Conclusions

As I have researched images of the Holocaust, particularly the woman's experience in the Holocaust, I have concluded that women had an extremely different experience when compared to the man's experience. It seems as though women were much more quickly labeled with a mental disorder, particularly schizophrenia. This makes me wonder, were individuals singled out and labeled with a mental disorder just so there would be "decent" reason for that person to die?? With my knowledge of psychology, I understand that the field of psychology itself has come a long way, and perhaps in the 1940s, there were not accurate ways in which to diagnose a person with an extremely disheartening diagnosis such as schizophrenia. This causes me to ask, were this people diagnosed correctly, or were they labeled so that those people who were responsible for their life, could reduce or diminish any guilt for being responsible for sending them to be euthanized?? I feel that this is an important issue not only for discussion, but also for research so that it can be understood how and why women were targeted they way they were. Also, revealing images of the Holocaust, no matter how difficult to see, should always be used as a way to express and prevent anything like the Holocaust ever happening again.

Helene Melanie Lebel

Helene, affectionately known as Helly, was diagnosed with schizophrenia around the age of 20. In 1936 she was placed in Vienna's Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital. Two years later, in 1938, the Germans annexed Austria to Germany. Helene was confined to Steinhof and not allowed to return home even though her condition had improved. Helene was transferred to a converted prison in Brandenburg, Germany, where she was undressed, subjected to physical examination, and then sent to a shower room. Helene was one or 9, 722 persons gassed that year in the Brandenburg "Euthanasia" Center. She was officially listed as dying in her room of "acute schizophrenic excitement."

-United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Sister in Sorrow

Sister in Sorrow: Life Histories of Female Holocaust Survivors from Hungary

by Ilana Rosen

As I was browsing through the website of the USHMM shop, I came across this book that tells the story of thirteen women that survived the Holocaust. Rosen's research reveals not only the personal horrors of these women but also how they ways in which they cope with their memories.

I feel that reading personal memoirs of those who have endured such a past that we today can only imagine is an important way to fully understand the emotions behind any situation.

It was not only Jews...

This is a photograph of Hildegard Kusserow, a Jehovah's Witness. She was imprisoned for four years in several concentration camps including Ravensbrueck. This photograph was taken in Germany, date uncertain.

When I hear the word "Holocaust," I immediately think of the word "Jewish" or "Jew." It is important to realize that it was not only the Jews that suffered through the Holocaust, but also the disabled, homosexuals, gypsies, Slavic people, Communists, Socialists, and Jehovah's witnesses.


-United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Ala Gartner

This is a prewar portrait of Ala Gartner, who was later imprisoned at Auschwitz. She participated in the camp's resistance movement and was later hanged for her involvement in smuggling gunpowder that was used to destroy Crematorium 4 at Auschwitz. This photograph was taken in Bedzin, Poland, 1930s.

-United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Gerda D.

Gerda D., a holocaust victim, was a shopworker with a disputed schizophrenic diagnosis. She was eventually sterilized and Nazi authorities forbid her to marry because of the sterilization. The place and date of this photograph is unknown.

This makes me wonder, was she forbidden to marry because she was sterilized, or was she forbidden to marry because she was simply Jewish and had a mental disorder?? Those people under such unfortunate circumstances such as Gerda were forced into a terrible cycle in which there was no way out.

— Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik Fachkrankenhaus fuer Neurologie

Unusual site

Women prisoners pull dump cars filled with stones to the camp quarry.
Plaszow Camp, Poland, 1944.

A photograph of this type would be very unusual to see in this day and age. I would consider it quite abnormal for women to be forced into such strenuous labor, at least in the United States.

— Leopold Page Photographic Collection

Emmi G.

This is a photograph of Emmi G., a 16 year old housemaid who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She was sterilized and then sent to the Meseritz-Obrawalde euthanasia center where she was killed with an overdose of tranquilizers on December 7, 1942.The place and date of the photograph is uncertain.

-Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik Fachkrankenhaus fuer Neurologie

Women's Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau

This photograph of the women's camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp reveals the mass amount not only of Jews, but Jewish women. Many photographs of the holocaust show men, but this photograph proves that there were just as many women who endured the holocaust.

-Poland, 1944

- National Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau

Star of David

These women are at forced labor in a sewing workshop. Lodz, ghetto, Poland, between 1940 and 1944.

I think it is interesting to notice the elderly man standing watch over the women. He does not seem as though he would be intimidating. It is also important to note the Star of David on the back of a woman. It seems as though there was never a moment when these people were not labeled as "Jewish, and nothing more."


- Juedisches Museum der Stadt Frankfurt

"What yours is mine; Whats mine is yours"

Jewish women who were seized for forced labor expropriated cloth. Lodz ghetto, Poland, date uncertain.

These women were organizing cloth that was taken from Jewish prisoners. It must have been extremely difficult for these women to be forced to partake in destroying the lives of other Jews.

-Beit Lohamei Haghettaot
(Ghetto Fighters' House)

Propaganda and Antisemitism

Propaganda cartoon warning of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Germany, date unknown.

The cartoon depicts an octopus with a rather unattractive face with its tentacles destroying the earth. I think it is important to note that the Star of David above the head is not proportionate or realistic. This cartoon clearly represents the idea of the Jews taking over the world.


-Library of Congress


This is a poster for the antisemitic museum exhibition "Der ewige Jude" (The Wandering Jew) characterizes Jews as Marxists, moneylenders, and enslavers. Munich, Germany, November 8, 1937.


-Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library Limited

Children and Antisemitism

This is an illustration from a antisemitic German children's book titled DER GIFTPILZ (The poisonous Mushroom), published in Nuremberg, Germany 1n 1935.

The caption reads, "The Jewish nose is crooked, it looks like a 6."

-United States Holocaust Memorial Museum












This is an illustration from a children's book. The headlines say "Jews are out misfortune," and "How the Jews cheat." Germany, 1936.

These cartoons reveal the use of children as a way to spread antisemitism, or hostility towards Jews.


-United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Before the War

In 1933, approximately 33 millions Jews lived in Europe, comprising 1.7% of the total population of Europe. This number represented more than 60% of the world's Jewish population at that time, estimated at 15.3 million.

This is a photograph of two Jewish families at a gathering before the war. Only two of these people survived the Holocaust. Germany, 1928.

-United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

"Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too."

On May 10, 1933 German students along with German Brown Shirted Storm Troopers gathered in Berlin to burn books that were considered to have "unGerman" ideas.

A hundred years before the advent of Hitler, the German-Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine, had declared: "Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too."

Among the 20,000 volumes hurled into the flames were the writings of Henri Barbusse, Franz Boas, John Dos Passos, Albert Einstein, Lion Feuchtwanger, Friedrich Förster, Sigmund Freud, John Galsworthy, André Gide, Ernst Glaeser, Maxim Gorki, Werner Hegemann, Ernest Hemingway, Erich Kästner, Helen Keller, Alfred Kerr, Jack London, Emil Ludwig, Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann, Karl Marx, Hugo Preuss, Marcel Proust, Erich Maria Remarque, Walther Rathenau, Margaret Sanger, Arthur Schnitzler, Upton Sinclair, Kurt Tucholsky, Jakob Wassermann, H.G. Wells, Theodor Wolff, Emilé Zola, Arnold Zweig, and Stefan Zweig.

Boycotting Jewish Shops

"Es lebe Deutschland"

"Es lebe Deutschland" translates to "long live Germany".

"Caution, Danger"

(Picture from the National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives.)

This is a photograph of an electric fence surrounding Auschwitz concentration camp with a sign that states "caution, danger."