Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

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nora93
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Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#1

Post by nora93 » 26 Mar 2017, 22:14

Hi,
I've read that among the Jewish victims of the Holocaust "only" 1/3 were women.
What could explain this disproportion ?
Some Jewish women were spared ? More Jewish women were able to hide/escape ?
Thanking in advance.
Sorry for the mistakes. English is not my native language.

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Sergey Romanov
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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#2

Post by Sergey Romanov » 26 Mar 2017, 23:53

Source please.


michael mills
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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#3

Post by michael mills » 27 Mar 2017, 08:02

That was certainly the case for the Jews deported from Hungary in 1944.

The reason was that most of the Jewish men of military age had been conscripted by the Hungarian Government into the Military Labour Service, and theref9ore were not deported. As a result, of the Jews deported, there were far more females than males in the 16 to 30 age-group, the group that was typically selected for labour.

Thus, a lot more Hungarian Jewish women were selected for labour than men, and therefore had a greater chance of survival. That is why so many of the survivor narratives of Hungarian Jews were written by women.

Furthermore, the young women selected for labour were generally put to the lighter work. The Hungarian Jewish men selected for labour were typically put to work excavating the underground factories in which the German jet fighters were assembled, work that was dangerous and exhausting and resulted in a high death rate. The young women on the other hand were more often put to work assembling the jet fighters, which was not so dangerous, so their survival rate was quite high.

nora93
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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#4

Post by nora93 » 27 Mar 2017, 17:02

Sergey Romanov wrote:Source please.

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibiti ... /intro.asp

nora93
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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#5

Post by nora93 » 27 Mar 2017, 17:06

michael mills wrote:That was certainly the case for the Jews deported from Hungary in 1944.

The reason was that most of the Jewish men of military age had been conscripted by the Hungarian Government into the Military Labour Service, and theref9ore were not deported. As a result, of the Jews deported, there were far more females than males in the 16 to 30 age-group, the group that was typically selected for labour.

Thus, a lot more Hungarian Jewish women were selected for labour than men, and therefore had a greater chance of survival. That is why so many of the survivor narratives of Hungarian Jews were written by women.

Furthermore, the young women selected for labour were generally put to the lighter work. The Hungarian Jewish men selected for labour were typically put to work excavating the underground factories in which the German jet fighters were assembled, work that was dangerous and exhausting and resulted in a high death rate. The young women on the other hand were more often put to work assembling the jet fighters, which was not so dangerous, so their survival rate was quite high.


Thanks for the input.
Do you have more information about the ratio men/women for Jews from other countries ?

siwiec
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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#6

Post by siwiec » 28 Mar 2017, 08:42

nora93 wrote:Hi,
I've read that among the Jewish victims of the Holocaust "only" 1/3 were women.
What could explain this disproportion ?
Some Jewish women were spared ? More Jewish women were able to hide/escape ?
Thanking in advance.
Sorry for the mistakes. English is not my native language.
Letting aside the fact that your source itself is not very convincing and/or academic, but just a book add, your source tells "more than 2 million", which may well be more than 1/3 and looks like a guesstimate. And it obviously does not mean the rest of them were men, but were just as much children of both sexes. Therefore I would not draw much conclusions from that.

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Sergey Romanov
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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#7

Post by Sergey Romanov » 28 Mar 2017, 19:51

nora93 wrote:
Sergey Romanov wrote:Source please.

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibiti ... /intro.asp
Not a scholarly text, so not a satisfactory source.

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Sergey Romanov
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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#8

Post by Sergey Romanov » 28 Mar 2017, 19:53

michael mills wrote:That was certainly the case for the Jews deported from Hungary in 1944.

The reason was that most of the Jewish men of military age had been conscripted by the Hungarian Government into the Military Labour Service, and theref9ore were not deported. As a result, of the Jews deported, there were far more females than males in the 16 to 30 age-group, the group that was typically selected for labour.

Thus, a lot more Hungarian Jewish women were selected for labour than men, and therefore had a greater chance of survival. That is why so many of the survivor narratives of Hungarian Jews were written by women.

Furthermore, the young women selected for labour were generally put to the lighter work. The Hungarian Jewish men selected for labour were typically put to work excavating the underground factories in which the German jet fighters were assembled, work that was dangerous and exhausting and resulted in a high death rate. The young women on the other hand were more often put to work assembling the jet fighters, which was not so dangerous, so their survival rate was quite high.
Acc. to Pohl about 50% of H. Jews found fit for work in Auschwitz were women (there is no reason to think we cannot extrapolate from the first transports).

http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/docume ... 592%22#p.2

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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#9

Post by michael mills » 29 Mar 2017, 05:51

Acc. to Pohl about 50% of H. Jews found fit for work in Auschwitz were women (there is no reason to think we cannot extrapolate from the first transports).
The telegram from Pohl to Himmler is dated 21 May 1944, soon after the start of the deportation from Hungary. As of that date, only 9 transports had arrived at Auschwitz. It was not until those first transports arrived that the WVHA realised that the 18-20 age group among the arrivals would consist overwhelmingly of women, since the great majority of the men in that age-group had been conscripted into the Military Labour Service by the Hungarian Government. That meant that more than half of the arrivals would be women of all ages. Accordingly, more women than normal would have to be selected for labour, and also that the 100,000 Jewish workers that the WVHA had promised to the Organisation Todt for deployment in the Jet Fighter Program would have to contain a large component of women, since most of the men arriving were over 40 or under 18.

That is the background to Pohl's telegram to Himmler. Once Himmler had given his permission for Jewish women to be handed over to Organisation Todt, essentially all the arriving women in the 16-40 age group who were not burdened with young children were selected for labour. That led to a disproportionately high number of women deployed for labour.

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Sergey Romanov
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Re: Less Jewish women than Jewish men killed ?

#10

Post by Sergey Romanov » 29 Mar 2017, 09:27

Sorry, you have not cited any sources for your assertions.

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