - they focus on far more extreme aspects of human abuse (the most extreme example is probably in SS Hell Camp).
In 2007, as part of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's tribute to expolitation cinema, Grindhouse (film), director Rob Zombie created a trailer for a fake film called Werewolf Women of the SS, starring Nicolas Cage and Udo Kier. According to Zombie, "Basically, I had two ideas. It was either going to be a Nazi movie or a women-in-prison film, and I went with the Nazis. There's all those movies like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS; Fräulein Devil; and Love Camp 7—I've always found that to be the most bizarre genre."
On December 18, 2007, Zombie posted an entry on his MySpace page, asking if people would want to see a feature-length version of Werewolf Women of the SS.[1]
In Spring, 2008, Wild Eye Releasing released the first feature-length Nazi exploitation movie in nearly 30 years, titled Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 and playing off the trappings of the genre, with many homages to earlier entries. The title itself is an extension of the adult film Stalag 69. A scene paying tribute to the ape monster in SS Hell Camp was allegedly removed from the film and appears in the DVD version of the film.
[edit] Themes
Most of the Nazi exploitation films have stalag settings with young female inmates like Women's Camp 119. Their tormentors are female or male Nazi officers in SS uniforms, usually speaking with a fake German accent and irrelevant or mispronounced German words, who often use "experiments" as excuses to implement sadistic physical violence (perhaps inspired by the work of people like Josef Mengele, who performed medical experiments that often killed people). There are scenes of sexual conduct or, more routinely, exposed nude bodies of the victimised inmates. The level of violence depicted in these films may often reach the gore level.
It should be noted this genre mainly focused on female SS officers. It presented them as lusty as well as buxom women who also sexually abused their male prisoners (mainly in non statutory female on male rape fashion). As the setting was a Stalag, the male prisoners were not Jewish prisoners but war prisoners - mainly American and British ones.
There are also many films that do not follow the conventions of Nazi exploitation, such as Bordel SS (1978) of José Bénazéraf, Salon Kitty (1976) of Tinto Brass. These films are not usually considered as "prototypical" Nazi exploitation films and qualify more for the "art house" sub-genre. However, because of the vague term, even the film Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter) (1974) by Liliana Cavani that obviously lacks the exploitation motive may be deemed one.
[edit] Legal status in Britain
Sometime in the early 1980s, Nazi exploitation films made their way onto the British market, made popular by the growing VHS home video technology. With major Hollywood studios steering clear of the new format, it was left to small, domestic companies to populate the shelves with tapes. A small company from England, GO Video, purchased the rights to an Italian film named SS Experiment Camp. The company ran a marketing campaign with full page ads showing a naked woman hanging from her feet, a swastika dangling from her wrist and an SS commander looming in the background. Adverts for the film in video rental stores became a target for protestors, who picketed such stores and petitioned for the film to be banned. After the Video Recordings Act, most of the Nazi exploitation films (labelled 'Nazi Nasties') became illegal in the UK. The following Nazi exploitation films were banned:
- SS Experiment Camp
- Beast In Heat (retitled version of SS Hell Camp)
- Gestapo's Last Orgy (American title Caligula Reincarnated as Hitler)
- Love Camp 7
- Deported Women of the SS Special Section (Le Deportate della sezione speciale SS)
Of the above films, only SS Experiment Camp is now available in the UK.
[edit] Israeli literature
In Israel specifically, during the 1960s "Stalag fiction" was pocket books whose stories focused on the unique features of this genre. The phenomena took ground in parallel to the 1961 Eichmann trial. Sales of this pornographic literature broke all records in Israel as hundreds of thousands of copies were sold at kiosks[2]. They were inspired by Ka-tzetnik 135633's The House of Dolls, the experiences of a Jewish girl prostituted in the "Joy Division" (Block 24) of the Auschwitz camp, the factuality of which is disputed[2].
[edit] Holocaust pornography
Holocaust pornography, known also as Stalag porn following the 1953 publication of the The House of Dolls,[2] functions at the extreme end of Jewish pornography. According to New York writer and columnist, Joshua Cohen, it is based in Israel and made mostly by Israelis. However, as part of the Nazi exploitation cinema, Holocaust porn is also made throughout Europe and North America, by Magnum Video (Italy) owned by Lions Gate, Videatrics and All American Video (US), Video City Video and others. The terror of the Holocaust is re-enacted in staged photographs and in films. The images and tapes, although grainy and black-and-white are clearly contemporary.[3] The combination of pornography and the Holocaust also appears in canonic Holocaust literature as an extreme part of its modern day representation.[4]
[edit] Bibliography
The genre is documented in Kamp Kulture : A History of Nazi Exploitation by Simon Whitechapel, Creation Books, 2003, ISBN 1840680814.
[edit] References
- ^ A Werewolf Women question. MySpace. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
- ^ a b c Israel’s Unexpected Spinoff From a Holocaust Trial, Isabel Kershner, New York Times, September 6, 2007
- ^ New York Press article on Jewish pornography and Holocaust pornography by Joshua Cohen
- ^ Jerusalem Film Festival. Documentaries.
[edit] External links
- Nazi Exploitation Cinema An exemplary listing of Nazi exploitation films
