Women in the Holocaust

Dear Readers,

“The future historian will have to dedicate a page to the Jewish woman in the war. She will fill an important page in Jewish history for her courage and resilience. Thanks to her, thousands of families managed to survive the horror of those days...”
Emanuel Ringelblum, June 1942

The reality of World War II and the Holocaust forced women to cope with new, unforeseen circumstances and fundamental dilemmas, compelling them to make difficult and often fateful decisions. They did their best to protect their families, to obtain food, to find work, and to defend their children—sometimes even paying the unbearable price of separation. Women took on a number of roles at that time: they ran public soup kitchens and children’s dorms, they worked as teachers and caretakers, as doctors and nurses, and they even joined partisan groups and underground resistance movements.

The current issue provides a platform for the unique voice of women during the Holocaust: a review of a gender studies approach to the female experience in the Holocaust; a discussion of the exciting lives of Lena Küchler-Silberman and Rachel Auerbach, and their rescue and relief efforts during the Holocaust; and an account of the female inmates of the death-camps Ravensbrück and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Editorial staff
Spring Issue 2017