About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherMichigan STATE University Press

ISBN-101611861705

ISBN-139781611861709

eBay Product ID (ePID)208708633

Product Key Features

Number of Pages434 Pages

Publication NameFemale Ss Guards and Workaday Violence : the Majdanek Concentration Camp, 1942-1944

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2015

SubjectHolocaust, Military / World War II, Modern / 20th Century, Women's Studies

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaSocial Science, History

AuthorElissa Mailänder

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.4 in

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2014-954452

Dewey Edition23

Reviews"The book demonstrates that young women often acted to a considerable degree on their own initiative to ensure the functioning of an extermination camp. . . . By elucidating the horrific 'workaday routines' of these female perpetrators in Majdanek and confronting the abysmal anthropological depths of a topic that is still taboo, the author helps to reconstruct how the murder of Europe's Jews could become reality." --Bernward Dörner, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The book demonstrates that young women often acted to a considerable degree on their own initiative to ensure the functioning of an extermination camp. . . . By elucidating the horrific ‘workaday routines' of these female perpetrators in Majdanek and confronting the abysmal anthropological depths of a topic that is still taboo, the author helps to reconstruct how the murder of Europe's Jews could become reality." —Bernward Dörner, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal940.53/185

SynopsisHow did "ordinary women," like their male counterparts, become capable of brutal violence during the Holocaust? Cultural historian Elissa Mailänder examines the daily work of twenty-eight women employed by the SS to oversee prisoners in the Lublin/Majdanek concentration and death camp in Poland. The author analyzes Nazi records, court testimony, memoirs, and film interviews to illuminate the guards' social backgrounds, careers, and motives as well as their day-to-day lives on the "job.", How did "ordinary women," like their male counterparts, become capable of brutal violence during the Holocaust? Cultural historian Elissa Mailänder examines the daily work of twenty-eight women employed by the SS to oversee prisoners in the concentration and death camp Majdanek/Lublin in Poland. Many female SS overseers in Majdanek perpetrated violence and terrorized prisoners not only when ordered to do so but also on their own initiative. The social order of the concentration camp, combined with individual propensities, shaped a microcosm in which violence became endemic to workaday life. The author's analysis of Nazi records, court testimony, memoirs, and film interviews illuminates the guards' social backgrounds, careers, and motives as well as their day-to-day behavior during free time and on the "job," as they supervised prisoners on work detail and in the cell blocks, conducted roll calls, and "selected" girls and women for death in the gas chambers. Scrutinizing interactions and conflicts among female guards, relations with male colleagues and superiors, and internal hierarchies, Female SS Guards and Workaday Violence shows how work routines, pressure to "resolve problems," material gratification, and Nazi propaganda stressing guards' roles in "creating a new order" heightened female overseers' identification with Nazi policies and radicalized their behavior., How did "ordinary women," like their male counterparts, become capable of brutal violence during the Holocaust? Cultural historian Elissa Mail nder examines the daily work of twenty-eight women employed by the SS to oversee prisoners in the concentration and death camp Majdanek/Lublin in Poland. Many female SS overseers in Majdanek perpetrated violence and terrorized prisoners not only when ordered to do so but also on their own initiative. The social order of the concentration camp, combined with individual propensities, shaped a microcosm in which violence became endemic to workaday life. The author's analysis of Nazi records, court testimony, memoirs, and film interviews illuminates the guards' social backgrounds, careers, and motives as well as their day-to-day behavior during free time and on the "job," as they supervised prisoners on work detail and in the cell blocks, conducted roll calls, and "selected" girls and women for death in the gas chambers. Scrutinizing interactions and conflicts among female guards, relations with male colleagues and superiors, and internal hierarchies, Female SS Guards and Workaday Violence shows how work routines, pressure to "resolve problems," material gratification, and Nazi propaganda stressing guards' roles in "creating a new order" heightened female overseers' identification with Nazi policies and radicalized their behavior.

LC Classification NumberD805.5.M35M34513