Jewish women in the Holocaust

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Jewish women in the Holocaust were imprisoned in European Nazi concentration camps or in hiding, to avoid capture by the Nazis. Of the estimated six million Jews killed^[1] during the Holocaust, two million were women.^[2] Under Nazi rule, Jewish women were sexually harassed, raped, verbally abused, beaten, and killed. They were used for Nazi human experimentation.^[3] Jewish women also played a distinct role in the resistance and partisan groups, although they faced continued gender-specific problems.^[4]

Social networks[]

Scholars have argued that women demonstrated more nurturing interpersonal behavior in internment/concentration camps than their male counterparts,^[5] generating increased emotional resilience. However, others^{[by whom?]} have noted that men also created social support networks in the camps.^[6]

Women's social interactions improved their survival chances.^[5]: 379 An interview with a Holocaust survivor named Rose described the bonds the women formed:

...[women were] picking each other like monkeys [for lice]… holding each other and keeping each other warm…. Someone puts their arm around and you remember…I think more women survived… the men were falling like flies. Men were friends there too. They talked to each other but they didn’t, wouldn’t sell their bread for an apple for the other guy. They wouldn’t sacrifice anything. See, that was the difference.^[5]: 380

Sexual abuse[]

Being Jewish and female in the Holocaust doubled one's vulnerabilities.^[7]: 80 Women's reproductive abilities were negatively impacted as a result of the genocidal conditions. For example, several women Holocaust survivors noted in their memoirs that they developed amenorrhea, which ultimately reduced their chances of ever having children.^[7]: 82 One of the major vulnerabilities of women in the Holocaust was the likelihood of rape.^[8] Women were sometimes raped then murdered.^[7]: 83 One SS officer was reported to have, "had the custom of standing at the doorway… and feeling the private parts of the young women entering the gas bunker. There were also instances of SS men of all ranks pushing their fingers into the sexual organs of pretty young women."^{[7]: 84 [9]}

Despite strict racial laws and military regulations restricting interactions between Jews and non-Jews, SS soldiers and police units frequently raped Jewish women. It was reported that "50-80% of the SS troops and police units that operated in Eastern Europe were guilty of the sexual assault of Jewish women",^[10] not only for their own sexual pleasure but also to exert their dominance over Jewish women and dehumanize them. The perpetrators of the Holocaust perceived Jewish people as being incapable of human emotion. Many women were raped and then killed in front of their husbands and families almost immediately to avoid any possibility of a half-Jewish baby. In the early 20th century, a German having sexual relations with a Jew was considered Rassenschande (racial defilement) and was punishable by jail or death. These rapes sometimes also occurred at SS unit parties where drunken soldiers took turns raping all, until the women lay bleeding. Because the officers and soldiers were usually male, some have surmised that Jewish men didn't face the same risk of rape as women,^[10] but sexual abuse of men and boys were not uncommon.^[11]

Childbirth also endangered women's survival in the concentration camps, affecting them physically and emotionally. Once labor was over and the baby was born, the women were vulnerable to being killed along with their newborns. One memoir describes some of the sadistic acts on pregnant women: "SS men and women amuse themselves by beating pregnant women with clubs and whips, [having them] torn by dogs, dragged around by their hair and kicked in the stomach with heavy German boots. Then when [the pregnant Jewish women] collapsed, they were thrown into the crematory – alive."^{[7]: 86  : 376}

Gender versus identity[]

Jewish women and motherhood[]

It had been noted that major disparities between mother and father figures were caused by the gender roles of Jewish men and women imprisoned during the Holocaust.^[12]: 155 Women often described their experiences in the Holocaust in maternal ways.^[12]: 156 The women commonly referred to themselves as surrogate mothers.^[12]: 158 Women were able to use their nurturing and domestic nature to describe their experiences in the camps. To them, being a woman in the Holocaust meant that they performed every role of a woman. They considered themselves as a sister, a mother, a daughter, etc.^[12]: 175 Motherhood represented their gender as a woman, therefore, they were constantly worried and looking out for their children. One female survivor said, "We were so afraid for our children. We wouldn’t let our children out of our sight when they were going down to play or something."^[12]: 174

Jewish women as partisans[]

Jewish women faced distinct challenges and played a unique role through their involvement in the Jewish partisan movement, a resistance movement to Nazi Germany throughout Nazi-occupied Europe in World War Two. These Jewish women escaped from Jewish ghettos throughout the occupied territory to join the partisans in the forest to escape Nazi persecution and enhance their chances of survival.^[13] Many women were successful in their endeavors to join partisan units, specifically in the Bielski detachment.^[13] The Bielski detachment maintained the highest amount of female partisans, with approximately 364 women of the 1,018 members.^[13] However, partisan units were largely male, and military activities were the role of men. So when women fled Nazi persecution to reach these units, they generally did so "because they were looking for a rescue, not because they were fighting the enemy."^[13]

The social cohesion of these partisan units in some circumstances reflected larger societal attitudes, including gendered stereotypes and expectations, and the roles relegated to female members within were influenced by these factors. Subsequently, women who joined the partisans were generally "excluded from combat duty and from leadership positions"^[4] and were as well confronted with gender-specific vulnerabilities. Research has revealed that many women were aware before entering the forest that "the possibility of rape or murder was real."^[6] Once accepted into the partisans, women were often pressured into relationships with men in these units, either willingly or unwillingly, due to the protection they could afford.^[6] Importantly, under many circumstances women were not subject to discrimination and were regarded as assets that could provide valuable contributions to the partisan units. Specifically in the Bielski detachment women played a pivotal role in running the camp, providing food, and when needed, aid to injured or ill partisans as nurses or members of the medical staff.^[13]

Jewish women in the resistance[]

Both men and women were part of the resistance but women are often overlooked when discussing resistance roles. Women would be used to attract the attention of Nazis and lure them into an ambush or assassinate them personally. Some women also worked individually to support the resistance. Freddie Oversteegen was 14 when she joined the Dutch resistance group and her older sister was 16. While members of the resistance group, the sisters met Hannie Schaft, and the three worked as a team to kill Nazi soldiers. The young age of these girls allowed them to evade suspicion and exploit weaknesses in Nazi security. The trio primarily lured enemy soldiers into ambushes staged by older members of their partisan cell.^[14]

Niuta Teitelbaum, a 24-year-old Jewish woman nicknamed “Little Wanda with the braids”, and a graduate of Warsaw University, was a high-value target for the Gestapo. Teitelbaum would dress as a Polish farm girl and would attempt to entice Nazi soldiers into a secluded location. Once the Nazi lowered his guard, Teitelbaum would kill him with a pistol. In one instance, Teitelbaum shot and killed two Nazis while injuring a third. Dissatisfied, she followed the wounded Nazi to a field hospital, entered the hospital disguised in a physician's coat, and killed both the Nazi guard and the police officer that was treating the man that she had injured.^[15]

Jewish women in labor camps[]

Many women believed that labor camps were an opportunity to work for their freedom from the ghettos, but other women were caught while trying to escape from the control of Hitler and his army. However, the reality of the camps was much more brutal than the popular understanding of them. Rena Kornreich Gelissen remembers telling herself “We are young…we will work hard and be set free” (Gelissen and Macadam pg. 55). Gelissen, who went into a labor camp willingly, unaware of their actual nature, said this was her original conception of a labor camp. Inside the labor camps, the reality became apparent. The women were stripped of their clothes, their belongings, and their hair. “They shear our heads, arms; even our pubic hair is discarded just as quickly and cruelly as the rest of the hair on our bodies” (Gelissen and Macadam pg. 58).

Selections[]

The main goal of the Holocaust was to eliminate the Jews. However, the Nazi regime maintained a large population of Jewish workers in the labor camps. To facilitate the Nazi goal of Jewish genocide, the labor camps conducted "selections", held at random. Women were lined up to be killed or spared, largely at random. Gelissen said, “Selections are sporadic. There is no telling how often they occur…” she also goes on to say “There is usually one SS man who stands in judgement while the rest of them watch, and sometimes there are two SS man, both must give you the thumb toward life” (Gelissen and Macadam pg. 133).

Diet[]

According to Gelissen, “if the war is going well for the Germans, once in a while [they] get a slice of meat in [their] soup or with [their] bread” (Gelissen and Macadam pg. 136). She says, “we lick our open palms slowly, savoring the smear of margarine or mustard” (Gelissen and Macadam pg. 136). Apart from these small portions daily, they got morning tea, soup for lunch, and bread for dinner. These were not delicacies, but most of the time just water and less of what it actually was supposed to be. They are always hungry and wanting more. I don’t know which to long for more – food or freedom” (Gelissen and Macadam pg. 137).

Work[]

Work in the labor camps was intense, due to harsh weather conditions and constant supervision by the SS. Prisoners often conducted manual labor in full sun, "when it was hot on [their] heads” (Gelissen and Macadam pg. 154). Gelissen did many different jobs while she was in these labor camps. She said the physical pain was incomparable to anything she had experienced. “We are working on the new blocks, digging sand out of a deep hole and shifting it through the mesh nets,” however Rena had done this work before and she says “Our hands are hard. They no longer bleed from the long hours of work…” (Gelissen and Macadam pg. 141).

^[16]

External links[]

• Spots of Light: Women in the Holocaust. An online exhibition by Yad Vashem. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
• Lenore J. Weitzman, Women in the Holocaust, at The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme
• Women During the Holocaust, on My Jewish Learning
• Helen Frink, Images of Women in the Holocaust, on the Greenfield Community College in Western Massachusetts YouTube channel, 4 April 2007

References[]