Women in the Holocaust

What role does gender play in surviving or recounting Holocaust experiences, if relevant at all? During the 1980s and the 1990s, three women authors in particular undertook the task to capture in written words their childhood memories of the Holocaust: Gebranntes Kind sucht das Feuer by Cordelia Edvardson (1984), Seed of Sarah by Judith Magyar Isaacson (1990), and weiter leben by Ruth Kluger (1992). At first glance, these memoirs may appear to be very similar: three female authors who endured Auschwitz at young ages, writing down their memories at a much later date. However, despite the number of shared characteristics, the narratives reveal some central issues which are nevertheless strikingly different. In what ways does an individual choose to express her memories of such horror and trauma in writing? What do memoirs tell us about the author? How important a factor is gender to consider while examining these memoirs? This study explores these questions, as well as the underlying messages, intents, sentiments, and stylistic devices that make the three authors' autobiographies and their expressions of memory different and unique.