Voices of Courage: Women and Heroism in the Holocaust

Women express their agency in the face of oppression, war and genocide through many forms of defiance, including educational, cultural, spiritual and armed resistance, although it is often overlooked. This article proposes to identify and critically analyze a canon of “heroines,” women of courage, to challenge male-based narratives of heroism and prevent the misuse of the terms “hero” or “heroine” by illiberal governments. Using the examples of Edith Bruck, Hannah Szenes (and other Hungarian Zionist women), Zivia Lubetkin, Vera Laska and Josephine Baker, this article argues that gender studies makes a major contribution to explaining the Holocaust when critically analyzing relationships that are embedded in acts of intolerance or solidarity. These relations between women, men and women, or Jews and non-Jews, before, during and after war and genocide are key to survival and remembrance. Critical thinking and connectivity to others can offer ways to resist antisemitism and persecution. Their courageous actions and testimony contradict notions of Jewish and female passivity in the fight against Nazism and for dignity and human rights. Presented here in tribute to Andrea Pető, an advocate for academic freedom, their courage is a model for our own times.