Women in the Holocaust--Current Scholarship in the Field

Studies of women’s experiences as perpetrators, victims, and bystanders during the Nazi era have proliferated over the past 40 years. Yet, this scholarship remains relatively unknown in the general public, and sometimes among scholars as well. This lecture will provide an overview of the impact of Nazi policies on various groups of women in Nazi-occupied and -allied Europe, including women/girls with disabilities, Romani Women, Lesbians, and Jewish women. Regarding Jewish women, we will look at Jewish women’s lives in ghettos, in hiding, and in resistance groups. We will explore not only the historiography on the topic, but also some of the results and directions of current scholarship.

Sarah Cushman is Director of the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University and Senior Lecturer in the History Department. Cushman earned her PhD from Clark University in 2010. Her first book, Women in Auschwitz, is under contract with the University of Indiana Press. Cushman is co-editor of the just published Routledge Handbook to Auschwitz-Birkenau, co-editor in chief of Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History, and co-editor of the new series Cambridge Elements in Genocide Studies. Cushman served as Head of Educational Programming at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University from 2013-2016 and from 2007-2013, she was Director of Youth Education at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County (New York). Cushman serves on the Executive Committee of the National Higher Education Leadership Consortium of Directors of Centers in Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies and is a member of the Illinois Holocaust and Genocide Commission.