Women During The Holocaust

The Holocaust caused the death of over six million Jews. This mass genocide is known by how horrific and inhuman the Nazi regime was to the Jews. However, what is not widely known is that over five-million other people of non-Jewish groups were killed during the Holocaust. Homosexuals, Gypsies and Jehovah’s Witnesses were a small amount of the many non-Jewish groups affected during the Holocaust. Homosexuals were one of the many non-Jewish groups impacted by the Holocaust. Lesbians were not largely affected by the Nazi's rise to power, for example; “Lesbianism was not criminalized. This is for the subordinate role of women in the German state and society” (Lesbians and the Third Reich 1). Since women played an important role in the growing

Even before WWII began, gypsies faced persecution; for example: “When the Nuremberg laws were passed in September of 1935, the interpreters of these decrees applied to gypsies as well as jews” (Smelser 2). Identical to Jews being deprived of their civil rights, the Nuremberg laws took away gypsies rights. This act of including gypsies in the Nuremberg laws shows that nazi’s saw gypsies as a threat to the Aryan race, causing gypsies to be first non-Jewish group affected by the holocaust. During the holocaust gypsies faced vast amounts of persecution during the holocaust, for instance: “An estimated of some 20,000 gypsies showed that over 90% should be considered mischlinge (of mixed blood). This solved the problem of having to deal with an Aryan minority” (Smelser 2). This claims a majority of Jewish during the Holocaust were a ‘mix’ of Aryan and gypsy. In addition, it shows to keep the Aryan race one-hundred percent Aryan by prevent there for being any ‘mix’ between Aryans and gypsies. Nazi’s eventually came up with a ‘solution’ for gypsies. “On January 11, 1943 over 14,000 gypsies were sent to Auschwitz… Gypsies were as the destruction of the gypsy family camp. Practically all women and children were killed”(Smelser 3). This quote shows gypsies who were either completely gypsy or ‘mixed’ were eventually sent to concentration camps. And fourteen thousand is just the first group of gypsies to be sent to concentration camps, over twenty five thousand gypsies were eventually killed in concentration camps. Gypsies went through many of the same conditions and experiences as Jews during the holocaust, making gypsies the first non-Jewish group affected by the