Women in the Concentration Camps and the Holocaust
Women walking to concentration camps with the Nazi soldiers nearby
Women were treated very differently from the men in concentration camps. Women were very vulnerable also because they also had to take care of their children, unlike the men who were separated from the rest of their family. The larger amount of children in the family made the women a special target to Nazis. Also no women or child was spared in killing operations. It didn't matter if you were jews or non-Jewish, age, or gender.
There were even some camps that were designed specifically for women and children. In May 1939, the first only women concentration camp Ravensbruck was made. It was the largest Nazi camp for women. In 1945 the camp had 10,000 women prisoners. In 1942 the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was made for female prisoners and the first prisoners came from Ravensbruck. There was so many people in Ravensbruck that the Nazis had to transfer some of them to the new camp. In 1944, Bergen-Belson made a female prisoners camp.There was so many prisoners that people would be transfered from Ravensbruck to Aucshwitz-Birrkenau to Bergen-Belson camps.
During the deportations women and children were marked with signs deciding the fate of the prisoner. Pregnant women and small children had a label of "incapable to work" and sent right to killing chambers. The Nazis didn't think that those people could do much, were too small, too weak or not capable so they had no reason to be there. The rest of the prisoners were put in the camps and were either killed or were sent as laborers. In the camps, new clothes were thrown at women without any regard to the size or fit. One advantage to the women prisoners was that they could sew up holes in the clothes with thread from the blankets and use wooden splinters as needles. They create a mutual assistance so that they could survive longer. They would share fabric from clothes to stay warm and food and recipes to help get rid of hunger.They also created a largerschwestern, which means camp sisters.
Some of the women prisoners got very lucky and were able to survive when deployed to jobs like clothing repair, cooking, laundry and house cleaning. It wasn't as hard labor so they weren't overworked. Some women weren't as lucky. Women could also be deployed to force labor, where the conditions were so bad it led to death. Pregnant women were forced to abortions, to give birth in makeshift nurseries which was sometimes worse then aborting the baby, or after the baby was born(without medical care) was shipped away without food or medical care. Others were forced to beat their own child until death or had to watch a Nazi soldier do it. The mother could rarely remove their child from the killing ward too. It was hard for them because the father is not with them, he is either a soldier or a prisoner so the mother would be sent to contractual labor and the child was sent to the killing chambers. In June 1944, women had to choose to leave children to the Nazis and go work as laborers or stay with them and be sent to gas chambers. The women had no way to save their children, either the child went alone or with the mother. Out of 600 mothers only two left their child for the selection and the rest wanted to stay with their child until the end, even if that meant giving up their life too. This caused the death of many women in that time.
Not only women who were in the concentration camps had big decisions and sacrifices to make. Women who were able to escape the Nazis lived a very lonely life because they couldn't be seen with any Jews or with their family. They spent their life hiding from the Nazis.
"...with nobody to tell you it's okay, it'll be better, hold on. Total isolation, total loneliness. It's a terrible feeling. You know, you are among people and you are like on an island all alone. There is nobody you can go to ask for help. You can nobody ask for advice. You had to make life-threatening decisions all by yourself in a very short time, and you never knew whether your decision will be beneficial to you or detrimental to your existence..." said Leah Hammerstein Silverstein when explaining her life during the Holocaust. She was Jewish but was disguised under a false non-Jewish identity. She worked and lived with a non-Jewish community without anyone from her past Jewish life with her.
Women were prisoners but they also played an important role in resistance activities especially Socialist, Communist and Zionist youth movements. They helped spread and carry information to other sources and could be trained to use a gun or other armed weapons. Women did jobs in Poland where carriers brought new information to ghettos and other communities. In the forests of eastern Poland and the Soviet Union, women were armed partisan units. Also some people did simple jobs like handing out anti-Nazi leaflets. One women who did that was Sophie Scholl, a student at the University of Munich. She was part of the White Rose group in February 1943. Women were leaders of ghetto resistance or leaders inside the concentration camps. In October 1944, 5 Jewish women were deployed at the Vistula-Union-Metal Works detachment in Auschwitz I. They used gunpowder to blow up and destroy a gas chamber and the Nazi soldiers in the chambers. This made a big difference in the camps and started an uprising with the people in and out of the camps. It also saved a lot of people from being sent to the gas chambers that day.
The Holocaust was a very hard time for women. Out of 15,000 women only 1,100 survived. They had little chances of survival and had to watch their children die in front of them. They had very bad living conditions and were treated very unfairly.
There were even some camps that were designed specifically for women and children. In May 1939, the first only women concentration camp Ravensbruck was made. It was the largest Nazi camp for women. In 1945 the camp had 10,000 women prisoners. In 1942 the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was made for female prisoners and the first prisoners came from Ravensbruck. There was so many people in Ravensbruck that the Nazis had to transfer some of them to the new camp. In 1944, Bergen-Belson made a female prisoners camp.There was so many prisoners that people would be transfered from Ravensbruck to Aucshwitz-Birrkenau to Bergen-Belson camps.
During the deportations women and children were marked with signs deciding the fate of the prisoner. Pregnant women and small children had a label of "incapable to work" and sent right to killing chambers. The Nazis didn't think that those people could do much, were too small, too weak or not capable so they had no reason to be there. The rest of the prisoners were put in the camps and were either killed or were sent as laborers. In the camps, new clothes were thrown at women without any regard to the size or fit. One advantage to the women prisoners was that they could sew up holes in the clothes with thread from the blankets and use wooden splinters as needles. They create a mutual assistance so that they could survive longer. They would share fabric from clothes to stay warm and food and recipes to help get rid of hunger.They also created a largerschwestern, which means camp sisters.
Some of the women prisoners got very lucky and were able to survive when deployed to jobs like clothing repair, cooking, laundry and house cleaning. It wasn't as hard labor so they weren't overworked. Some women weren't as lucky. Women could also be deployed to force labor, where the conditions were so bad it led to death. Pregnant women were forced to abortions, to give birth in makeshift nurseries which was sometimes worse then aborting the baby, or after the baby was born(without medical care) was shipped away without food or medical care. Others were forced to beat their own child until death or had to watch a Nazi soldier do it. The mother could rarely remove their child from the killing ward too. It was hard for them because the father is not with them, he is either a soldier or a prisoner so the mother would be sent to contractual labor and the child was sent to the killing chambers. In June 1944, women had to choose to leave children to the Nazis and go work as laborers or stay with them and be sent to gas chambers. The women had no way to save their children, either the child went alone or with the mother. Out of 600 mothers only two left their child for the selection and the rest wanted to stay with their child until the end, even if that meant giving up their life too. This caused the death of many women in that time.
Not only women who were in the concentration camps had big decisions and sacrifices to make. Women who were able to escape the Nazis lived a very lonely life because they couldn't be seen with any Jews or with their family. They spent their life hiding from the Nazis.
"...with nobody to tell you it's okay, it'll be better, hold on. Total isolation, total loneliness. It's a terrible feeling. You know, you are among people and you are like on an island all alone. There is nobody you can go to ask for help. You can nobody ask for advice. You had to make life-threatening decisions all by yourself in a very short time, and you never knew whether your decision will be beneficial to you or detrimental to your existence..." said Leah Hammerstein Silverstein when explaining her life during the Holocaust. She was Jewish but was disguised under a false non-Jewish identity. She worked and lived with a non-Jewish community without anyone from her past Jewish life with her.
Women were prisoners but they also played an important role in resistance activities especially Socialist, Communist and Zionist youth movements. They helped spread and carry information to other sources and could be trained to use a gun or other armed weapons. Women did jobs in Poland where carriers brought new information to ghettos and other communities. In the forests of eastern Poland and the Soviet Union, women were armed partisan units. Also some people did simple jobs like handing out anti-Nazi leaflets. One women who did that was Sophie Scholl, a student at the University of Munich. She was part of the White Rose group in February 1943. Women were leaders of ghetto resistance or leaders inside the concentration camps. In October 1944, 5 Jewish women were deployed at the Vistula-Union-Metal Works detachment in Auschwitz I. They used gunpowder to blow up and destroy a gas chamber and the Nazi soldiers in the chambers. This made a big difference in the camps and started an uprising with the people in and out of the camps. It also saved a lot of people from being sent to the gas chambers that day.
The Holocaust was a very hard time for women. Out of 15,000 women only 1,100 survived. They had little chances of survival and had to watch their children die in front of them. They had very bad living conditions and were treated very unfairly.
Largerschwestern Zionist
Camp Sisters Someone who was part of a worldwide Jewish movement
Camp Sisters Someone who was part of a worldwide Jewish movement