Abstract
This article maps out and evaluates several important debates in the historiography of German women's lives under National Socialism as they relate to the question of women's perpetration of racist behavior or their victimization under Nazi policies directed towards them. The following analysis focuses on, although is not limited to, three key areas of historiographical contestation: 1) the problematization of traditional definitions of "perpetration" of racist behavior and "support" for Nazi policies within the framework of women's participation in Nazi organizations and social programs; 2) the specification of acts of "resistance" by German women to Nazi policies that would indicate their opposition to either those policies directly or to Nazi ideology more generally; and 3) the historicization of German women's positive experiences or negative sufferings as a result of the pro-natalist (or anti-natalist) policies geared towards them.
In each of these cases, the essay problematizes categories of the