On Women’s Bodies: Experiences of Dehumanization during the Holocaust

While there has been a plethora of analysis on diverse subjects within Holocaust studies, there remains some reluctance to engage with women’s unique experiences, which were largely subsumed under those of men in the decades following World War II. This article examines how women’s specific experiences, both biological and social, are often denied or suppressed in research and literature on the Holocaust, even in survivors’ own testimonies, despite the fact that these are often clearly gendered experiences. By revisiting key themes from the testimonies of female survivors, such gendered analyses contribute to a fuller picture of the unprecedented and relentless killing that the Final Solution’s anti-Semitism entailed.