Experience and Expression

Despite the fact that Holocaust studies is now a mature field, the topic of women and the Holocaust remains unexplored. Women's voices have given rise to many powerful accounts of the Holocaust, and yet few researchers have analysed these perspectives to learn what the horrifying events meant for women in particular. In "Experience and Expression", the authors take on this challenge, addressing the experiences of both Jewish and non-Jewish women. The book opens with an introduction that provides a thorough overview of the status of research in the field, followed by two essays that propose new paradigms for theoretical approaches to this topic. The anthology includes essays on particular women who have been little studied in English-language publications. The essays explore the roles (both helpful and harmful) of German nurses. Women's roles in the French resistance and the experiences of Roma and Sinti women are also discussed. Anne Frank's diary, long acknowledged as the seminal work on the Holocaust from a female perspective, is examined with a critical eye to expose the way that scholars have both used and abused their interpretations of this key text.
The anthology concludes with analyses of post-war filmic, fictional and artistic depictions of women in the Holocaust. The interdisciplinary scope of this work includes essays from the fields of English, religion, nursing, history, law, comparative literature, philosophy, French studies and German studies. Sometimes painful, always well-argued and penetrating, the essays in this collection explore an array of experiences and provide a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of this significant area of study; each essay seeks to push the theoretical boundaries that shape our understanding of women's experience and agency during the Holocaust. This text should be of interest to scholars, particularly those interested in the areas of Holocaust studies and women's studies, as well as for classroom adoption.