Chesney Fain

UWRT 1102-37
February 10, 2015
Inquiry Proposal Assignment
When I began to question what I wanted to inquire about the Holocaust in this course I
wanted to make sure I focused on something I was truly passionate about learning. After doing
some early research I found that women, compared to men, were faced with much greater
challenges during this time. Rape, prostitution, pregnancies and child births inside concentration
camps are just some of the few things that women throughout history and the Holocaust endured.
The role of women during the Holocaust is of particular interest to me because I am eager to
break down their particular actions shown throughout their diaries and historical journals to learn
how these experiences changed their lives. I am interested also in learning about how women
during this time resisted the Nazi movement beginning from the early start of the propaganda all
the way up until the end of the war. Women resistance is an area I want to learn more about
because through research it stated that some women used their negative stereotype in their favor
to help resist the war and I am eager to learn how.
I previously dont have much previous knowledge specifically on womens role
during the Holocaust. However, I do have a fundamental understanding of the Holocaust and its
major events such as the militia procedures, life in the camps, and liberation. I also have read in
other history class novels about the Holocaust that are directed from a Jewish perspective like
The Devils Arithmetic and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Even though my previous history

classes never focused on resistance from the population, let only women resistance I am even
more eager to conduct my own research about the topic.
How much were women during the Holocaust willing to sacrifice in the slight hope that it
might save their family for one day longer? How did women use their gender in order to find
protection? How did heroic women gather the strength to act up and fight against NaziGermany? What type of challenges did they face? What was it like to have to defy someone your
country (or population?) saw as a great leader and model? What was it like for some of these
women to have their children and family pried from their arms? Along with these questions I
want to focus on resistance from inside the camps made by women and also resistance outside
the concentration camps such as the ghettos, or possibly Aryan women resisted the
Holocaust/Ideals of Hitler. I am very eager to learn about the different groups or organizations
created in efforts to defy the Nazis, I found a few articles on female French women who worked
undercover to help with resistance against Nazi actions. Other things to note are throughout my
early research on this topic I found many useful resources that I am interested in looking further
into such as testimonies from women who directly helped to resist the Nazi movement and
fought to save the ones they love.