The rescue of Jewish girls and teenage women to England and the USA during the Holocaust: a gendered perspective

Abstract

This article deals with the lives and experiences of refugee girls and young women who found refuge in England and the United States during the Holocaust. Between 1934 and 1945 more than 12,600 unaccompanied children and teenagers from Central Europe between the ages of five and sixteen were shielded from Nazism in the Great Britain or the United States. In addition, approximately 1000 Jewish refugee children were brought to the United States by various refugee organizations prior to and during the war years. The experiences of girls and young women in this group were different than those of boys and young men, particularly with respect to foster parent preferences, immigration, resettlement and adaptation, treatment in the foster home, professional choices, and assimilation into a new society. This article discusses these differences from the standpoint of identity construction, socio-cultural adjustment problems and alienation-assimilation dialectics.