[4] According to author Joan Ringelheim, women demonstrated more nurturing interpersonal behavior in internment/concentration camps than their male counterparts, due to their unique qualities.
[7]: 80 Women were immediately violated upon entering as "the tattooing, the removal of their hair, the invasion of their body cavities" was part of a systematic process of degradation, humiliation, and commodification.
[7]: 83 One SS officer was reported to have "had the custom of standing at the doorway… and feeling the private parts of the young women entering the gas bunker.
This was in spite of the Nazi law that forbids sexual relations between ethnic Germans and Jews which was punishable by jail or death.
There were instances of SS unit parties where defenseless Jewish women were repeatedly sexually assaulted until they fell to the floor bleeding.
Some historians conclude that because most SS officers and soldiers were male, Jewish boys and men faced less risk of sexual assault and abuse than women.
"[7]: 86 : 376 Rape, unwanted pregnancies, forced abortions, medical experimentation and/or examination, and sterilization were also common and contributed to the sexual violations and abuse many Jewish women faced during the Holocaust.
[12] Major disparities between mother and father figures in the narratives of survivors were caused by the gender roles of Jewish men and women who were imprisoned.
"[14] The social cohesion of these partisan units sometimes reflected larger societal attitudes, including gendered stereotypes and expectations.
Subsequently, women who joined the partisans were generally "excluded from combat duty and from leadership positions"[4] and subjected to gender-specific vulnerabilities.
Specifically in the Bielski detachment, women played a pivotal role in running the camp by providing food and aiding the injured or ill partisans as nurses or members of the medical staff.
[15] Niuta Teitelbaum, a 24-year-old Jewish woman nicknamed “Little Wanda with the braids”, and a graduate of Warsaw University, was a high-value target for the Gestapo.
World War II scholars, researchers, and other academics need to ensure that these facts are integrated into the detailed narrative of the Holocaust to teach future generations the importance of recognizing the full story.
To facilitate the Nazi goal of Jewish genocide, the labor camps conducted "selections," held at random intervals.
"I don’t know which to long for more – food or freedom.”[18]: 137 Work in the labor camps was intense, due to harsh weather conditions and constant supervision by the SS.
Prisoners often conducted manual labor in full sun, "when it was hot on [their] heads.”[18]: 154 Gelissen performed many different jobs in the camps.
“We are working on the new blocks, digging sand out of a deep hole and shifting it through the mesh nets.” However, Rena had had experience doing this and she says, “Our hands are hard.