Gendered Suffering?: Women in Holocaust Testimonies

If the world of the German labor camps, concentration camps, and death camps has taught us anything, it is that abnormal living conditions prompt unpredictable responses. Listening to the voices of women who survived those domains reminds us of the severely diminished role that gendered behavior played during those cruel years. Even when we hear stories about mutual support among women in the camps, the full context of these narratives shows us how seldom such alliances made any difference in the long range effects of the ordeal for those who outlived it. Because it can never be segregated from the murder of the many, this chapter argues, the survival of the few cannot be used as a measure of why some women survived and others did not.