Sexual violence and denial of motherhood in Sherri Szeman’s “The Kommandant’s Mistress”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-8051.cllh.2025.235992Keywords:
Holocaust, Literature, Gender studiesAbstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze the novel The Kommandant’s Mistress, by Sherri Szeman. Through the eyes of the protagonist, Rachel, a survivor of the horrors of the Holocaust, experiences of Jewish women are put in perspective. Holocaust Gendered studies, founded by Professor Joan Ringelheim in the 1980s, have been surrounded by controversy, whether by the taboo subjects such as rape, abortion, sexual violence, sexual bartering, or by the male-dominated academic point of view. The article discusses the main character’s survival and coping mechanisms, the objectification of female bodies by SS officers, and the psychological impacts of the suffering, such as infertility and denial of motherhood. It also seeks to challenge historical silences and give voice to women’s experiences during the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators.
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