Interdisciplinary interpretations of multiple testimonies of female physicians in Auschwitz

This project explores the testimonies of a number of female Auschwitz survivors who worked as slave labourers in the infirmary at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Lucie Adelsberger, Władysława Jasińska, Ella Lingens, Gisella Perl). Our work advances previous studies of women’s experiences during the Holocaust by focusing on female professionals from different cultural and linguistic contexts who were enlisted in specific slave labour because of their medical qualifications. This project addresses one of the most intriguing, but still under- researched, aspects of testimony: how the remembering and telling of survivors experiences during the Holocaust changes through time, through shifting contexts and with increasing age. The originality of our project arises from its interdisciplinary perspective, with contributions from historians, scholars of literary narratives, and translation specialists. Together we explore how our different perspectives overlap, conflict with or complement each other, and what novel insights such disciplinary conversations generate.