{"id":689,"date":"2025-11-21T09:24:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/?p=689"},"modified":"2025-11-21T09:24:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:24:38","slug":"postpartum-nightmares-jewish-motherhood-as-a-source-of-oppression-and-defiance-under-nazi-persecution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/2025\/11\/21\/postpartum-nightmares-jewish-motherhood-as-a-source-of-oppression-and-defiance-under-nazi-persecution\/","title":{"rendered":"Postpartum Nightmares: Jewish Motherhood as a Source of Oppression and Defiance Under Nazi Persecution\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Postpartum Nightmares: Jewish Motherhood as a Source of Oppression and Defiance Under Nazi Persecution\u00a0<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Alexis Mesa<\/strong>\n \n November 21, 2025<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\u201cA typical episode\u2026 involves a dream that the infant has been lost in the mother’s bed and\u00a0 during which the mother searches through the covers, weeps openly, or speaks out loud\u2026 When\u00a0 fully awake, she realizes that her infant is not in the bed, but she may nevertheless feel compelled\u00a0 to arise and confirm that the infant is indeed sleeping safely.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

-Tore Nielsen and Tyna Paquette\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the Talmud, the central text of Judaism, the act of giving birth is equated to the creation of the world. As partners of God, the Jewish mother is a central figure in upholding the\u00a0 values of Judaism, designated as a spiritual role model tasked with guiding children toward the virtues of justice and integrity. A child born from a Jewish womb is by default a follower of\u00a0 Judaism, while a child born from a Jewish father and a woman of another faith is not. In other\u00a0 words, the survival of Judaism is entirely dependent on the survival of the Jewish mother, but\u00a0 groups like the Nazi Party sought to defile and destroy this religious notion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This paper seeks to understand not only how conditions like pregnancy and motherhood\u00a0 influenced gender-specific forms of Nazi persecution in Germany and occupied territories but also how they bred unique forms of resistance from Jewish women and their communities\u00a0 throughout Europe. In doing so, it will also investigate the extent to which the Nazis viewed the\u00a0 female body as both a site of oppression and a threat to the Aryanization of continental Europe<\/span><\/p>\n

Current research on Jewish motherhood is limited. While there have been some studies on <\/span>pregnancy and child rearing under Nazi persecution in recent years,<\/span> Holocaust research remains oversaturated with male-centered accounts. Gender bias in academia, coupled with limited access to women\u2019s testimonies due to shame or trauma, have compromised access to female-specific experiences under Nazi oppression. Nonetheless, existing articles on Jewish women are illuminating, and generally provide feminist approaches to analyzing struggles regarding sexual violence and abuse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To partially resolve issues of accessibility, this paper will primarily use survivor\u00a0 testimonies from the Visual History Archive of the USC Shoah Foundation, many of which will\u00a0 be from Jewish women who observed or experienced motherhood in ghettos and camps. These\u00a0 first-hand accounts will provide a unique opportunity to analyze persecution from primary\u00a0 sources while also illuminating emotional and psychological responses to oppression and aid. In\u00a0 addition to existing studies on Holocaust-era maternity, this research will uncover how the Nazi\u00a0 Party operationalized Jewish motherhood to undermine the foundation of Jewish life and how\u00a0 Jewish mothers covertly secured the survival of future generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Historical Context: Nazi Contempt for Jewish Blood\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

For the Nazi Party, publicly and politically antagonizing Jews was the path to German\u00a0 excellence on the global stage. Accomplishing such an undertaking would require promoting a\u00a0 severe racial ideology that relied on scapegoating, flawed facts, and sharp national policies\u00a0 directed at the Jewish family unit. By doing so, the Third Reich would both tune public opinion\u00a0 to a key that suited its objectives and uproot Jewish existence from all facets of German society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the conclusion of the First World War, Germany faced the results of a bitter loss under the Treaty of Versailles. Constructed by the victors in the West, these conditions required\u00a0 Germany to pay reparations for damages, disarm its military, surrender territory to neighboring <\/span>nations, and assume responsibility for the war.<\/span> The nation did not immediately accept these terms. Germans, beguiled by dreams of victory, instead found solace in fables.<\/span> The\u00a0 <\/span>Dolchstoss <\/span><\/i>myth\u2014also known as the \u201cstab-in-the-back\u201d myth\u2014insisted that the German military\u00a0 would have succeeded if not for \u201cthose perennial home-front scapegoats, the pacifists, Jews, and\u00a0 socialists.\u201d<\/span> This conspiracy effectively assigned blame to Jews and the government\u2019s political adversaries, allowing the patriotic spirit of Germany to thrive unburdened by the\u00a0 nation\u2019s defeat. The <\/span>Dolchstoss <\/span><\/i>would become an integral part of the Nazi vision that would\u00a0 propagate in the following years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to scapegoating Jews for Germany\u2019s wartime failures, the Nazi Party\u00a0 dehumanized the group through biology-based arguments that proclaimed Aryan superiority and condemned genes that would harm racial purity. In the United States, the belief that racial categories and hierarchies were determined by intelligence and enlightenment gave rise to flawed scientific theories that sought to reinforce the country\u2019s racial architecture. Central to this was the American eugenics movement, which asserted that the population could be genetically improved by eliminating perceived undesirables such as people with disabilities, illnesses, and races deemed inferior. According to Otto Wagener, the head of the Nazi Party\u2019s Economic Policy\u00a0 Office from 1931 to 1933, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, stated that he \u201c[had] studied with great interest the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would, in all probability, be of no value or be injurious to the racial\u00a0 stock.\u201d Hitler and German racial hygienists paid particular attention to<\/span><\/p>\n

California sterilization measures, and used the policies to develop a comprehensive sterilization program under the Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases, which called for sterilization \u201cin cases of mental retardation, schizophrenia, manic depressive insanity, inherited epilepsy, Huntington\u2019s chorea, hereditary blindness, deafness, and malformation.\u201d<\/span> With the example of a\u00a0 discriminatory ideological and legal framework from the West, Nazi Germany successfully forced sterilization on hundreds of thousands of disabled persons.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Discriminatory national policies formed on the basis of racial preservation extended to\u00a0 those of Jewish ancestry. Nazi Germany detested <\/span>Rassenwahn<\/span><\/i>, or \u201crace madness,\u201d between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans that \u201cdirtied\u201d the blood of the German <\/span>Volk<\/span><\/i>.<\/span> Thus, the 1935 Nuremberg Laws\u2014a series of antisemitic legislation designed by the Nazi state\u2014targeted citizenship, sexual intercourse, and reproduction to prevent genetic mixing.<\/span> While the Reich Citizenship Law reserved citizenship for those of unmixed German ancestry,<\/span> the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor prohibited existing and prospective marriages between Jews and non-Jews.<\/span> Whether restricting Jews from getting into relationships or banning miscegenation, these statutes together marked the beginning of an invasive and\u00a0 aggressive war on Jewish parentage and reproduction. To Hitler, evolutionary progress was the \u201chighest good,\u201d<\/span> and policies were needed to prevent any contamination of the pure Aryan\u00a0 blood. <\/span><\/p>\n

Roles of Jewish Women Under Nazi Persecution\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

For most of European history, social expectations relegated Jewish men and women to\u00a0 distinct spheres of influence in the family like in most other cultures. Men occupied professional\u00a0 roles to financially support the household and women secured domestic stability through familial\u00a0 duties like household management, caregiving, and child-rearing.<\/span> These role divisions have\u00a0 generally persisted throughout time due to the dominance of gender norms in society, but the responsibilities of Jewish women uniquely expanded and contracted with the increasingly discriminatory and oppressive policies under the Third Reich.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After 1933\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

With their ascent to power in 1933, the Nazis immediately sought to legally purge Jewish employment. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service forced Jewish doctors, lawyers, teachers, and civil servants out of their jobs, making exceptions only for veterans of World War I and for those who acquired their positions before August 1914.<\/span> Susanne Batzdorff, a Jewish survivor born in Breslau, Germany, identifies this phase as \u201ca\u00a0 gradual downsizing of Jewish life in every aspect.\u201d Reflecting on the hardships faced by her working parents in 1933, Batzdorff recalls how her mother\u2019s medical practice faltered when\u00a0 insurance companies refused to reimburse her patients\u2019 care. Meanwhile, her father\u2019s practice endured due to the stability provided by his army service.<\/span> The Nuremberg Laws eventually robbed all Jews of their professions, yet they appear to have most immediately and severely\u00a0 affected women, who could not claim a status that would exempt them from unemployment.<\/span> Nevertheless, Jewish women were willing to participate in vocational training to increase their chances of finding a new job. They often excelled in courses related to home economics, such as cooking and sewing, and participated in non-traditional classes on raising livestock and locksmithing. Unlike Jewish men, who were less amenable to lifestyle changes at older ages, women were more open to seeking new opportunities in the labor market and relocating their families abroad. Jewish women even took on conspicuous challenges, such as confronting \u201cthe police, the tax offices, and the landlord,\u201d when their husbands could not due to concerns of\u00a0 physical violence.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nuremberg Laws forced Jewish women into the new, masculine roles their male counterparts had to abandon, but it should not be forgotten that women were still expected to honor their responsibilities to the home. Along with banning relations between Jews and non Jews, the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor prohibited Jewish households from hiring Aryan women under the age of forty-five as housekeepers, thus requiring Jewish women to fulfill the roles of breadwinner, cook, maid, shopper, and mother.<\/span> While Jewish women possessed the wherewithal to challenge the status quo under a vicious, discriminatory regime, the relentless dehumanization of the Jewish people, combined with the ever-tightening grip of oppression, made their duties an incredibly dangerous and profoundly difficult undertaking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The years following the Nazi Party’s rise to power were characterized by a growing wave of discriminatory laws, forced labor, and escalating violence against Jews. This period culminated in the horrors of Kristallnacht, a violent pogrom that led to the murder of hundreds of Jews, the destruction of synagogues, and the violent uprooting of Jewish communities throughout Germany in 1938. This moral deterioration ultimately forced Jewish women throughout Europe into an oppressive state of bodily abuse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Ghettos\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The Nazis established hundreds of ghettos in occupied areas of Eastern Europe to\u00a0 concentrate thousands of Jews in confined spaces near city centers. Holocaust historians Lenore Weitzman and Dalia Ofer posit that the introduction of the ghettos \u201crepresented a transitional\u00a0 phase in their policy to exclude Jews permanently from Europe\u2014and from life.\u201d Through the\u00a0 ghettos, Nazis could isolate Jews from the broader society by severing connections to the outside\u00a0 world and begin the violent and abusive work to initiate the Aryanization of Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because the Nazis had complete control over space, resources, property, and labor, the ghettos were hubs of deprivation and death.<\/span> Population density and inadequate sanitation facilitated the rapid spread of disease among residents. Moreover, small and infrequent food rations led to tens of thousands of deaths from starvation. Violence against Jews also worsened. Though men were defenseless against Nazi\u00a0 abuse\u2014as most were before the ghettos began in 1939\u2014women faced greater risks of humiliation and sexual assault due to isolation under Nazi surveillance.<\/span> Esia Shor, a survivor of the Nowogr\u00f3dek Ghetto, was working in the home of a German officer when he attempted to rape her in private quarters. Shor was able to escape;<\/span> however, both this isolation from the world and increased exposure to Nazi enforcers worsened sexual abuse against Jewish women.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under these harsh conditions, women nevertheless stepped into visible roles to support\u00a0 not only their families, but also the broader community. While some women worked in factories,\u00a0 others joined social work and health care to assist those suffering from poverty, illness, and\u00a0 disease. Additionally, many women secretly educated children against Nazi policies, striving to\u00a0 preserve a sense of normalcy and hope for Jewish youth.<\/span><\/p>\n

As conditions in the ghettos deteriorated, women increasingly took greater risks to\u00a0 ensure the survival of themselves and their loved ones. Mothers, determined to meet their\u00a0 responsibilities as caretakers, smuggled food despite threats of abuse and punishment.<\/span> Studies also identify prostitution as a method of survival among some Jewish women in the Warsaw Ghetto of Poland. Although a vast majority of prostitutes in the initial phases of Warsaw had a history in sex work, they were slowly being replaced as the unyielding nature of hunger and disease, combined with their impoverished backgrounds, led to their deaths. Before long, women from wealthier backgrounds took on sex work when they exhausted their financial resources.\u00a0 Desperate to provide for themselves when their male relatives could not, these women surrendered themselves to male patrons\u2014both Jewish and non-Jewish.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the ghettos, making use of the female body secured survival for women, their children, and other family members. Prostitution should not be misconstrued as a voluntary act, nor should one assume that sex work makes the woman complicit in their own oppression. Rather, Jewish prostitution in ghettos should be defined as a form of sexual slavery. In Warsaw, Nazi authorities failed to curb prostitution despite successful\u00a0 attempts to combat sex work in the \u0141\u00f3d\u017a Ghetto. This was largely because both Jewish and Nazi enforcers in Warsaw gained money off the sexual exploitation of women and had no intention of terminating profitable business.<\/span><\/p>\n

The liquidation of the ghettos in the early 1940s forced women and their families into extreme acts of desperation. When the SS and other police authorities led operations to kill and transport thousands to nearby concentration camps, ghetto residents used infanticide as a way to mercifully free Jewish children from suffering. While some medical professionals like dentists and physicians supplied arsenic and cyanide for mothers to give to their children, others smothered newborn babies in ghetto hospitals when their mothers were transported to camps.<\/span> Many also killed infants as a terror response. During the liquidation of the Soko\u0142\u00f3w Podlaski\u00a0 Ghetto, Jews packed tightly into hiding spaces to evade the SS officers. Survivor Aaron Elster remembers people fearing that the cries of children would alert the Nazis to their presence. Under the pressure of those around them to \u201cstifle their children,\u201d mothers resorted to choking\u00a0 and smothering the young, though the SS soon \u201cdiscovered [them] anyway.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Camps\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Labor and extermination camps functioned as the ultimate tool in the Nazi\u2019s racial\u00a0 purification of continental Europe. Positioned near major railways, camp locations facilitated the\u00a0 mass transport of Jews from ghettos spread across German-occupied territories. Upon arrival,\u00a0 Nazi enforcers sorted Jews based on gender, age, health, and occupation. Those who would be\u00a0 the most useful would survive as laborers, while all others would be sent to their deaths.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jewish women who were physically able were sent to perform labor in inadequate\u00a0 conditions. Many found it difficult to adapt to the nature of physical labor performed by men due\u00a0 to their history in household work. Nevertheless, they applied themselves to their tasks as they\u00a0 did in the earlier phases of persecution, with some excelling to expert skill levels in machine\u00a0 operations and other jobs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Women who could not work due to pregnancy or possession of small children were\u00a0 ordered to be killed. Although Nazi enforcers at camps categorized Jews according to\u00a0 demographics\u2014such as gender\u2014before leading them to their eventual demise, they did not\u00a0 separate women from their children to avoid chaos. Until the very end, mothers cared for their\u00a0 children, distracting them with toys and humor as they walked in naked processions to the gas\u00a0 chambers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dangers of Pregnancy\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In <\/span>Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History<\/span><\/i>, Dr. Zo\u00eb Waxman argues that the Nazis targeted Jewish women as \u201ca distinct and biological racial group\u201d defined by their unique capabilities, including \u201cpregnancy, childbirth, [and] motherhood.\u201d<\/span> Under this perspective, the reproductive faculties of Jewish women, essential for advancing Jewish lineage, threatened Nazi Germany\u2019s doctrine of racial hygiene. What should have been a joyous time in a woman\u2019s life quickly became all but a death sentence as new policies aimed at preventing childbirth threatened forced abortions and executions.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Ghettos\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Sexual activity manifested as a sort of escapism and safety for many Jewish prisoners. In the Theresienstadt Ghetto of Czechoslovakia, \u201csexuality was a very\u00a0 important element of life there\u201d despite the little food people were able to access, as sexual partners provided comfort and protection from transport, according to survivor Francis Maier.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span>Sexual relationships among Jews were therefore common under persecution; however, female medical conditions led to uncertainty regarding pregnancies. A medical study on the Vilna Ghetto of Lithuania found that up to seventy-five percent of women exhibited amenorrhea\u2014a\u00a0 condition where menstruation is absent in a female of a reproductive age\u2014likely caused by\u00a0 psychological trauma, fatigue, and vitamin deficiencies.<\/span> Although certain drugs could induce\u00a0 periods in non-pregnant women, Maier explains that inaccessibility to quinine pills and similar\u00a0 drugs produced a \u201cconstant chase and demand\u201d among Theresienstadt residents.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Thus, partners were unable to rely on the telling nature of menstruation, which was \u201canything but regular,\u201d<\/span> making sex in the ghettos a risky venture with regard to conception.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between 1942 and 1943, the Nazis applied a measure subjecting all pregnant women in\u00a0 ghettos to mandatory abortions performed by Jewish physicians. Unless carrying in secret,\u00a0 women were under extreme pressure to terminate, else she, her relatives, and the medical\u00a0 professional who assisted in delivering the baby would be executed by Nazi enforcers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pregnant women and health care providers adhered to the rules of the ghetto; however,\u00a0 these abortions compromised the physical and psychological health of the women along with the\u00a0 professional and religious principles of the physician. In the Warsaw Ghetto, Tola Hauptman\u00a0 remembers her pregnant mother, Henia Strosberg, receiving an abortion from gynecologist Dr.\u00a0 Ladyzinski \u201cwithout any anesthetic, without anything that [she] recall[s].\u201d<\/span> The inadequate\u00a0 medical framework of the ghettos put Jewish women in extremely dangerous situations lacking\u00a0 proper sanitation and medical devices, though physicians did whatever possible to ensure the\u00a0 survival of their patients. Those who survived the operation bore permanent emotional scars, for the unsafe nature of the abortion carried with it a high likelihood of\u00a0 permanent infertility, even though their futures looked grim.<\/span><\/p>\n

It should not be forgotten that Jewish physicians faced cases that challenged their\u00a0 personal and professional ethics. Jewish principles state that medical providers could only\u00a0 perform abortions on women who aimed to carry to term if there was a threat to the life of the\u00a0 mother.<\/span> Antisemitic measures in the ghettos should accordingly be understood as a systematic\u00a0 stripping of autonomy, affecting not only women, but also the medical professionals who were\u00a0 thrust into agonizing moral dilemmas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A few pregnant women in the ghettos were permitted to deliver; however, the Nazis\u00a0 required them to sign away the lives of the infants. When the Nazis at Theresienstadt discovered\u00a0 five Jewish pregnancies, the mothers were forced into a written contract agreeing to euthanize\u00a0 the children after birth. Fortunately, the Nazis did not execute the newborns after they were\u00a0 delivered, but the fear of losing children lingered for the mothers, including survivor Anna\u00a0 Bergman. \u201cIt never crossed my mind that I would have to sign a paper giving up the child to be\u00a0 killed,\u201d Bergman says. \u201cNobody has ever heard anything like that.\u201d<\/span> Two months after he was\u00a0 born, Bergman\u2019s son died of pneumonia, along with several other infants that year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Camps\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Pregnant women were rarely spared upon arrival to camps across Nazi occupied territories. To the Nazis, pregnant women and children burdened the wartime economy and posed a threat to the future of the Aryan race.<\/span> Thus, known pregnant women were\u00a0 immediately ushered to the gas chambers, where they would be executed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some women early in their pregnancies were able to avoid detection by either secretly\u00a0 aborting their pregnancies or killing their newborns with the assistance of Jewish physicians in\u00a0 the camps, but those who did not resort to ending the pregnancy or the lives of their children\u00a0 were eventually detected by the Nazis.<\/span> In many cases, guards targeted pregnant women,\u00a0 subjecting them to relentless abuse and harassment on the basis of their condition. Auschwitz\u00a0 survivor Eva Jellinek, who was halfway into her pregnancy, remembers being called into the\u00a0 office of a female SS guard where she received \u201cnasty\u201d treatment involving abusive language\u00a0 and severe beltings.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In cases where women carried their pregnancies to term, inadequate medical care and\u00a0 unsanitary conditions compromised safe deliveries and abortions. Jewish physicians and health\u00a0 care professionals secretly aiding pregnant women did not possess the appropriate instruments or\u00a0 medications necessary to painlessly perform procedures.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But not all pregnant women relied on\u00a0 the support of medical providers. In the testimony of Skar\u017cysko Camp survivor Estelle Laughlin,\u00a0 she reveals having observed a Jewish pregnant woman giving birth in a latrine, where she \u201cjust\u00a0 dropped.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Death of both the infant and the mother was highly probable in the camps, if not by\u00a0 the hand of Nazi enforcers themselves then by the conditions under which they suffered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some pregnancies, however, were delivered under Nazi supervision. At Auschwitz, more\u00a0 than three thousand babies were successfully born, but of these infants, about half were drowned,\u00a0 one thousand died of exposure to elements and starvation, and five hundred were sent to\u00a0 Germany, with only thirty infants said to have survived the concentration camp.<\/span> Although these\u00a0 are only the statistics from a single camp, its horrors can be applied to all camps throughout\u00a0 German-occupied territories, revealing the sheer magnitude of child murder and abuse of\u00a0 mothers during the Holocaust. The Nazi regime\u2019s tyrannical approach to childbearing and\u00a0 motherhood incited mental stress and emotional suffering, which led pregnant women to wonder, \u201cWhat will happen if the war isn\u2019t over and my baby is born and the Germans will take it away from me?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Strategies of Resistance and Survival\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Every phase of the Holocaust made new demands of Jewish women. But, as\u00a0 demonstrated, mothers did not cower in the face of change, demonstrating resilience despite\u00a0 social, economic, and political exile. Charged with the care and safety of their children, mothers,\u00a0 with the assistance of their communities, developed inventive ways to circumvent Nazi\u00a0 persecution. Resistance strategies were often dangerous for all those involved, yet collaborators\u00a0 still considered the protection of Jewish children and generational survival of paramount\u00a0 importance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jewish mothers and collaborators engaged in covert care to protect their children from\u00a0 Nazi oppressors. Whether smuggling food for children or educating Jewish youth behind closed\u00a0 doors, women\u2019s effort to sustain a child\u2019s daily life in secret was profoundly altruistic; however,\u00a0 when Nazi persecution worsened, childrearing became increasingly impossible to accomplish in\u00a0 public view. Vast networks of supporters thus assisted parents as they sought to hide their\u00a0 children both conspicuously and discretely throughout Nazi Europe. Some Jewish parents\u00a0 secured falsified identities for their children through <\/span>black markets and underground resistance <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>networks. By concealing their racial and religious heritage, children could live openly with non Jewish families under the guise of a distant relative.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Parents also decided to hide their children in the homes of collaborators. While some\u00a0 were able to live in secrecy alongside their children, other parents faced the difficult choice of\u00a0 leaving their children in the care of strangers. Herbert Barasch, a Vienna-born Jewish survivor\u00a0 who went into hiding in Belgium, recounts the decision his parents had to make with the\u00a0 guidance of an underground Jewish resistance group. \u201cMy parents had decided that [with] the\u00a0 way things were going on there wasn\u2019t really a lot of chance of survival, and they decided that\u00a0 they wanted to do what they could for me to survive,\u201d he says. \u201cThey went back to this\u00a0 underground committee and they said, \u2018What can we do to save our son?\u2019\u201d The underground\u00a0 committee, which was in the process of rehousing several Jewish children, asked Barasch\u2019s\u00a0 parents, \u201cIf you are going to give up your son, are you willing to not know what’s happening to\u00a0 him? Are you willing to give him up unconditionally?\u201d to which they agreed.<\/span> The story of\u00a0 Barasch and his parents is crushing, yet not uncommon. Many Jewish mothers and fathers\u00a0 compelled themselves to let go of their children, understanding that their chances of survival\u00a0 would improve dramatically if hidden alone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the ghettos and camps\u2014where persecution was at its most deadly\u2014mothers and their\u00a0 support networks continued resisting inconspicuously but with heightened risks if discovered.\u00a0 Whilst pregnant at Auschwitz, Eva Jellinek received support from a group of Czech women who\u00a0 found joy in providing for her and her unborn child, sneaking her food and knitting baby clothes\u00a0 in the evening with materials stolen from work. As Jellinek\u2019s delivery date neared, she and the\u00a0 women removed and boiled the inserts of their shoes to make diapers for her newborn.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 actions of Jellinek and her Czech supporters exemplify how pregnancy and childbirth not only\u00a0 sparked hope within Jewish communities confined to perilous ghettos and camps but also\u00a0 inspired collaboration among individuals, fostering a spirit of solidarity and mutual aid as they\u00a0 worked together to care for the vulnerable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, Jewish healthcare providers participated in saving thousands of pregnant\u00a0 women and infants with their work. As mentioned, physicians and other medical professionals\u00a0 worked in less-than-ideal conditions, lacking proper equipment and medication to perform\u00a0 invasive procedures like abortions; however, they maintained their oaths and provided medical\u00a0 care in times of crisis. Dr. Erno Vadasz was a Jewish physician at the women\u2019s \u201cPregnancy\u00a0 Unit\u201d in the Kaufering subcamp of Dachau. When aiding seven women and labor, he demanded\u00a0 that the enforcers bring him \u201csoap, knife, hot water, [and] towels\u201d to comfortably deliver the\u00a0 children. Although two involved complications with a baby in breech position and a mother\u00a0 exhibiting excessive bleeding, all seven deliveries were a success, with both mother and child\u00a0 surviving the operation.<\/span> In another case, Stanis\u0142awa Leszczy\u0144ska, a midwife at Auschwitz\u00a0 between April 1943 and May 1945, delivered over 3,000 infants, yet not a single mother or child\u00a0 perished.<\/span> Dr. Vadasz, Leszczy\u0144ska, and all other medical providers exhibited immense\u00a0 professionalism and expertise under the watchful eye of Nazi persecutors, prioritizing the lives\u00a0 of Jewish mothers and children over fear and self-preservation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In perhaps the most astounding display of resistance and perseverance, some Jewish women intentionally became pregnant during the most inhumane years of Nazi Germany.\u00a0 Theresienstadt survivor Anna Bergman explains that after the death of her firstborn, both she and\u00a0 her husband conceived a second child. Having endured prolonged Nazi oppression, they\u00a0 ultimately made the decision to start a family despite the end of their suffering being virtually unknown.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span>Bergman possessed the audacity to bring another Jewish child into a world that preyed on the death of their people. This sole act epitomizes resistance as a reclamation of the female body. It represents not only the rejection of Nazi oppression, but also the revival of a Jewish future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From the rise of the Nazi Party to the fall of the regime, Nazi Germany aspired to\u00a0 weaponize the Jewish female body against itself. The Aryanization of Germany and its surrounding territories inspired officials to impose totalitarian policies, stripping women of any autonomy over the self and the family. Such actions decimated the Jewish family structure, forcing women,\u00a0 men, and children to secure their survival rather than devote themselves to the pursuit of happiness. In spite of the circumstances, mothers and their communities found strength in caring for their children and each other. Through underground resistance networks, covert methods of care, and community collaboration, Jewish populations within ghettos and camps used inventive ways to protect the future of the Jewish faith from crumbling under the weight of Nazi\u00a0 oppression.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Future research on Jewish motherhood and pregnancy should strive to understand how Jewish mothers performed self-abortions and infanticide to prevent the suffering of their children. Additionally, studies should provide a voice to Jewish fathers. While the historical narrative ties women to the care of their children, fathers also occupied important roles as\u00a0 caretakers, protectors, and teachers. The picture of Jewish families during Nazi persecution is incomplete without including such perspectives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These testimonies and studies do not represent all of the cases regarding mothering and childbearing; in fact, they are the most optimistic stories to come out of Germany and other Nazi-occupied territories. Nevertheless, they provide a valuable lens through which to evaluate gender-specific oppression and resistance during the Holocaust.<\/span><\/p>\n

1 Tore Nielsen and Tyna Paquette, \u201cDream-associated Behaviors Affecting Pregnant and Postpartum Women,\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>National Institute of Health<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Sleep <\/span><\/i>30, no. 9 (September 2007), p. 1162.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2 <\/span>See Castelo-Branco and Lej\u00e1rcegui (2024) for extensive research on Holocaust-era obstetrics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3 <\/span>Sally Marks, \u201cMistakes and Myths: The Allies, Germany, and the Versailles Treaty, 1918\u20131921,\u201d <\/span>The Journal of\u00a0 Modern History <\/span><\/i>85, no. 3, 2013, p. 632\u201349.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4 <\/span>Marks, \u201cMistakes and Myths,\u201d p. 651.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5 Marks, \u201cMistakes and Myths,\u201d p. 635.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

6 <\/span>Stefan K\u00fchl, \u201cThe Cooperation of German Racial Hygienists and American Eugenicists before and after 1933,\u201d in The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, Michael Berenbaum and Abraham J. Peck, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002), p. 135-36.<\/span><\/p>\n

7 <\/span>\u00a0Stefan K\u00fchl, \u201cFrom Disciple to Model: Sterilization in Germany and the United States,\u201d in The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism, (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994), p.37.<\/span><\/p>\n

8 <\/span>K\u00fchl, The Nazi Connection, p. 39.<\/span><\/p>\n

9 <\/span>James Q. Whitman, Hitler\u2019s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2017), p. 73.<\/span><\/p>\n

10 <\/span>Whitman, Hitler\u2019s American Model, p. 11.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

11 <\/span>Whitman, Hitler\u2019s American Model, p. 80.<\/span><\/p>\n

12 <\/span>Whitman, Hitler\u2019s American Model, p. 125.<\/span><\/p>\n

13 <\/span>Weikart, \u201cThe Role of Darwinism in Nazi Racial Thought,\u201d p. 541.<\/span><\/p>\n

14 <\/span>Leonore Weitzmann, \u201cWomen,” in The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies, (Oxford, Oxford UniversityPress, 2010), p. 203.<\/span><\/p>\n

15 <\/span>Marion Kaplan, \u201cIn Public: Jews Are Turned into Pariahs,\u201d in Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 24.<\/span><\/p>\n

16 <\/span>Susanne Batzdorff, Interview 53002. Interview by Sandra Bendayan, Visual History Archive, JFCS Holocaust Center, (1994, March 3), Tape 1, 00:25:16-00:29:05.<\/span><\/p>\n

17 <\/span>Marion Kaplan, \u201cIn Public: Jews Are Turned into Pariahs,\u201d in Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 30.<\/span><\/p>\n

18 <\/span>Marion Kaplan, \u201cIn Private: The Daily Lives of Jewish Women and Families,\u201d in Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 54.<\/span><\/p>\n

19 <\/span>Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, \u201cLife in the Ghettos,\u201d in Women in the Holocaust, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), p. 103.<\/span><\/p>\n

20 <\/span>Zo\u00eb Waxman, \u201cWomen in the Ghettos,\u201d in Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History, 1st ed., (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 42.<\/span><\/p>\n

21 <\/span>Esia Shor, Interview 41035, Interview by Ruth Meyer, Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, April 26, 1998, Tape 4, 00:05:30-00:07:49.<\/span><\/p>\n

22 <\/span>Waxman, Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History, p. 29.<\/span><\/p>\n

23 <\/span>Ofer and Weitzman, Women in the Holocaust, p. 107.<\/span><\/p>\n

24 <\/span>Katarzyna Person, \u201cSexual Violence during the Holocaust: The Case of Forced Prostitution in the Warsaw Ghetto,\u201d Shofar 33, no. 2 (2015), p. 109.<\/span><\/p>\n

25 <\/span>Person, \u201cSexual Violence during the Holocaust,\u201d p. 108.<\/span><\/p>\n

26 <\/span>Waxman, \u201cWomen in the Ghettos,\u201d in Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History, p. 33.<\/span><\/p>\n

27 <\/span>Aaron Elster, Interview 8527, Interview by Susan London, Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, (1995, November 10), Tape 1, 00:28:20-00:28:57.<\/span><\/p>\n

28 <\/span>Ofer and Weitzman, Women in the Holocaust, p. 286.<\/span><\/p>\n

29 <\/span>Ofer and Weitzman, Women in the Holocaust, p. 287.<\/span><\/p>\n

30 <\/span>Waxman, Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History, p. 81-85.<\/span><\/p>\n

31 <\/span>Waxman, Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History, p. 9.<\/span><\/p>\n

32 <\/span>Francis Maier, Interview 2927, Interview by Deborah Kaye, Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, (1995, June 1), Tape 4, 00:06:10-00:06:45.<\/span><\/p>\n

33 <\/span>Solon Beinfeld, \u201cHealth Care in the Vilna Ghetto,\u201d Holocaust and Genocide Studies 12, no. 1 (1998), 66\u201398.<\/span><\/p>\n

34 <\/span>Maier, Interview 2927, Tape 4, 00:07:28-00:07:57.<\/span><\/p>\n

35 <\/span>Anna Bergman, Interview 28239. Interview by Elisabeth Winkler. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, (1997, March 2), Tape 4, 00:11:25-00:11:30.<\/span><\/p>\n

36 <\/span>Camil Castelo-Branco and Jos\u00e9 A. Lej\u00e1rcegui, \u201cObstetrics and Gynecology in Third Reich concentration camps: a never-ending nightmare,\u201d GREM Gynecological and Reproductive Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 4 (2024, February 4), p. 56.<\/span><\/p>\n

37 <\/span>Tola Hauptman, Interview 23498, Interview by Dina Brustman, Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, (1996, November 26), Tape 2, 00:04:48-00:05:32.<\/span><\/p>\n

38 <\/span>Waxman, \u201cWomen in the Ghettos,\u201d in Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History, p. 31.<\/span><\/p>\n

39 <\/span>Castelo-Branco and Lej\u00e1rcegui, \u201cObstetrics and Gynecology in Third Reich concentration camps,\u201d p. 56.<\/span><\/p>\n

40 <\/span>Bergman, Interview 28239, Tape 2, 00:23:45-00:24:50.<\/span><\/p>\n

41 <\/span>Bergman, Interview 28239, Tape 2,00:24:56-00:25:11.<\/span><\/p>\n

42 <\/span>Waxman, \u201cWomen in the Ghettos,\u201d in Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History, p. 30.<\/span><\/p>\n

43 <\/span>Waxman, \u201cConcentration Camps,\u201d in Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History, p. 98.<\/span><\/p>\n

44 <\/span>Eva Jellinek, Interview 29088, Interview by Reuben Zylberszpic, Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, (1997, March 13), Tape 5, 00:06:54-00:08:17.<\/span><\/p>\n

45 <\/span>Castelo-Branco and Lej\u00e1rcegui, \u201cObstetrics and Gynecology in Third Reich concentration camps,\u201d p. 56.<\/span><\/p>\n

46 <\/span>Estelle Laughlin, Interview 21582, Interview by Esther Toporek Finder, Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, (1996, October 23), Tape 7, 00:11:06-00:12:09.<\/span><\/p>\n

47 <\/span>Barbara Dobrowolska, Stefania Hoch, Aniela Jabkowska-Socha\u0144ska, Susan Benedict, and Linda Shields, \u201cWanda Ossowska (1912\u20132001) and Stanis\u0142awa Leszczy\u0144ska (1896\u20131974): Polish Nurses Working under Nazi Occupation,\u201d Journal of Medical Biography 19, no. 4 (2011), p. 169.<\/span><\/p>\n

48 <\/span>Bergman, Interview 28239, Tape 4, 00:11:36-00:11:49.<\/span><\/p>\n

49 <\/span>Heberer, Patricia, Chapter 4, in Children during the Holocaust, Lanham, (MD: AltaMira Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2011), p. 347.<\/span><\/p>\n

50 <\/span>Herbert Barasch, Interview 52561, Interview by Gene Ayres; Michael Galchmsky. Visual History Archive, JFCS Holocaust Center, (1990, November 8), Tape 1, 00:22:07-00:22:52.<\/span><\/p>\n

51 <\/span>Jellinek, Interview 29088, Tape 5, 00:14:29-00:16:07<\/span><\/p>\n

52 <\/span>Weisz, George M, and Konrad Kwiet, \u201cManaging Pregnancy in Nazi Concentration Camps: The Role of Two Jewish Doctors,\u201d Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal 9, no. 3 (2018), p. 1-7.<\/span><\/p>\n

53 <\/span>Dobrowolska, et. al., \u201cWanda Ossowska (1912\u20132001) and Stanis\u0142awa Leszczy\u0144ska (1896\u20131974), p. 169.<\/span><\/p>\n

54 <\/span>Dobrowolska, et. al., \u201cWanda Ossowska (1912\u20132001) and Stanis\u0142awa Leszczy\u0144ska (1896\u20131974), p. 169.<\/span><\/p>\n

55 <\/span>Bergman, Interview 28239, Tape 3, 00:12:46-00:13:06.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reference List\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Primary Sources:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barasch, Herbert, Interview 52561, Interview by Gene Ayres; Michael Galchmsky, Visual\u00a0 History Archive, JFCS Holocaust Center, (1990, November 8).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Batzdorff, Susanne, Interview 53002, Interview by Sandra Bendayan, Visual History Archive,\u00a0 JFCS Holocaust Center, (1994, March 3).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bergman, Anna, Interview 28239, Interview by Elisabeth Winkler. Visual History Archive, USC\u00a0 Shoah Foundation, (1997, March 2).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elster, Aaron, Interview 8527, Interview by Susan London, Visual History Archive, USC Shoah\u00a0 Foundation, (1995, November 10).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hauptman, Tola, Interview 23498, Interview by Dina Brustman, Visual History Archive, USC\u00a0 Shoah Foundation, (1996, November 26).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jellinek, Eva, Interview 29088, Interview by Reuben Zylberszpic, Visual History Archive, USC\u00a0 Shoah Foundation, (1997, March 13).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Laughlin, Estelle, Interview 21582, Interview by Esther Toporek Finder, Visual History Archive,\u00a0 USC Shoah Foundation, (1996, October 23).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maier, Francis, Interview 2927, Interview by Deborah Kaye, Visual History Archive, USC\u00a0 Shoah Foundation, (1995, June 1).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shor, Esia, Interview 41035, Interview by Ruth Meyer, Visual History Archive, USC Shoah\u00a0 Foundation, (1998, April 26).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondary Sources:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beinfeld, Solon, \u201cHealth Care in the Vilna Ghetto,\u201d <\/span>Holocaust and Genocide Studies <\/span><\/i>12, no. 1\u00a0 (1998), p. 66-98.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Castelo-Branco, Camil and Lej\u00e1rcegui, Jos\u00e9, \u201cObstetrics and Gynecology in Third Reich\u00a0 concentration camps: a never-ending nightmare,\u201d <\/span>GREM Gynecological and\u00a0 Reproductive Endocrinology & Metabolism<\/span><\/i>, Volume 4 (2024, February 4), p. 55-61\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dobrowolska, Barbara; Hoch, Stefania; Jabkowska-Socha\u0144ska, Aniela; Benedict, Susan; and\u00a0 Shields, Linda, \u201cWanda Ossowska (1912\u20132001) and Stanis\u0142awa Leszczy\u0144ska\u00a0 (1896\u20131974): Polish Nurses Working under Nazi Occupation,\u201d <\/span>Journal of Medical\u00a0 Biography <\/span><\/i>19, no. 4 (2011), p. 168-70.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heberer, Patricia, <\/span>Children during the Holocaust<\/span><\/i>, Lanham, (Md: AltaMira Press in association\u00a0 with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2011).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaplan, Marion, <\/span>Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany<\/span><\/i>, (New York:\u00a0 Oxford University Press, 1998).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

K\u00fchl, Stefan, \u201cThe Cooperation of German Racial Hygienists and American Eugenicists before\u00a0 and after 1933,\u201d in <\/span>The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed,\u00a0 and the Reexamined<\/span><\/i>, Michael Berenbaum and Abraham J. Peck, (Bloomington, IN:\u00a0 Indiana University Press, 2002), p. 134-51.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

K\u00fchl, Stefan, <\/span>The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National\u00a0 Socialism<\/span><\/i>, (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marks, Sally, \u201cMistakes and Myths: The Allies, Germany, and the Versailles Treaty,\u00a0 1918\u20131921,\u201d <\/span>The Journal of Modern History <\/span><\/i>85, no. 3 (2013), p. 632\u201359. Nielsen, Tore and Paquette, Tyna, \u201cDream-associated Behaviors Affecting Pregnant and\u00a0 Postpartum Women,\u201d <\/span>National Institute of Health<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Sleep <\/span><\/i>30, no. 9 (September 2007), p.\u00a0 1162.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ofer, Dalia and Weitzman, Lenore J., <\/span>Women in the Holocaust<\/span><\/i>, (New Haven, CT: Yale\u00a0 University Press, 1998).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Person, Katarzyna, \u201cSexual Violence during the Holocaust: The Case of Forced Prostitution in\u00a0 the Warsaw Ghetto,\u201d <\/span>Shofar <\/span><\/i>33, no. 2 (2015), p. 103\u201321.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Waxman, Zo\u00eb, <\/span>Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History<\/span><\/i>, 1st ed., (Oxford:\u00a0 Oxford University Press, 2017).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Weikart, Richard, \u201cThe Role of Darwinism in Nazi Racial Thought,\u201d <\/span>German Studies Review 36<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0 no. 3 (2013), p. 537\u201356.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Weisz, George M, and Konrad Kwiet, \u201cManaging Pregnancy in Nazi Concentration Camps: The\u00a0 Role of Two Jewish Doctors,\u201d Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal 9, no. 3 (2018), p.\u00a0 1-7.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whitman, James Q., <\/span>Hitler\u2019s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race\u00a0 Law<\/span><\/i>, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2017).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1036,"featured_media":690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPostpartum Nightmares: Jewish Motherhood as a Source of Oppression and Defiance Under Nazi Persecution\u00a0<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/2025\/11\/21\/postpartum-nightmares-jewish-motherhood-as-a-source-of-oppression-and-defiance-under-nazi-persecution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Postpartum Nightmares: Jewish Motherhood as a Source of Oppression and Defiance Under Nazi Persecution\u00a0 - 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