The Exploitation Of Jewish Women During The Holocaust

Jewish women suffered during the Holocaust as victims of anti-semitism, as well as victims of their own biology. We will discuss specifically the exploitation of Jewish women during World War II, not to minimize the pain of Jewish men and other victims, but to recognize the heroinism of Jewish women who survived during the Holocaust. To understand the enormity of the Holocaust and how it affected Jewish women, it is important to examine their lives before Hitler 's presidency, compare their lives to those of German women, discuss the abuse they endured, and consider the skills needed to survive in concentration camps. In 1933, there were 500,000 people registered as Jews in Germany, excluding those who had officially left Judaism, or roughly …show more content…
“Women recognized that isolation and separation were created by the Nazi system in the camps. They also knew that, if strength mattered, if it was even possible, it could only exist with others” (Reigleman 1985). Women depended on one another for encouragement in the camps, and all agree that more so than any material possesion friendship was most important to survival. Mothers who lost their children would foster orphaned children and create new pseudo-families as way to honor lost loved ones. Women shared recipes on how to stretch food when it was scarce and imagined their best recipes to mentally escape starvation. Jewish women that were starving themselves would feed the unattended children in neighboring barracks, bringing the starving children the last of bread crusts, potato peels, or whatever nutrition they could find. They worked menial tasks sorting jewelry, clothes, shoes, and other personal items, to distribute among the camps and determine whatiss valuable. Women would also steal clothes, purses, and bits of cloth for one another to have minimum comforts, and patch clothes during the winter to stay. Regardless anyone caught stealing German property could be beat, starved, raped or put to death, Jewish women were willing to take this chance more readily for one another, while men were less dependent on one another in the Holocaust. Women were sexually exploited in the Holocaust, but trading sexual favors for food and other supplies, knowing they were at the disposal of German men, they were able to regain some level of control. In esscense, women 's domestic skills, relationships, and willingness to provide sex for favors created the illusion for women to take some measure of action and responsibility for the well-being of themselves and