Women in the Holocaust
Women in the Holocaust
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Introduction
"Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they're sending all the Jews....If it's that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those faraway and uncivilized places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says they're being gassed." - Anne Frank
The Holocaust can be defined as the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning, sacrifice by fire (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2010). The holocaust occurred when many German Nazi’s believed that many individuals (e.g. mentally and physically challenged, homosexuals), religions (e.g., Judaism, Catholic), and Cultures (e.g. Gypsies, Slovakians) were unworthy of existence. The Nazi’s considered themselves a superior race and were guilty of genocide through horrendous acts of human extermination.
In this paper I will discuss this heartbreaking period, and the dangerous and frightful times women faced. I will also discuss the constant humiliation and torture which went along with experiments. In addition, I will speak about jobs given to them in and outside the camps such as prostitution. My focus will be on things such as rape, sexual harassment, murder from gas chambers, treatment of people, and on issues women faced with their children in these camps. Finally, I will like to say that although women and men both shared frightening events, each gender encountered unique emotions and experiences.
Prior to these concentration camps many women were forced to move into ghettos. For example, a ghetto such as Warsaw was guarded with Polish, German, and Jewish Police. It has been recorded that, “Conditions in
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Introduction
"Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they're sending all the Jews....If it's that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those faraway and uncivilized places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says they're being gassed." - Anne Frank
The Holocaust can be defined as the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning, sacrifice by fire (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2010). The holocaust occurred when many German Nazi’s believed that many individuals (e.g. mentally and physically challenged, homosexuals), religions (e.g., Judaism, Catholic), and Cultures (e.g. Gypsies, Slovakians) were unworthy of existence. The Nazi’s considered themselves a superior race and were guilty of genocide through horrendous acts of human extermination.
In this paper I will discuss this heartbreaking period, and the dangerous and frightful times women faced. I will also discuss the constant humiliation and torture which went along with experiments. In addition, I will speak about jobs given to them in and outside the camps such as prostitution. My focus will be on things such as rape, sexual harassment, murder from gas chambers, treatment of people, and on issues women faced with their children in these camps. Finally, I will like to say that although women and men both shared frightening events, each gender encountered unique emotions and experiences.
Prior to these concentration camps many women were forced to move into ghettos. For example, a ghetto such as Warsaw was guarded with Polish, German, and Jewish Police. It has been recorded that, “Conditions in
Cited: Aktion Reinhard Camps. (2004, March). Retrieved December 2, 2010, from http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/ghettos.html Bauer, Yeduda. 2001. A History of the Holocaust. New York: Franklin Watts/Scholastic Chapnik, L. (1998). The Grodno ghetto and it’s underground: A personal narrative. In Ofer, D. and Weitzman, L. (Eds.) (pp.109-119). Women in the holocaust. New Haven; Yale University Press Merriam Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 2010. http://www.m-w.com Rittner, C., & Roth, J. (1993). Different Voices: Women of the Holocaust. Paragon House: New York. Ofer, D.,& Weitzman, L. (Eds) (1998). Women of the Holocaust. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press