Historical story

What did Poles think about pedophilia a hundred years ago? [18+]

Where do pedophiles come from? What is the source of this perversion? Does anyone who rapes children deserve to be called a pedophile? Are old people prone to molesting minors? And can pedophilia be resorted to ... by chance? Pre-war knowledge of sexology makes hair stand on the head.

The pre-war newspapers never mentioned pedophilia. And it is difficult to pass over this fact to the agenda. Sexological terminology penetrated the public very quickly and easily. On the wave of fascination with psychoanalysis, newspapers popularized such slogans as nymphomania and satire. People wrote with love about perversions, inversions, quantitative and qualitative deviations. Nobody had to explain to the read Pole what exhibitionism or masochism was. Pedophilia - at least as a word - was under censorship after all.

Portrait of an anonymous girl from the interwar period

Of course, specialists knew her. The pre-war Lodz venereologist Paweł Klinger wrote briefly:"by this name we understand sexual intercourse with children". For the Warsaw lawyer Paweł Horoszowski, the definition was no longer as obvious. He insisted in the 1930s to distinguish between real pedophiles and people who raped children ... just by accident.

Could pedophilia be accidental?

According to this specialist - who is the co-author of the venerable reference encyclopedia of criminal law - there were two completely separate groups. In the first one there were men "who commit sexual acts against minors for lack of a normal sexual object." "These are the vast majority" - he emphasized, noting, however, that they mainly target older children, especially adolescent girls.

Portrait of an anonymous girl. Second decade of the 20th century

It was in this category that men who used the services of 10-year-old prostitutes just because they looked fresh, healthy and ... cheap . Only the second group showed a tendency to paedophilia erotica. So "sexual inclination towards children." Horoszowski explained:

The victims of the first perpetrators (...) are essentially second-sex individuals who look like mature people, while the victims of the real pedophiles are children, from an early age (even from two , three years), both of the same sex and the opposite sex.

Lawyer argued that pedophiles can be found among "psychopathic, mentally retarded individuals, (...) infantile individuals". Most often, however, this perversion was to occur in the "showing signs of dementia."

Natural pedophilia in the elderly?

Other researchers also pointed to the common inclination towards young children in this group. And they even went so far as to justify the actions of the rapists. British gender popularizer William Martin argued that "older men" naturally have "increased sex drive". The doctor believed that this drive "usually finds an outlet in lascivious acts of little girls . ”.

It was about the tendency resulting from the aging of the organism, so it was not necessary to be too strict with matters arising from this background. Similar comments can also be found in the works of the Krakow sexologist, Stanisław Kurkiewicz, and finally in the pages of the "Warsaw Medical Journal".

Superstitions as the root of pedophilia

Scientists usually wrote about men who were mentally incapacitated and therefore deprived of inhibitions. Paweł Klinger was convinced, however, that many pedophiles acted calculatingly. Even if they were not driven by an unstoppable drive, they were driven to hideous deeds by absurd superstitions. "Old people very often commit pedophilia for rejuvenation purposes, because they think that, according to the existing folk beliefs, body contact with a young, innocent creature has a rejuvenating effect" - explained the Lodz physician.

Warsaw policewoman with a child in her arms. 1939

Klinger gained popularity as a sexologist. His real specialization, however, was venereology. Since he dealt with the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, he knew perfectly well that another superstition was even more widespread. And it causes incomparably greater harm to children. Both in Poland and "among the various strata of all nations" it was believed that "cohabitation with an innocent girl" made it possible to get rid of any venereal disease. Especially syphilis.

"According to this superstition, the disease disappears and the virgin will be fine," explained Klinger. “It is easy to imagine what crimes this kind of superstition leads to among the unenlightened masses. Lawyers know it well, because there is probably no judge who would not encounter this superstition in judicial practice. "

For example, the doctor cited the story of a meeting with one of his own patients. The woman was the wife of a shoemaker, and she asked to be examined "for Franca". So:for syphilis.

Portrait of an anonymous girl from the beginning of the 20th century

When asked what reason she suspected that she was at risk of syphilis, the woman shamelessly replied:

"Oh, well, because through the keyhole I saw my husband taking the grandpa's girl in his lap."

When I asked how old this girl was, I heard that she was 8 years old. On examination, it turned out that the shoemaker's wife was in fact sick. What happened next - I do not know, because after this visit she has withdrawn from my observation.

Pedophilia among "normal people"

Klinger also mentioned degenerates who commit pedophilia because "nobody and nothing" "works" on them. "They are drawn to children by the power of the contrast between their debauchery and the child's innocence, which stimulates the dull senses" - he explained. He pointed to sadists, alcoholics and, finally, vagrants for whom "the lack of resistance on the part of a child gives an opportunity for easy prey." However, he was not afraid to admit that the list of degenerates did not end there.

He wrote about a "sad but true fact." So, about the presence of pedophiles also among "normal people". Or at least those who were able to successfully hide their abnormalities from the world.