This book brings together international scholars to examine and share new approaches in the history of womens rescue and resistance during the Holocaust and the Armenian and Rwandan genocide.
The activities of women during the Holocaust have often been forgotten, erased, misunderstood, or intentionally distorted. Jewish women and those of all faiths fought with dignity, compassion, and courage to save others from the murderous Nazi regime in many nations. Women played essential roles operating educational, cultural, humanitarian and armed resistance initiatives, thereby preserving social customs, religious traditions, lives and histories in defiance of oppression in the Holocaust and other genocides. There remain many untold, heroic stories of women challenging the Nazis with pen, pistol or sabotage.
With contributions from a collection of authors, some of whom are descendants of resistance leaders, the chapters focus on different kinds of activities which are considered as forms of resistance or Amidah: strengthening solidarity among themselves, creating open, but hidden spaces for cultural life, promoting religious or political activities, acting as leaders in networks of defiance and transferring important information within the camp or to the outer world, among others. Discussing the efforts to respond with humanity to the inhumanity that these women confronted, this volume will open up avenues of inquiry that are critical in the face of rising antisemitism and authoritarian movements that threaten democracy and mutual respect.
This volume will be of value to scholars and students interested in Second World War History, Womens and Gender History, Jewish Studies, and the history of the Holocaust.
This book brings together international scholars to examine and share new approaches in the history of womens rescue and resistance during the Holocaust and the Armenian and Rwandan genocide.
Part 1: Identifying Gendered Courage
1. Holocaust Heroines: Definitions and Dilemmas
Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz
2. Feminine Leadership and Dual Leadership in the Jewish Resistance
Organizations in Poland - Avihu Ronen and Dafna Itzkovich
3. The Leadership Lessons of Zivia Lubetkin
Lori R. Weintrob
Part 2: Resistance by Women in Nazi Germany
4. Defiance and Protest of Jewish Women in Nazi Germany
Wolf Gruner
5. Everyday Routines as a Special Form of Female Resistance
Elisabeth Pönisch
6. Maria Leitners Undercover Reporting and Research on German National
Socialism
Sabine Kalff
Part 3: Professional Women: Rethinking Survival Skills in the Holocaust
7. Hélčne Cazčs Benatar in Morocco During World War II
Michal Ben Ya'akov
8. Professions of Life: Social Welfare Professionals as Rescuers During the
Holocaust
Katy Matello
9. Hadassah Bimko (Rosensaft) at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen- Belsen
Menachem Z. Rosensaft
Part 4: Womens Voices in the Ghettos, Camps and in the Partisans
10. Why We Need Heroines: Reflections on My Mother, Vladka Meed
Steven Meed
11. Rikle Glezer: Poet Partisan of Vilna
Jay Saper and Corbin Allardice
12. Auschwitz, October 1943: A Woman Hero Without a Name
Boena Karwowska
13. Greek Women as Resisters and Rescuers in the Holocaust
Yitzchak Kerem
14. Heroines of the Forest: Jewish Women in Partisan Units in Lithuania and
Belarus
Daniela Ozacky Stern
15. Remembering Three Ravensbrück Heroes
Rochelle G. Saidel
Part 5: Comparative Frameworks: The Armenian Genocide, the Porajmos and the
Genocide of the Tutsis
16. Women Resisters to the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Syria
Khatchig Mouradian
17. Spaces of Resistance of Sinti and Romani Women during the Nazi
Persecution
Verena Meier
18. The Role of Ukrainian Women in Rescuing Jews during the Holocaust in
Ukraine
Hanna Abakunova
19. Women Rescuers in the 1994 Genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda
Jennie E. Burnet
Part 6: After the Holocaust: Remembering Womens Activism
20. Zivia Lubetkin; Her Public Story, Her Private Story
Sharon Geva
21. Thea Altaras: Reclaiming Jewish Identity after the Resistance
Anita Lukic
22. Afterword: On Audacity
Judy Batalion
Prof. Lori R. Weintrob is the Founding Director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center and Professor in the Department of History, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York.
Prof. Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz is the Director of the Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research, the Abraham and Edita Spiegel Family Professor in Holocaust Research, the Rabbi Pynchas Brener Professor in Research on the Holocaust of European Jewry, and Professor in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
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