THE FEMALE "FACE" OF THE HOLOCAUST: THE GENDER ASPECT GENOCIDE OF THE JEWS IN UKRAINE (1941–1944)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study gender-based forms of violence against women during the Holocaust. Using both published materials and other historical sources, the authors of the article try to identify trends in the attitude of killers to victims in 1941-1944 on the territory of modern Ukraine. The starting point of this analysis is the statement that from the moment when gender-selective executions of men were supplemented by the murder of women and children, the Holocaust became a fundamental genocide.

The reflections of the authors of the article are focused in several aspects. The key ones are the following: women as a target group of the fundamental genocide, the female component in the political economy of the Holocaust, forms of violence against women (including sexual violence as an element of systemic violence), and destroyed motherhood. The generalisation in the "range" of the above perspectives, the identification of trends in gender-based violence against women determine the scientific novelty of this article.

At the same time, the authors of the article argue that the women's "face" of the Holocaust is determined by other perspectives. In particular, the further fulfilment by women of their former social roles (wives, daughters, mothers), the search for survival strategies, the growth of female masculinity in extreme conditions, etc.