The Holocaust continues to exist as a black mark in Germany's history; through the government supported the torture and extermination of men and women, more than 6 million lost their lives. As a consequence of the collective tragedy for both genders, there has been extensive debate regarding the focus of gender-specific suffering in Holocaust literature; for this reason, women writers' accounts of the Holocaust were largely ignored before the 1970s. Many historians still deny that disparities existed between the male and female experience. However, it is worth noting that the social, familial and cultural expectations of men and women, both before and during the war, varied greatly. Furthermore, these divergent roles have promoted markedly different ways of managing, processing, and reporting the tragedies resulting from the Holocaust. By examining the unique experiences of women, both inside and outside of concentration camps, one can logically conclude that these extraordinary accounts broaden the scope of Holocaust literature. Embedded gender roles aided women's survival efforts, and these unique female perspectives are invaluable in accurately representing the Holocaust experience. To first define gender-specific experiences, it is imperative to identify what attributes make an experience uniquely female. Although many women persecuted by the Nazis were mothers, it is important to consider the female narrative in more than maternal terms. Undoubtedly the forced separation between mother and child was deplorable, but there is much more to the female experience. The women were also wives, sisters, aunts, daughters, and friends; all these relationships contribute to what constitutes the specific female account. As noted in The Holocaust: Theoretic......middle of paper......locaust Girlhood Remembered. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2001. Print. Levi, Neil and Michael Rothberg. The Holocaust: theoretical readings. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Print.Morrison, Jack G.. Ravensbrück: Daily Life in a Women's Concentration Camp, 1939-45. Princeton, NJ: Wiener, 2000. Print.Ofer, Dalia, and Lenore J. Weitzman. Women in the Holocaust. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. 1. Print.Plank, Karl. The Mother of the Wire Fence: Inside and Outside the Holocaust. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994. Print.Rittner, Carol and Roth, John. Different voices: women and the Holocaust. New York: Paragon House, 1993. Print. "Voices from Ravensbruck Interview 242 - Manuscript Section, University Library, Lund University." Lund University Library, 18 June 2009. Web. 16 November. 2011.