Women During the Holocaust

The Mothers of Israel

The Jewish female is like the ovule of a flower, it spreads its seeds to create future generations. It is known that the true root of a Jewish person lies in the hands of his/her mother. As it was once said by Golda Meir, “To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.” (Golda Meir Quotes par. 1). And in fact it is true, that women had to be better than man to survive the holocaust, but not only to survive the holocaust but to live on to tell the stories, and to spread Judaism. Although every Jewish person was equally a victim in the genocide of the holocaust, the Jewish women were one of the main targets. This is because the Jewish women were connected to the “race struggle” of Nazism, for the women carried the next generation of Jews. The Jewish women of Europe were taken from their homes by the Nazis and killed, and the ones who escaped ended up carrying on Judaism. If it was not for these surviving women, there would be no Jewish population today.

Jewish women were known to place the life of their families ahead of their own. They would sacrifice and work until death to save their children’s life. They were women of valor, full of courage and strength. In the lineup when the S.S. called “LEFT!—RIGHT!” Those two words determined the end of their life. The ones who lived were tortured and the ones who died were sent off to peace. Rape was a common act of dehumanization practiced by the Nazis, “Despite the fact that the 1935 Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor prohibited intercourse between Aryans and Jews” (Women & the Holocaust – Personal Reflections par. 5). “In one case a 17 year old girl took her dirtied rag that she used to cover her head and placed it in between her legs so when the S.S. guard attempted to rape her he would see that she is menstruating” (Women & the Holocaust par.7) The women would do anything they could to protect their innocence and their life.

The best chance for survival was escaping through the forest. But many Jewish men and women would hide with other non-Jewish families to hide from the Nazis. In one case a German entrepreneur by the name of Oskar Schindler recruited a list of Jewish investors, business men and labor workers to run his company. He saved