A valuable collection of 21 articles by leading historians,
sociologists, writers, literary scholars, and survivors. Ofer
(Contemporary Jewish History/Hebrew Univ., Israel) and Weitzman
(Sociology and Law/George Mason Univ.) divide their book into four
sections: on life before the war, life in the ghettos, resistance
and rescue, and labor and concentration camps. Two contributors
express reservations about including women as a subcategory of
Holocaust studies at all; they are answered by historian Joan
Ringelheim's observation that "Jewish women carried the burdens of
sexual victimization, pregnancy, abortion, childbirth, killing of
newborn babies in the camps to save the mothers, care of children,
and many decisions about separation from children." A fine piece by
German historian Gisela Bock on "Ordinary Women in Nazi Germany"
notes that females in the Third Reich performed almost all the
political and administrative roles that their male counterparts
did, thus countering Claudia Koontz's hypothesis that they occupied
a "separate sphere." Particularly valuable are several memoirs by
survivors about daily conditions and coping mechanisms in labor,
concentration and death camps. And in a review of three memoirs by
Auschwitz survivors, literary scholar Myrna Goldenberg notes how
women formed emotional support networks, known as "camp sisters,"
while men tended to be more isolated. This is not the first
collection of its kind, but it does bring together a particularly
impressive interdisciplinary group from the US, Europe and Israel.
It also reveals how much scholarly work remains to be done. It
would be useful, for instance, to have some detailed comparative
studies of male versus female behavior and to learn more about
topics left uncovered here. Still what is included in Ofer's and
Weitzman's collection is substantial and will help readers
appreciate how gender sometimes significantly influenced an
individual's fate during the Holocaust. (Kirkus Reviews)
As Jews throughout Europe faced Nazi persecution, Jewish
women-wives, daughters, mothers-encountered special problems and
had particular vulnerabilities. This is the first book of original
scholarship devoted to women in the Holocaust. By examining women's
unique responses, their incredible resourcefulness, their courage,
and their suffering, the book enhances our understanding of the
experiences of all Jews during the Nazi era. The introductory essay
by Lenore Weitzman and Dalia Ofer stakes out new intellectual
territory and shows how questions about gender lead to a richer and
more finely nuanced understanding of the Holocaust. Testimonies of
Holocaust survivors, written especially for this book, shed light
on women's lives in the ghettos, the Jewish resistance movement,
and the concentration camps. The narratives personalize and
exemplify many of the larger themes explored in other chapters by
Holocaust historians, sociologists, and literary experts. These
chapters explore the variety and complexity of gender differences
during the Holocaust. The culturally defined prewar roles of Jewish
men and women endowed them with different spheres of knowledge,
expertise, and skills with which to face the Nazi onslaught. During
the war the Nazis imposed different regulations, work requirements,
and sanctions on the two sexes. Women had to assume new roles as
family protectors during the ghetto period, when men were more
vulnerable. In contrast women, and especially mothers, were more
vulnerable in the concentration camps. The detailed portraits of
women in these chapters show us their individuality, strength, and
humanity. Contributors to this volume: Gershon Bacon Yehuda Bauer
Daniel Blatman Gisela Bock Ruth Bondy Liza Chapnik Ida Fink Myrna
Goldenberg Sara R. Horowitz Paula E. Hyman Marion Kaplan Felicja
Karay Bronka Klibansk Lawrence L. Langer Dalia Ofer Renee Poznanski
Joan Ringelheim Nechama Tec Michal Unger Lidia Rosenfeld Vago
Lenore J. Weitzman
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