On January 22, 2024, a Zoom discussion entitled “Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Abuse in War Times” was presented by Women in the Holocaust International Study Center (WHISC), a new Israeli organization. The participants were Dr. Carol Rittner, Dr. Batya Brutin, and Dr. Beverley Chalmers, moderated by Prof. Lily Zamir, who heads the study center. Remember the Women Institute was pleased to see that its pioneering work on women and the Holocaust was highlighted during the event.
For example, Dr. Brutin, identified as a member of the steering committee of WHISC (and also a long-term member of the advisory board of Remember the Women Institute), entitled her presentation “Violated! Women during the Holocaust in Visual Arts.” “VIOLATED! Women in Holocaust and Genocide” was the title of Remember the Women Institute’s groundbreaking international group exhibition at the prestigious Ronald Feldman Gallery in SoHo, New York City in 2018. Dr. Brutin was the curator of the exhibition and two of the drawings she showed during her Zoom presentation, loaned to us from Lohamei Haghettaot (Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum), were part of the exhibition. The 2018 exhibition was the first on the subject and included artworks from such internationally famous artists as Judy Chicago, Boris Lurie, and Nancy Spero. The on-line catalog is available here.
Dr. Carol Rittner, co-editor with Prof. John K. Roth of the 1993 anthology Different Voices, quoted several scholarly sources on the subject of sexual violence during the Holocaust. A surprise omission in her presentation was Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust edited by Dr. Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel and published by Brandeis University in 2010, co-published by Remember the Women Institute. She did, however, refer to two of the chapter authors in the book: Dr. Eva Fogelman and Dr. Zoe Waxman. The trailblazing 2010 book was the first ever to deal with this subject, and information is available here.
Remember the Women Institute began research and advocacy about women and the Holocaust twenty-seven years ago, when it was a struggle to insert women’s experiences and voices into the male-dominated narrative on the Holocaust. Further developments led to focusing on sexual violence during the Holocaust (as well as later genocides).
As the Institute continues to work on this issue and the silence that surrounded it, a different kind of silence has accompanied the sexual atrocities committed against Jewish women by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Because this was the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust and an attempted genocide, the Institute’s mission now includes this horrific event. It is rewarding to know that the long-term work of Remember the Women Institute is affirmed and is inspiring other initiatives in Israel and around the world.