“Real Comrades in Struggle and Suffering”: Women’s Experiences in the Vapniarka Concentration Camp

Abstract

Abstract From the 1200 Jews interned at the Vapniarka concentration camp, slightly over one hundred were women. A regime of extermination was imposed in the early months of captivity through the toxic pea fodder distributed as food. More than half of the survivors remained either with paralysis or some other permanent illness. This article focuses on the female experience in the camp, the self-perception of women in contrast to the representation of women by men, as expressed through various narratives such as novel testimonies, oral histories, and autobiographies. Using narrative analysis I show how the prisoners of Vapniarka perceived their participation in different forms of resistance to fascist attempts at extermination and how time and place of telling impacted the language used. This is the first article focusing on the topic of the women of Vapniarka.