The Multifaceted Image of the Victimized and Self-Sacrificing Maternal Figure in Post-Holocaust Feminist Art

Historians and art historians have identified the central place the maternal figure holds in Holocaust and post-Holocaust art. In most accounts chosen by scholars the mother is portrayed alongside her children, protecting them until death. Thus, her figure represents the ultimate symbol of victimhood, as well as the embodiment of feminine heroism and the paradigm of appropriate motherly behavior. In this lecture, I propose to question the validity of this traditional maternal image in Post-Holocaust art by analyzing feminist art on the subject. This analysis reveals that feminist artists created more complex representations of motherhood that reflects multifaceted reality. In their art there are images of mothers in unfathomable distress, revealing hidden stories about complicated experiences of motherhood during the Holocaust and after the Holocaust as a result of their trauma. In addition, feminist artists used the image of the sacrificed mother not just as the embodiment of feminine heroism during the Holocaust, but as a paradigm of an alternative culture that is based on "feminine values" of community, compassion and care, which was used as a strategy of survival during the Holocaust and as a tool that could open a path to healing after massive personal and collective trauma.