Words Unspoken: Rape and the Intersection of Language and Gender in Holocaust Survivor Testimony
College
College of Arts and Letters
Department
History
Graduate Level
Master’s
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
This paper examines survivor oral testimony and written accounts to explore language used – or lack thereof – to recount, disclose, and discuss rape and sexual violence committed against women during the Holocaust as well as examine the narratives that obfuscated rape accounts in perpetrator documentation. For this study, words and silences are used as tools of historical analysis that offer insight into victim and perpetrator experiences and provide a better understanding of the larger cultural dimensions that either accepted, rejected, or at times, even condoned rape violence during World War II and the struggle to discuss it decades later. The differences in how women victims, male survivors and perpetrators, and international government and scholars perceived sexual violence, is explored.
Rape and gendered experiences during the Holocaust were largely excluded from scholarship until female historians started to address the topics beginning in the 1990s and challenged the male dominated field of historical study. It comes as no surprise that immediately post war, when many survivor testimonies were being recorded, the terminology utilized emphasized traditional gender roles of the time. The language and terminology reflected the patriarchal power structures that so often blamed women for their own torture.
To gain an understanding of the diverse language used by the different demographics in this study, I listened to and interpreted what Jessica Lang referred to as, “textual silence” as well as the specific words that were spoken in case studies. I was able to uncover the meanings and experiences described in silences, broken phrases, sentences that were dropped mid thought, and coded language that victims used. In searching for women’s voices this study contributes to efforts uncovering the hidden history of rape during the Holocaust that has existed in survivor and witness testimony since the war ended.
Keywords
Holocaust, Rape, Language, Testimony, Witness, Textual silence, Sexual violence, Women
Words Unspoken: Rape and the Intersection of Language and Gender in Holocaust Survivor Testimony
This paper examines survivor oral testimony and written accounts to explore language used – or lack thereof – to recount, disclose, and discuss rape and sexual violence committed against women during the Holocaust as well as examine the narratives that obfuscated rape accounts in perpetrator documentation. For this study, words and silences are used as tools of historical analysis that offer insight into victim and perpetrator experiences and provide a better understanding of the larger cultural dimensions that either accepted, rejected, or at times, even condoned rape violence during World War II and the struggle to discuss it decades later. The differences in how women victims, male survivors and perpetrators, and international government and scholars perceived sexual violence, is explored.
Rape and gendered experiences during the Holocaust were largely excluded from scholarship until female historians started to address the topics beginning in the 1990s and challenged the male dominated field of historical study. It comes as no surprise that immediately post war, when many survivor testimonies were being recorded, the terminology utilized emphasized traditional gender roles of the time. The language and terminology reflected the patriarchal power structures that so often blamed women for their own torture.
To gain an understanding of the diverse language used by the different demographics in this study, I listened to and interpreted what Jessica Lang referred to as, “textual silence” as well as the specific words that were spoken in case studies. I was able to uncover the meanings and experiences described in silences, broken phrases, sentences that were dropped mid thought, and coded language that victims used. In searching for women’s voices this study contributes to efforts uncovering the hidden history of rape during the Holocaust that has existed in survivor and witness testimony since the war ended.