Marriage Practices and Family Law in Nazi-occupied Ukraine of 1941-1944
Abstract
The purpose of the research paper is to analyze the changes in family law introduced by the German administration in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine and highlight the motivation of marital relations of the local population during the occupation period of 1941-1944 and their role in survival strategies in the conditions of the occupation reality.
The scientific novelty is in determining the place and role of marriage practices in the Nazi-occupied territories of Ukraine, which, in the system of survival strategies and adaptation of the local population to the Nazi ‘new order’, were used to circumvent the laws and regulations of the new government; as well as in the scientific reconstruction of the occupation legal field, which regulated marital and family relations. The research methodology is based on the theoretical insights of the leading scientific schools of military anthropology, social history, and gender studies, interdisciplinary techniques, as well as the appropriate terminological apparatus.
Conclusions. Despite the extremely difficult circumstances of the war and occupation, the civilian population of the Ukrainian lands captured by the Wehrmacht and its allies tried to adapt to new challenges and establish everyday life. Intimate relationships and marriages took place in the society of that time, new families were formed, and children were born. With the aim of codifying gender relations and regulating social conditions, the German occupation administration, relying on Soviet legislation, formed a regulatory legal field designed to regulate marital and family relations in the local community. The regulations, adapted to military reality, were aimed at codifying the specified sphere: official registration of marriage, family relations, fixing the obligations and rights of spouses during family life and after divorce, establishing sanctions for violations of current legislation, etc. The nature of the war and the occupation regime caused the mass use of the institution of marriage as a means of survival, avoiding oppression and repression, being taken to work in Germany, and obtaining protection and material wealth. At the same time, life situations related to such a delicate sphere as intimate relationships often went beyond legal norms, causing personal dramas and even tragedies.
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