“Somebody’s mother, somebody’s child, somebody’s lover, somebody’s bride.” Women’s collective Holocaust experiences in memoir

Mason, Alexandra Hazel (2026) “Somebody’s mother, somebody’s child, somebody’s lover, somebody’s bride.” Women’s collective Holocaust experiences in memoir. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Since the emergence of the field in the 1980s, feminist scholars have sought to amplify Jewish women’s Holocaust experiences in an effort to address the void left by universalised post-war applications of male testimony- that is, they have sought to address the divergence of female experiences from that of their male counterparts in accordance with the assertion that women experienced the horrors of the Shoah differently due to their social and biological status as women. This thesis seeks to contribute to this discourse, by examining the gendered dimensions of women’s experiences in Holocaust concentration and death camps (the ‘Lager’), arguing that embodied suffering, interpersonal relationality, and maternal identity together shape a distinctly female mode of survival and meaningmaking under extreme conditions. Chapter One explores the embodied experiences of imprisoned women, focusing on physical experiences in which female bodily integrity was compromised within the camps. Exposing instances of sexual and gendered humiliation, overt and covert sexualised violence and reproductive violence, this chapter seeks to access the impact of degradation, at once physical and gender-specific, while rejecting the perpetrator mindset of essentialisms of the Jewish female body. Chapter Two investigates the relational bonds that emerged among women in the camps, analysing friendships, mutual aid, and community cultural and spiritual expressions as practices through which women cultivated resilience, dignity, and ethical responsibility in the face of systematic dehumanisation. Significantly, this chapter will engage with the moral complexities of coexistence under extremity, challenging pre-determined conventions of how the womansurvivor should behave. Chapter Three considers motherhood as a site where physical embodiment and relational obligations converge, demonstrating how maternal identities, whether rooted in actual caregiving, symbolic motherhood, or remembered ties, function simultaneously as burden, coping mechanism, and moral anchor. Specifically, this chapter will address the parentification of children under the severity of genocide and highlight moments of frustrated connection between mothers and daughters, challenging preexisting, exclusionary, conventions of the idealised maternal trope. Across these chapters, the thesis argues that women’s embodied and relational practices not only challenged Nazi efforts to erase individuality and community, but also reveal forms of agency, both troubling and empowering, that persist even within structures of extreme oppression. By foregrounding gendered experience, the study contributes to ongoing efforts in Holocaust scholarship to integrate feminist, phenomenological, and relational frameworks into the analysis of survival, memory, and the ethics of witnessing.

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D731 World War II; H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Spiro, Dr. Mia and Grossman, Dr. Elwira
• Date of Award: 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2026-86075
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 25 Jun 2026 12:37
• Last Modified: 25 Jun 2026 12:39
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.86075
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/86075