German Women’s Involvement In The Holocaust

1:55 pm EST July 17th, 2010 | History | 5 Comments

Their hands got dirty too.

The Nazi killing machine was undoubtedly a male-dominated affair. But according to new research, the participation of German women in the genocide, as perpetrators, accomplices or passive witnesses, was far greater than previously thought.

The researcher, Wendy Lower, an American historian now living in Munich, has drawn attention to the number of seemingly ordinary German women who willingly went out to the Nazi-occupied eastern territories as part of the war effort, to areas where genocide was openly occurring.

‘Thousands would be a conservative estimate,’ Ms. Lower said in an interview in Jerusalem last week.

While most did not bloody their own hands, the acts of those who did seemed all the more perverse because they operated outside the concentration camp system, on their own initiative.

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5 Responses to “German Women’s Involvement In The Holocaust”

  1. The Dark Avenger says:
    July 17, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

    Rudyard Kipling

  2. Frank DiSalle says:
    July 18, 2010 at 4:55 am

    Are we supposed to be thinking, “We know men do bad stuff, but women? Nah , can’t be !!”?

    Heh

  3. digitus medius says:
    July 18, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    Duh!

  4. The Dark Avenger says:
    July 18, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    Historically, there’s the Countess of Blood, Elizabeth Báthory, Ilse Koch, and of course, the late Susan Atkins.

  5. timmy says:
    July 18, 2010 at 4:57 pm

    Sociopathy occurs in women about a third as often as in men. But because of greater physical capabilities, testosterone and prevailing cultural norms many sociopathic men get weeded out of society through incarceration, getting maimed or killed. I’d think the proportion of female to male socially adept and successful sociopaths winds up being much more even than the 1:3 ratio.