1938-1945: Persecution of Women by the Nazi Regime

Like men, women were persecuted and murdered for political, religious-ideological, racist and eugenic reasons by the Nazi regime. They were equally affected by forced resettlement, ghettoisation, and imprisonment in jails, concentration camps and extermination camps. And yet, the persecution of women also entailed gender-specific aspects. Women were subjected to specific threats as a result of their reproductive abilities and in their ascribed roles as “guardians of social morality”. The Nazi goal was to create a “racially pure dominant nation”. For this purpose, it was necessary to prevent the reproductive ability of Jewish women and so-called Gypsy women: by industrial-scale mass murder, but also by forced sterilisations and abortions or the killing of newborns. “Aryan” women who did not fit the image of a “good, German woman and mother” (e.g. “asocials”, “criminals,” “handicapped”) were not spared such interventions either. Moreover, women in the ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps were often violated sexually by male inmates and the SS.

Since 1998, female writers have been working on the history of Austrian women who were imprisoned in the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp. The interactive website www.ravensbrueckerinnen.at offers a compact overview and the opportunity to independently search for people.