Women in Auschwitz

August 27 at 7:00 PM

Weisman Room at the Staenberg JCC

In this talk, Cushman will discuss women’s existence in the most notorious Nazi camp – Auschwitz-Birkenau. Three groups of women lived and worked in the camp. Women prisoners, including Jews, Romani women, political prisoners, and others, suffered and tried to survived in deadly conditions of starvation and forced labor. Some few found advantages in “privileged” work or as prisoner functionaries. These women often had some degree of power, which they used sometimes to help and sometimes to harm. Other women served the SS in Auschwitz as guards, communications experts, and nurses. Others accompanied their husbands to the camp as helpmeets in the racial domination of Europe. We will explore these groups individually and in interaction with each other.