Holocaust Pornography: Profaning the Sacred in Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS

Sado-masochistic iconography has long exploited Nazi imagery by linking sex with power and violence. By using the 1974 sexploitation film Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS as a case study, I explore what happens to Holocaust memory when the Holocaust is eroticized. Based on a close textual analysis of the film, in-depth interviews with the film's director and stars, and a content analysis of a representative sample of 508 web sites related to the film, I analyze the production and reception of the film in light of the controversies surrounding Holocaust representation in popular culture. I describe how cultural content, historical trauma, and aesthetic form interplay in the film, and question why Holocaust memory is being eroticized, genderered, and profaned.