Amberniqua Iglehart

Composition 1023.10

Donna Souder

January 24, 2007

Testimony, Narrative, and Nightmare

“Testimony, Narrative, and Nightmare: The Experiences of Jewish Women in the Holocaust” is a heartfelt article. Myrna Goldenberg, Ph.D., truly got to emotions of the Holocaust survivors out on these few sheets of paper. As a reader, I felt that I got a good idea of what the women went through during the Nazi rule over Germany. Although I have read articles and books in the past about the Holocaust, I’ve never come across an article with the same context as this one.

The strength of the Jewish women is fully displayed throughout “Testimony, Narrative, and Nightmare”. Women were not only treated like they were nothing by the SS soldiers but also worked practically to death. Goldenberg quotes one of the survivors, “completely naked… were led into a different room, where female barbers shaved their entire body” (2). The women were forced by the Nazi soldiers to get completely undressed in front of them. The Nazi soldiers very often made sexual remarks and starred at the women’s naked bodies. Not only were the women embarrassed but they were also disrespected. Goldenberg also speaks on how Jewish women were, “denied their usual duties and thrust into faceless, humiliating slave labor” (3). The women made to walk extremely long distances and perform pointless chores such as cleaning up a field.

The Jewish men, on the other hand, had it made in comparison to the Jewish women. “Most women had to learn the behaviors that women already knew” (3). The men were required to perform household chores. Goldenberg implies, “Jewish men had dominated Jewish women”, throughout their societies. This actually was the case in the Jewish communities before the time of the Holocaust.

This article shows the strength of the Jewish women. These women were treated horrible but with their faith got through this time of mistreatment. The Jewish women succeeded in survival because they stuck together. They helped each other stay alive. The Jewish women also managed to keep hope that the Holocaust would one day come to an end.