Chesney Fain

UWRT 1102-37
February 10, 2015
Wertz-Orbaugh
Research Response 4
When I first began my research on Womens roles, especially their resistance roles,
during the Holocaust I found a book called Mothers, Sisters, Resisters. Just from the title alone I
felt that this would become a great resource for my inquiry assignments because it focused
exactly on what I was interested in learning about. The purpose of this novel is to help educate
society of the important role and their influences throughout the Holocaust. It features real
testimonies of women who fought for the survival of their families, women who worked together
to resist the movement of Nazi-Germany and even women who worked together directly in the
camps to resist the brutal treatments.
Another great aspect of this book is that it is evenly divided between three large parts:
mothers, resisters and then on to camp sister and before each large portion of new information it
breaks the material into a shorter overview of the section. By adding this it helps to distribute the
information into an easier way to navigate through the testimonies so I can really pick out the
ones that best support my inquiry. Another great resource that is given to me from these
testimonies comes from the order in which the author arranges them, from ascending degree of
danger to the lesser amounts of danger for the victims. Unfortunately I have not been able to
really dive into the new material due to the large amounts of information but from the overviews

and few testimonies Ive read the author does a great job of focusing on the emotions and
integrity of the women.
Mothers, Sisters, Resisters is one of the best resources I could have found to help me
learn more about the true roles of women during the Holocaust. While reading through the
Mothers section of this book I really felt that it was interesting how the author begins by
telling readers about the importance of a mothers responsibility to guard and protect their
children/families. I see this small detail as very important because during the Holocaust women
were seen as weak and vulnerable so to read about how they are actually the opposite and are
willing to do whatever it takes to keep their loved ones as safe as possible shows how strong
these women were.
Throughout my skim readings I have done with this book I have been surprised by many
interesting facts. For example, in Resisters the author talks about how women sometimes
benefited from the stereotypes perpetuated by Nazi ideology (women were bound to the home,
child raising, etc). This stereotype of the passive women who was dominated by her husbands
control prevented Nazi Germans from suspecting women of resistant activities. I have also
learned that the women mentioned throughout this book were aware of their small advantage due
to their gender and they used that to fuel their passions to do something right in the face of
wrong and evil. These courageous women are such an inspiration to demonstrate how much they
are willing to sacrifice for their families and loved ones, they acted and reacted with one goal in
mind, survival.