Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust [Paperback]

Carol Rittner (Author), John Roth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 1998 | ISBN-10: 155778504X | ISBN-13: 978-1557785046

Until now there has never been a systematic assessment of the "double jeopardy" of Jewish women in the Holocaust, because most of the chroniclers of this cruelest tragedy of modern history have been men. Yet for women, as scholar Myrna Goldenberg observes, "The hell was the same, but the horrors were different." Different Voices is the most thoroughgoing examination of women's experiences of the Holocaust ever compiled. It gathers together - for the first time in a single volume - the latest insights of scholars, the powerful testimonies of survivors, and the eloquent reflections of writers, theologians, and philosophers. Twenty-eight women in all speak of Hitler's "Final Solution, " from the rising storm in prewar Germany to the terrors and privations of the camps, and of the everyday heroism that kept hope alive. Part One, "Voices of Experience, " recounts the painful and poignant stories of survivors. We hear Olga Lengyel's anguish at discovering that she had unwittingly sent her mother and son to the gas chamber; on recalling the brutality of Irma Griese, a stunningly beautiful SS officer; on witnessing the unspeakable "medical experiments" the Nazis conducted on women. We share Livia F. Britton's memory of hunger and terrible vulnerability as a naked thirteen-year-old at Auschwitz. We learn of the horrific price that Dr. Gisela Perl was forced to pay to save women's lives. Part Two, "Voices of Interpretation, " offers the new insights of women scholars of the Holocaust, including evidence that the Nazis specifically preyed on women as the propagators of the Jewish race. Marion A. Kaplan describes the lives of a generation of Jewish women who thought that they were assimilated intoGerman society. Gisela Bok examines the Nazi's eugenics theories and sterilization programs, and Gitta Sereny questions Theresa Stangl, wife of the Kommandant of Sobibor and Treblinka, about her perceptions of the atrocities and of her moral responsibility. In Part Three, "Voices of

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Carol Rittner, R.S.M., is distinguished professor of holocaust and genocide studies at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. John K. Roth is the Pitzer Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, where he has taught since 1966. In 1988, he was named National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Roth is a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington. >

Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Paragon House (April 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155778504X
• ISBN-13: 978-1557785046
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #686,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John K. Roth is the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights (now the Center for Human Rights Leadership) at Claremont McKenna College, where he taught from 1966 through 2006. In 2007-2008, he served as the Robert and Carolyn Frederick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Ethics at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. In addition to service on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and on the editorial board for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, he has published hundreds of articles and reviews and authored, co-authored, or edited more than forty books, including Genocide and Human Rights: A Philosophical Guide; Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath; and Ethics During and After the Holocaust: In the Shadow of Birkenau. With Peter Hayes, Roth is currently editing the Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies for the Oxford University Press. Roth has been Visiting Professor of Holocaust studies at the University of Haifa, Israel, and his Holocaust-related research appointments have included a 2001 Koerner Visiting Fellowship at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in England as well as a 2004-05 appointment as the Ina Levine Invitational Scholar at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. In 1988, Roth was named U.S. National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars crucial for feminist studies, the holocaust, minority lit., January 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust (Paperback)

This anthology is fascinating, moving, sad, horrifying and inspiring. It revises our notion of what Holocaust literature is, and shows us how very differently women experienced and wrote about it. The book's second section contains excellent essays about women and the Holocaust. In short, a must for feminist readers and anyone interested in Holocaust studies, genocide studies, and the literature of witness.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an important book on the study of gender and the Holocaust, November 25, 2004

By 

book reader (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust (Paperback)

This book is an excellent contribution to the study of women and the Holocaust. Many books concentrate primarily on men and the Holocaust. This book provides various perspectives and is a valuable book for scholars and students of the Holocaust.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT RESOURCE, February 20, 2003

By 

heather dune macadam (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust (Paperback)

I used this book when I was writing the memoir RENA'S PROMISE: A STORY OF SISTERS IN AUSCHWITZ, which is the story of a woman on the first transport of women into Auschwitz. Aside from the Auschwitz Chronicles, this was the only text I could find that spoke of this transport, which was also the very first transport into Auschwitz.
This book helped me further my research and provided me with invaluable information that allowed the survivor I was writing about to validate many facts that she remembered--thereby validating her story, her memories and the truth that women were targeted far more rigorously than men. It is amazing any of them survived.