Female experiences during the Holocaust / by Julie Fay Rosenbaum.

Nazi domination and manipulation of millions must be heard from all perspectives to try to understand and prevent such atrocities from happening again. This thesis combines literature on survival and psychoanalysis with historical documents and interviews of female survivors. Nazi doctrine was contradictory because it promoted family but encouraged single women to have children. Hypocrisy prevailed as women outside the concentration camps were punished for lack of fertility, but mothers and children in the camps were murdered immediately. Incarcerated females devised specifically female survival tactics. They maintained their traditional roles as "nurturers" in group situations and partially controlled their environment by cleaning and decorating. While many women were sterilized or mutilated to prevent pregnancy, some survivors have children. One survivor described having a family as "giving the world another chance."