‘And it was something we didn’t talk about’: Rape of Jewish Women during the Holocaust HELENE SINNREICH This article focuses on the sexual abuse of Jewish women by German men during the Holocaust. It rejects the myth that laws forbidding Rassenschande would prevent the rape of Jewish women and argues that genocidal conditions provided fertile soil for such abuses. It examines some of the reasons that scholars have shied away from discussing this issue. There is a strong connection between rape and genocide. Much of the recent scholarship on rape and genocide has focused on rape as a tool for carrying out genocide. 1 However, rape occurs during genocide not only as a systematic means of attack but also because it places its victims in physically vulnerable positions with limited or non-existent access to redress. Although during the Holocaust the organised rape of Jewish women was not part of official German genocidal policy, the conditions that exposed women to various abuses put them at risk of being raped by a wide range of individuals including perpetrators, bystanders, and fellow victims. This article focuses specifically on rape of Jewish women by German men during the Holocaust – a story that does not fit neatly into the standard narratives of the Final Solution precisely because it contradicted central policy. Just as physical beatings, medical experiments, or other forms of assault need not be part of the means of committing genocide in order to be their byproduct, the rape of Jewish women nevertheless occurred and must be understood as an important part of Jewish women’s experience during the Holocaust. 2 While the sexual abuse and forced prostitution of non-Jews during the Second World War is well known, rape and sexual violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust remains relatively unexplored for a number of Helene Sinnreich is Director of the Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies at Youngstown State University and Executive Director of the Ohio Council of Holocaust Education. She is editor in chief of the Journal of Jewish Identities. Dr. Sinnreich has served as a fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2007) and at Yad Vashem (2009). Her current research is on the Krakow ghetto. Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History, Vol.14, No.2, Autumn 2008, pp.1–22 PUBLISHED BY VALLENTINE MITCHELL, LONDON Electronic Offprint Copyright © 2008 Vallentine Mitchell Helene Sinnreich:!jhs_grid.qxd 27/07/2009 11:26 Page 1