Nailah Calhoun

Prof. Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1103-007
February 8, 2016

Womens Brutality During the Holocaust

The inquiry topic I want to focus on is the Jewish women in the Holocaust. In my
opinion, the women of the Holocaust where overlooked. No on really speaks about this sensitive
topic. As I dig further, into the Jewish women of the Holocaust, I want to uncover the forbidden
truth. This is what I am going to do my research on. Jewish women went through abuse, rape,
sexual assaults, selling their bodies and even killing their own offspring! Not to mention, the
endless amounts of humiliation which was caused by the Nazi party and surprisingly Jewish men
too. This is just some examples of the awful acts that Jewish women had to endure while living
in these hell camps.
At first, I was originally not going to do my inquiry paper on the Jewish women of the
Holocaust but a class discussion changed my mind. This particular topic really stuck out to me
because I am very supportive of women rights and equality. During the Holocaust, Jewish
women where degraded by men, stripped of their self value and taken advantage of. I can only
imagine the pain and hopeless feelings that lingered around them. Being this was not my intial
topic, I had to do quite a bit of research since I knew absolutely nothing! I used testimonies from
survivors and creditable articles to gather the information I needed.

While viewing and reading numerous testimonies, you could feel the survivors emotions
and hurt through their words and tone of voice. I thought this was very powerful. Until now, I
never knew the extent of brutality, towards Jewish women, during the Holocaust. One testimony
that stuck out to me was a survivor named Sara M. (comes from the USC Shoah Foundation,
interview 29016). Sara was a part of the Ravensbruck concentration camp. In her testimony, she
shared her encounter when she was raped at a young age by two SS soldiers (while other
individuals in the room watched. How can anyone do this to a young girl and not feel one bit of
pity? This just shows that evil does exist. Sara then went on to say that she had nightmares since
her childhood to her adulthood.
Even though I have some background knowledge, I still have a couple of unanswered
questions. What happened if a Jewish women tried to reject or fight a Nazi solider from
physically abusing her? I want to know will she be beaten or killed? Another question I have is
where there any outreach programs or organizations that where targeted to help women during
the Holocuast? I want to know were these organizations successful and what tactics did they use
in efforst to help. Also, what is it about humiliation that the Nazi soldiers found pleasure in? Was
it the fact that once they stripped the prisoned women they felt a sense of power and leverage
over the women? Or was it because the women are now vulnerable and more than likely werent
going to put up a fight towards them?
Two way of thinking about my topic are from a womans perspective and a Nazi
soldiers. These are two totally different perspectives: the victim and the perpetrator. From the
womans view point, one who lived through the Holocaust, she will give first person accounts as
to what really went on behind the concentration camp walls for women. In her testimony, she
will relive her encounters and past abuses that has happened to her. Her testimony, I assume, will

be filled with sorrow emotions, anger, and possibly embarrassment. From the Nazi soldiers view
point, I hope that my questions will be answered. I want to know why the Nazi soldiers violated
women in the concentration camps. What did they gain by doing this and do they have one bit of
remorse for their actions?
Researching the brutality of Jewish women during the Holocaust really sparks my
interest. I am eager to learn more about this topic for my own uses and to use as a stepping stool
for inquiry research. This is actually the first time I have ever heard of an inquiry paper. I am
so accustomed to doing research papers and just regurgitate the research in my own words.
Learning the skill to inquiry will be very beneficial to me. I am going to start my researching by
asking, Why did women brutality come about during the Holocaust?.

Peer Reflection

I peer reviewed Amandas inquiry proposal draft and I must say her draft was actually
written very well. Amanda chose an interesting topic, Kindertransport, which I had never heard
off! Just reading her draft, she explained what Kindertransport was thoroughly and gave ample
amount of details. She went on to explain that this was a project by the British government that
rescued children. But I got confused as to how the British government actual rescued the
children. What tactics did they use? What was there success rate? I felt that this would be very
beneficial in her paper because it will provide more in depth details about Kindertransport and
what they did exactly. I explained my thoughts regarding this to Amanda and she totally agreed
with me. I just wrote a side note, a question mark and asterisk, on her proposal to elaborate more
when she mentioned that the government rescued thousands of Jewish refugees.

Amanda had her paper structured well with a few minor errors. The fifth paragraph of her
paper was not properly indented. Also, one sentence in her first paragraph was centered instead
of starting on the left side of the paper. I just brought these errors to her attention so that she
could fix these errors before she submits her final draft of her proposal.