Women in national socialism: A Historical argument between victimization and perpetration

Women’s roles and positions under the National Socialist Regime, have become the subject of several studies since 1970’s. Most of these studies carried out in the context of women studies and “victim- perpetrator dichotomy”. Victimization discourse with its traditional rhetoric, counted women as the victims of both misogynist-patriarchal regime and gender policies. In response to this view, perpetrator approach emphasized that, women are part of the actions to an extent, in which not only they participate directly, but also accept the conditions, do not interfere and do not see themselves responsible. However this frame was broken in recent years and “different action spaces” understanding has become prominent as a new approach. According to this, behaviors of women under National Socialism, needs to be discussed by including participants’ individual interpretations and by taking places and areas where women play active role into the consideration, rather than a solely victim-perpetrator dilemma. Eventually, all these three approaches, despite some deficiencies, aims to face the past, to study personal share and to explore the possibility of an ultimate new beginning.