Author: Monika Vrzgulová, Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie (Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology), Slovenská Akadémia Vied (Slovak Academy of Sciences) - Academia.edu, ResearchGate

Extract: »In this chapter, I analyze interviews with women like Hilda to determine whether and how female survivors remembered the issue of sexual violence at the end of World War II. I use excerpts from individual survivors’ testimonies to show what they said about their experiences with soldiers-liberators and how it fits into their self-presentation strategy during the interview. I also discuss how the methodology, time and place of the research, and survivors’ age impact the content of their memories. I will briefly introduce the research, its phases, methodology, and interview technique. The core of the text is the analysis and interpretation of excerpts, focusing on the terms used by women when recalling the violence they experienced. Respondents typically express their memories of sexual violence using coded language—words they can say in front of interviewers. At the same time, they find it challenging to describe their ambivalent feelings during liberation—persistent fear of violence, vulnerability, the hesitant awareness of being free, and a slow realization that their suffering is over. Is it over? I consider Holocaust survivors’ strategies of self-presentation and the agenda they pursued in their interviews decades after the Holocaust. In addition, I examine how the issue of sexual violence was addressed in Holocaust studies and conveyed in public discourse at the time of the research. I strive for reflexive writing that highlights my perspective as a researcher, acknowledges my positionality during and after the research, and contextualizes my current interpretations of the selected memories.« (Source: Article, p. 97-98)

Contents:

	Introduction (p. 97)
	Oral History Methodology: The Stages and Techniques of Interview (p. 98)
	Sexual Violence in Interviews with Female Holocaust Survivors from Slovakia (p. 101)
	Factory That Shaped the Memories of Liberation (p. 110)
	Conclusion (p. 112)
	Notes (p. 114)
	Bibliography (p. 119)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Slovakia / Slovak Republic (1939–1945) | Genocide: The Holocaust / The Holocaust in Slovakia | Sex and the law: Sexual violence / Sexual violence during the Holocaust