'To Be Women Again...': Polish Prisoners of Soviet and Nazi Camps on Femininity

• In Event: Gendered Perspectives of Repression: Identity and Survival in Gulags

Abstract

The paper applies a gendered lens to the oral and written testimonies of the Polish political prisoners of the Soviet and Nazi regimes. It looks into the rigorous definition of femininity practised by Polish women - which elements were considered dignifying or practical, and which were considered troubling or distracting. Furthermore, it inspects how and why the other prisoners (of other nationalities and other categories) did not fit into these narrow frames, and what a Polish prisoner had to do to become considered not a woman and not a Pole anymore.

Author

• Maria Buko, U of Konstanz (Germany)