Selected Life Wriring (primary)
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945):
Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 1557785031Publication Date: 1993-09-01"Different Voices is the most thoroughgoing examination of women's experiences of the Holocaust ever compiled. It gathers together—for the first time in a single volume—the latest insights of scholars, the powerful testimonies of survivors, and the eloquent reflections of writers, theologians, and philosophers. Twenty-eight women in all speak..." (book jacket). This book is also available in print, General Collection, call # D804.3 .D53 1993.
See also the titles listed on the homepage of the Holocaust in History, Literature, and Memory libguide, plus titles in the country tabs above.
World War II (1939-1945):
The House in Prague: How a Stolen House Helped an Immigrant Girl Find Her Way Home by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780989526548Publication Date: 2016-05-08
Last Days of Theresienstadt by Call Number: D805.5.T54 N63 2018ISBN: 9780299319601Publication Date: 2018-10-30
Triumph of Hope: From Theresienstadt and Auschwitz to Israel by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0471350613Publication Date: 1999-09-01
World War I (1914-1918):
"Mademoiselle Miss": Letters From an American Girl Serving With the Rank of Lieutenant in a French Army Hospital at the Front by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKPublication Date: 1916
World War II (1939-1945):
But You Did Not Come Back by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780802190659Publication Date: 2016-01-05
Convoy to Auschwitz: Women of the French Resistance by Call Number: D805.P7 D4313 1997ISBN: 1555533132Publication Date: 1997-05-22
The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont: 1940-1944 by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0679434380Publication Date: 1994-05-10
Self-Portrait: An Artist's Memories by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0887393306Publication Date: 2001-10-01
Wartime Writings: 1943-1949 by Call Number: PQ2607.U8245 Z4613 2008ISBN: 9781595582003Publication Date: 2008-03-30
World War II (1939-1945):
A Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman's Harrowing Escape From the Nazis by Call Number: D811.5 .F7313 2020ISBN: 9781501199851Publication Date: 2020-08-04
Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich by Call Number: D811.5 .O885 1993ISBN: 0813519926Publication Date: 1993-09-01
Gretel's Story: A Young Woman's Secret War Against the Nazis by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9781461745730Publication Date: 2011
Inge's War: A German Woman's Story of Family, Secrets, and Survival Under Hitler by Call Number: Coming Late Fall 2023ISBN: 9781984880215Publication Date: 2020-04-28
Surviving the Fire: Mother Courage & World War II by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0940880237Publication Date: 1989-11-01
Surviving the Gulag: A German Woman's Memoir by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781772122909Publication Date: 2016-11-27
Tilli's Story: My Thoughts Are Free by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 1583480722Publication Date: 2005-10-01
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780805075403Publication Date: 2005-08-04
World War II (1939-1945):
Partisan Diary: A Woman's Life in the Italian Resistance by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780199380558Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Peace and War: Growing Up In Fascist Italy by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0002158531Publication Date: 1991
War in Val Dorcia, 1943-1945 by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0879234768Publication Date: 2010-07-16also available in print, General Collection, call # D763.I82 O746 1984
World War I (1914-1918):
A Nun, a Convent, and the German Occupation of Belgium: Mother Marie Georgine's Diary of World War I by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9781498298933Publication Date: 2016-12-15
World War II (1939-1945):
The Diary of a Young Girl by Call Number: D810.J4 F715ISBN: 0553296981Publication Date: 1952"Compelling and candid, this diary introduced the world to a girl filled with the emotional concerns of a typical teenager but living in stifling and terrifying circumstances."
Passing on the Comfort: The War, The Quilts, and the Women Who Made a Difference by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 1561484822Publication Date: 2005-04-01
A Quiet Woman's War: The Story of Elsie Bell by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 1874739242Publication Date: 2002
World War II (1939-1945):
Auschwitz: True Tales From a Grotesque Land by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0807816299Publication Date: 1985-01-01also available in print, General Collection, call # D805.P7 N6 1985- The Death Train: A Personal Account of a Holocaust Survivor by Call Number: D810.J4 G85 1978ISBN: 0896040054Publication Date: 1986-04-01
Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0195035003Publication Date: 1984-11-01
Exile and Identity: Polish Women in the Soviet Union During World War II by Call Number: D810.W7 J65 2002ISBN: 0822941856Publication Date: 2002-09-15
Inheriting the Holocaust: A Second-Generation Memoir by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780813546476Publication Date: 2008-12-30
Late 19th / Early 20th Centuries (1875-1939):
Daughter of the Shtetl: The Memoirs of Doba-Mera Medvedeva by Call Number: DS134.93.M43 A3 2019ISBN: 9781618114365Publication Date: 2019-04-23
In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women From 1917 to the Second World War by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0691019495Publication Date: 2000-05-21also available in print, General Collection, call # DK37.2 .I5 2000
Memoirs of a Revolutionist by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 0875805523Publication Date: 1991-06-20also available in print, General Collection, call # HX914 .F5 1968
World War I (1914-1918):
- Yashka: My Life as Peasant, Exile and Soldier by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKPublication Date: 1919
World War II (1939-1945):
Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781784382834Publication Date: 2018-03-30
Red Sky, Black Death: A Soviet Woman Pilot's Memoir of the Eastern Front by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9780893573553Publication Date: 2009-03-01
The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II by Call Number: D810.W7 A5313 2017ISBN: 9780399588723Publication Date: 2017-07-25
Writing the Siege of Leningrad: Women's Diaries, Memoirs, and Documentary Prose by Call Number: D764.3.L4 S56 2002ISBN: 9780822941835Publication Date: 2002-04-18
Communism and Post-Communism (1945- ):
A Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9781439135587Publication Date: 2010-01-12
Russian Tattoo: A Memoir by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9781451689846Publication Date: 2015-01-06
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780399588808Publication Date: 2016-05-24also available in print, General Collection, call # DK510.76 .A44913 2016- Twenty Letters to a Friend by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKPublication Date: 1967also available in print, General Collection, call # DK275.A4 A313
Afghanistan, Soviet Occupation (1979-1989):
Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices From the Afghanistan War by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780393336863Publication Date: 1992-09-30also available in print, General Collection, call # DS371.2 .A45513 1992
Post-War Dictatorship (1960s / 1970s)
Without a Second Thought: A Memoir of Life in Franco's Madrid by Call Number: Gitenstein Library E-BOOKISBN: 9781940442358Publication Date: 2020-10-20This is the autobiography of an American woman who lived in Franco's Spain during the 1960s and 1970s.
World War (1914-1918):
Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780297858317Publication Date: 2009-08-04also available in print, General Collection, call #s D640 .B715 1933a; PR6003 .R385 Z477 1994
Women in the War Zone: Hospital Service in the First World War by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780752469515Publication Date: 2001-08-26Personal narratives of women from the United Kingdom who served as nurses and physicians in Belgium, France, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Russia.
Cold War (1945-1991):
How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Call Number: Internet Archive E-BOOKISBN: 9780060975401Publication Date: 2016-06-07
Yugoslav War (1991-1995):
The Balkan Express: Fragments From the Other Side of War by Call Number: DR1313 .D73 1993ISBN: 0393034968Publication Date: 1993-05-01
More Online Life Writing
See the Primary Sources Online page of my English libguide to access digitized primary sources written by and about women. Pay particular attention to the sources listed under the following tabs:
- France
- Germany and Eastern Europe
- Literary Works
- Women's History
ILL (for Books) and WorldCat
Use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to request books and book chapters not held by our library. Chapters typically arrive within hours. Physical books take days.
WorldCat is a "union catalog" of millions of records for books held by thousands of libraries. Search WorldCat to find more books about your topic.
Identify e-books available to read or borrow immediately by conducting an Advanced search. Look for the Library Code box toward the bottom of the page. Enter one of the following library codes:
- INARC (e-books from Internet Archive)
- HATHI (e-books from HathiTrust)
- NJT (books/e-books from our Gitenstein Library)
- OAPEN (open access e-books)
Find More Books (primary + secondary)
Search our discovery service and WorldCat to find autobiographies (i.e., primary sources) and secondary criticism. Leverage the power of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to find precisely what you need.
Genre Headings:
- Autobiographies and Biographies are used as genre headings to identify, respectively, autobiographies and biographies. Your best bet for generating a list of autobiographies (primary).
- Autobiographical is a modifier (e.g., Autobiographical fiction but also Autobiographical memory).
Subject Headings:
- Autobiography is used as the main subject heading to find criticisms (i.e., secondary sources) about autobiographies.
- Biography, diaries, memoirs, and personal memoirs are used as sub-divisions to find primary sources (see below). "Biography" here identifies biographies (secondary) and autobiographies (primary).
- Similar in concept is personal narratives, another sub-division that identifies eyewitness accounts of wars and other historical events (e.g., World War, 1939-1945 — Personal narratives).
- Other sub-divisions include correspondence, interviews, letters, manuscripts, oratory, and speeches. All reveal primary sources.
- Terms not used in LCSH but worth searching for are life story(ies), life narrative(s), life writing (particularly useful), and testimonies.
Examples:
- Autobiographies [primary]
- Autobiography—Women authors [secondary]
- Autobiography—Women authors—Bibliography [tertiary]
- Autobiography—Women authors—Encyclopedias [tertiary]
- Autobiography—Women authors—History and criticism [secondary]
- Autobiographies AND Women* AND War* [primary]
- "Life writing" AND War* [primary/secondary]
- Women authors, [nationality]—20th century—Biography [prim./sec.]
- Women authors, [nationality]—20th century—Diaries [primary]
- Women war correspondents [primary/secondary]
- "World War" AND Diaries AND women* [primary]
- "World War" AND "Personal narratives" AND women* [primary]
Note: Select the "Books, Media & More" radio button and then re-execute your search to include online journal articles in your results set.
See the Find Books of the Postmemory and the Holocaust libguide.