‘Something was crawling all over me’: queer fear in women’s Holocaust testimonies

ABSTRACT

This article aims to explore how women memoirists use observations of queer relationships in concentration camps to express anxieties about their own sexualities and troubling notions of sexual fluidity. It builds on the small body of secondary literature devoted to examining representations of eroticism and queer sexuality in Holocaust memoir, and seeks to demonstrate how, and in what ways, the women conceptualize their own sexuality through language in their published testimonies. The article focuses on a close reading of the memoirs of women survivors of the Holocaust to show how their narratives reflect the existence of sexual curiosity and anxiety.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• sexuality
• queer
• Holocaust
• memoir

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Tom Lawson and Dr Ann-Marie Einhaus, for their support and advice during the writing process. I would also like to thank my partner, Kirsty Ford, for endless cups of tea, and above all, unwavering encouragement when I’ve needed it most. A special thanks must also go to my mother, Julie Woods, and my auntie, Teresa McNally, for help and assistance with proofreading this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Roseanna Ramsden is a doctoral candidate in the department of Arts, Design and Social Sciences at Northumbria University. In 2017 she was awarded a three-year studentship to conduct further research into women's experiences and representations of the Holocaust, following the work she carried out during her MA at the University of Leeds. The title of her doctoral thesis is ‘Women's Holocaust Testimony: Gender, Reception, and Canon-formation.’ She is interested in women's memoir and narration, gendered recall and narration, and queer histories of the Holocaust.

Notes

1 Rosenfeld, A Double Dying, 164.

2 Cesarani, Final Solution, xxxviii.

3 Chalmers, Birth, Sex and Abuse, 187.

4 Gelbin, “Gender and Sexuality,” 177.

5 Schoppmann, “This Kind of Love,” 83.

6 Jagose, Queer Theory: An Introduction, 2–3.

7 Stimpson, “Zero Degree Deviancy,” 364.

8 Zimmerman, “What Has Never Been,” 2339.

9 Elman, “Lesbians and the Holocaust,” 10.

10 Hutton, Testimony from Nazi Camps, 84.

11 Ibid.

12 Bouris, Complex Political Victims, 72.

13 Ibid.

14 Waxman, Writing the Holocaust, 160.

15 Fénelon, Playing for Time, 145.

16 Ibid.

17 Lengyel, Five Chimneys, 197–8.

18 Ibid., 198.

19 Dalton, “Just take a tablet,” 63.

20 Herek, “Beyond ‘Homophobia,” 12.

21 Shik, “Sexual Abuse of Jewish Women,” 239.

22 Nomberg-Przytyk, Auschwitz: True Tales, 92.

23 Steinberg, Speak You Also, 150.

24 Ibid., 88–9.

25 Sieg, “Sexual Desire and Social Transformations,” 315.

26 Herek, “Beyond ‘Homophobia,’” 10.

27 Żywulska, I Came Back, 61.

28 Conrad, The Medicalization of Society, 4.

29 Herbermann, The Blessed Abyss, 136.

30 Ibid., 136–7.

31 Langton Gregory, The Oxford Companion, 803.

32 Półtawska, And I Am Afraid, 57.

33 Ibid., 57–9.

34 Ibid., 58.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid., 59.

39 Ibid., 58.

40 Ibid., 58–9.

41 Ibid., 58.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 Lingens-Reiner, Prisoners of Fear, 107.

46 Fénelon, Playing for Time, 220.

47 Langer, Preempting the Holocaust, 1.

48 Ibid.

49 Waxman, “Unheard Testimony, Untold Stories,” 664.

50 Bitton-Jackson, I Have Lived, 9.

51 Waxman, “Unheard Testimony, Untold Stories,” 674.

52 Fénelon, Playing for Time, 218.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Northumbria University: [grant number Research Studentship].