Hrinchenko, H., Kobchenko, K., & Kis, O. (Eds.). (2015). Zhinky Tsentralnoi ta Skhidnoi Yevropy u Druhii svitovii viini: Henderna spetsyfika dosvidu v chasy ekstremalnoho nasylstva [Central and East European Women and the Second World War: Gendered Experiences in a Time of Extreme Violence]. Art-Knyha Publishing.
Annotation: The collected volume brings together research by Ukrainian and international scholars analyzing the distinctly female experience of World War II across Central and Eastern Europe. The volume examines understudied questions of women’s participation in combat and the particularities of military captivity; the gendered dimensions of women’s experience in the Soviet and nationalist undergrounds; life under occupation and forced labor in the Third Reich; the gendered specificity of the Holocaust; the difficult questions of violence against women and women’s complicity in wartime violence; and postwar representations of women’s war experience. Seeking to move beyond the stereotypical triad of “traitor – victim – heroine,” the contributors present a complex and contradictory picture of women’s everyday lives under extraordinary historical circumstances. The volume pursues its aims through interdisciplinary analysis of diverse historical sources, drawing on a range of scholarly approaches and methods. The collection also offers an introduction to contemporary feminist approaches to the study of women and war. Intended for specialists in history, gender studies, and other humanities disciplines, as well as all those interested in the subject.
The book can be downloaded for free on the website of the Kyiv office of the Böll Foundation.