Women Without Men: Mennonite Refugees of the Second World War (Studies in Gender and History) - Softcover

Epp, Marlene

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9780802082688: Women Without Men: Mennonite Refugees of the Second World War (Studies in Gender and History)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802082688 ISBN 13: 9780802082688

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2000

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Marlene Epp, who has written extensively on Mennonite history, presents here the story of thousands of Soviet Mennonite women who, having lost their husbands and fathers to Stalinist work camps and the Second World War, made an arduous journey through war-torn Europe. Housed in displaced persons camps after the war, many eventually emigrated to Paraguay and Canada. More than a mere description of the events that led these women from their native homes, this work encompasses the culture of women refugees and, in particular, how they 'remembered' the events that marked their lives. The women wove their memories into larger histories that helped them to deal with the horror of the past and contributed to a sense of normalcy in their new and strikingly different homes. Epp examines the particular difficulties of the emigration experience for women without men. These women often used ingenious strategies to protect themselves and their families, yet they were consistently depicted as weak and helpless by Mennonite refugee boards eager to reimpose traditional gender roles disrupted by the Soviet and war environments. Epp's study focuses on the intersection of gender, war, and immigration. In her analysis of the relationship of female-headed households with patriarchal, postwar society, she gains access to the personal worlds of these women. In doing so, she offers a better understanding of the culture of postwar immigrants and postwar families, the workings of refugee settlement agencies, and the functioning of postwar ethnic communities in Canada, Germany, and Paraguay.

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Synopsis:

Marlene Epp, an author of extensive work in the area of Mennonite history, presents here the story of thousands of Mennonite women who, having lost their husbands and fathers to wartime tragedy and displacement, travelled through war-torn Europe and eventually settled in Canada and Paraguay. More than a mere description of the events that led them from their native homes, this work encompasses the culture of women refugees and, in particular, how they "remembered" the events. The women wove the memories into personal histories that helped to deal with the horror of the past and led to a sense of normalcy in ther new and strikingly different homes. Epp also looks at how this emigration was experienced differently because the subjects were women. These women often used ingenious strategies to protect themselves and their families. Their struggle against a patriarchal society led to a "deconstruction" of old gender roles in the Soviet and war environments, and then a "reconstruction" od new roles in postwar Canada and Paraguay.

Through the analysis of the relationship of female-headed households, with partiarchal, postwar society, Epp gains access to the personal worlds of these women. This analysis then shows "the intersection of gender, war and immigration". She has helped in the better understanding of the culture of postwar immigrants, the culture of postwar families, the workings of refugee settlement agencies, and the functioning of postwar ethnic communities in Canada and Paraguay.

About the Author:

Marlene Epp is a professor in the Department of History at Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo.

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