Julia Parkhurst Dr. Finley-Crosswhite 29 JUNE 2018

Julia Parkhurst HIST 304T Dr. Finley-Crosswhite Word Count: 1848 29 JUNE 2018

Amenorrhea and Menstruation in Nazi Concentration Camps

Life in the Nazi concentration camps did not discriminate between the sexes with respect to the severity with which it tormented inmates, however, women faced additional genderspecific abuse that men did not and physiologically could not. The misogynistic and patriarchal environment in which World War II took place created the perfect incubator for the employment of sexual and psychological tortures on incarcerated women. Upon arrival at the camps, all inmates underwent humiliating nude invasive searches and head-to-toe shavings, but for women, this was especially jarring: modesty was a priority in Orthodox Judaism--daughters had never seen their mother's naked and former neighbors were stripped of their clothing in front of one another. SS Guards would insert their digits and prod objects into women's vaginal and anal cavities, "searching" for valuables. Women were more vulnerable to sexual assault whereas men were, for the most part, safe from this prospect considering the majority of SS guards were male, and homosexuality was a prosecutable sin. Although sexual relations between Aryans and Jews were also forbidden, it did little to prevent the rapes and sodomies perpetrated by male guards on women as additional forms of torture. Women were also susceptible to pregnancies and menstruation, and on the flip side, abortions and amenorrhea. The additional hardships and

pressures women faced while camp inmates made their chances of survival even more minimal

in comparison to their male counterparts.

Because menstruation, fertility, and pregnancy are so closely tied, and the latter was

forbidden among Jewish women, menstruation was grounds for death in the concentration

camps. Women were told they would be shot if caught menstruating, and while the threat was for

the most part, baseless, SS officers claimed to have wanted to know the effects the threat would have on the menstruation cycle.1 The SS, notoriously keen on aesthetics, warned that any woman with blood on her dress would be killed, because it was seen as unsanitary and undignified.2

However, it was impossible to block the menstrual blood flow without access to sanitary napkins of any sort, or even undergarments, and were forced to wear the same clothing every day.3 Rena

Kornreich Gelissen recalls "scour[ing] the ground for anything that might help . . . hinder the flow [, but] there was nothing."4 During the daily selections within the first month arriving at the

camp, the women were forced to stand not only naked, but also with blood dripping down their

legs. This was not only the epitome of degradation, it also marked most of their final menstrual

bleedings while at the camps, further blundering their dignities.

Threats also came from women who had ceased menstruation; they were envious of

women able maintain regular menstruation cycles, not of their ability to bleed literally (because

that came at a cost of its own), but that they had retained enough autonomy over their bodies to maintain a feminine process of which others had been stripped.5 The climate of anxiety created

by the threats from SS officers and envy of fellow female inmates, forced menstruating women

1 Julie Fay Rosenbaum, "Female Experiences during the Holocaust" (Master's thesis, Boston College, Massachusetts, 1993), 76, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.odu.edu /docview/304041747?accountid=12967. 2 Ibid. 3 Zo? Waxman, Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 17, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608683.001.0001. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid.

to suffer in silence. Paradoxically, because amenorrhea is caused by undue stress, these external pressures could have actually caused women who menstruated regularly longer than others to stop, and endure the "defeat" of amenorrhea alongside their fellow inmates.

Amenorrhea is the temporary or permanent cessation of the menstrual cycle for three or more consecutive cycles in a woman with previously normal cycles.6 Although the most common cause is pregnancy, the major causes of amenorrhea can be divided into four categories: anatomic abnormalities, ovarian dysfunction, pituitary dysfunction, and central nervous system or hypothalamic disorders.7 Hypothalamic disorders--more specifically, functional hypothalamic GnRH deficiencies are caused by nutritional deficiencies, severe illness, and emotional distress, among other stressors.8 A sufficient percentage of body fat is necessary to maintain regular menstrual periods, so the severe undernutrition coupled with the emotional and existential peril female inmates faced in the concentration camps on a daily basis created an almost absolute amenorrheic environment.9 While menstruation in the camps came with its own problems, they were short-lived because most women ceased menstruation soon after their arrival. Amenorrhea on the other hand, plagued women for almost the entirety of their imprisonment. While amenorrhea saved women the trouble of blocking a menstrual blood flow, (an ordeal in its own right considering they were not granted access to sanitary napkins), the psychological impacts of the cessation of an inherently feminine process were far-reaching, especially for Jewish women.

6 Renee Andreeff, "Amenorrhea," Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants 27, no. 10 (2014): 50, doi:10.1097/01.jaa.0000453871.15689.a2. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 9 R. E. Frisch and J. W. Mcarthur, "Menstrual Cycles: Fatness as a Determinant of Minimum Weight for Height Necessary for Their Maintenance or Onset," Science 185, no. 4155 (1974): 949, doi:10.1126/science.185.4155.949.

Chapter 15 of The Book of Leviticus (the third book of the Torah and Old Testament) outlines the Jewish laws of menstruation or niddah.10 The Hebrew term niddah comes from the root word ndh, meaning "separation;" referring to that between husband and wife, a separation rooted in the alleged impurity of menstrual blood.11 Coitus between man and woman during the seven days of menstruation is forbidden; however, if coitus takes place, the impurity is transferred to the man, and with it, the ability to contaminate others.12 Although niddah is chiefly observed among Orthodox Jews, its tenets are far reaching and pertinent to the relationship between Jewish women and menstruation. Feminists argue the roots of niddah are misogynistic and discriminatory, but the women who adhere to its traditions claim that it allows them to embrace their femininity, encourages self-esteem and bodily acceptance, and strengthens the bond between woman and motherhood. Jewish religious texts emphasize the sanctity and spirituality of motherhood by indicating that through birth, the mother bears the Torah and is responsible for the installation of Judaism in the next generation.13 Motherhood and Judaism and are so closely intertwined that, when unable to fulfill their motherly duties, many mothers felt isolated from their religion and culture.14

Nazism and sexism were closely intertwined but observed and implemented with exceptions and contradictory nuances. Nazi ideology defined the Aryan woman's role first and foremost as a vessel for gestation; however, Jewish women, among other "inferiors" were not

10 Tirzah Meacham, "An Abbreviated History of the Development of the Jewish Menstrual Laws," in Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1999), 23. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Staci Jill Rosenthal, "Birthing into Death: Stories of Jewish Pregnancy from the Holocaust," Order No. 10129201, Boston University, 2016, 15, view/1812547207?accountid=12967. 14 Myrna A. Hant, "Judaism and Motherhood," In Encyclopedia of Motherhood, edited by Andrea O'Reilly, 612, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2010, doi: 10.4135/9781412979276.n310.

expected or even allowed to fulfill the Nazis' prescribed gender roles.15 Women were forbidden from education and work because the government felt that intellectual pursuits served to distract women from performing their duties as mothers. Because Germany's birth rate was at an all-time low, women were incentivized to bear more children than they actually wanted and were rewarded for doing so. In some ways, this was similar to the "choice-less choices" that inmates in the concentration camps made; Nazi propaganda convinced many women that it was a selfascribed choice to bear more children and indoctrinated them into a patriarchal society that formed women into reproductive machines and trained them through positive reinforcement to suit the Third Reich. When inmates in camps made "conscious" choices to ration bread or help a fellow inmate, they were making "choice-less choices" because they did not choose to be in the camps or to have to make life or death choices, just like it most likely wasn't the Aryan woman's own idea to solely be a mother and produce as many children as anatomically possible. The Jewish woman's predicament was therefore unlike that of Jewish men; her womanhood and Judaism were persecuted simultaneously, causing her to face discrimination on behalf of two elements of her humanity.

Women saw their own amenorrheic statuses as the manifestation of Hitler's will and plan.16 One of the main tenets of Hitler's Final Solution was to sterilize the Jewish people (women more so than men) and undesirables, sterilize them in a way so that they could continue providing slave labor but couldn't contaminate the population with their "substandard" offspring. He saw sterilization as a way to end the Jewish legacy, and women, once faced with the harsh

15 Karin Lynn Brashler, "Mothers for Germany: A Look at the Ideal Woman in Nazi Propaganda," (Master's thesis, Iowa State University, 2015), 15, search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/ docview/1709243775?accountid=12967. 16 Myrna Goldenberg, "Lessons Learned from Gentle Heroism: Women's Holocaust Narratives," The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 548 (1996): 78-93, 1048544.

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