Women in the holocaust. The story of a Jewish woman who killed a Nazi in a concentration camp: A folkloristic perspective

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Abstract

This article, about a story of a Jewish woman who killed a Nazi in a concentration camp, deals with the problem of the folkloristic treatment of stories set during the Holocaust and recounted by survivors. The analysis of the fourteen versions of the story, its structure and content shows that folklore studies may be able to provide new insight that historical research cannot supply. It shows how the narrators use the story to raise issues that preoccupied the victims of the Holocaust, to express their dreadful situation and their aspirations and to provide a sense to the awful chaos they went through. The story embodies problems surrounding women in the Holocaust and glorifies women and their heroism, thereby offering some consolation to the storytelling society. Such stories were a way to conduct a discourse that expressed the atrocities that happened, the longings of the victims and their search for meaning and played a therapeutic role.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)67-77
Number of pages11
JournalFabula
Volume50
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Literature and Literary Theory

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