The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities

The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities makes the troubling connection between the industrialized factory farming of animals and Hitler’s Final Solution. The author, Karen Davis, president and founder of United Poultry Concerns (UPC) based in Virginia, invites the reader to consider how the forced labor of the concentration camps is similar to the forced labor, enslavement and slaughter of billions of chickens on factory farms. Chickens on today’s modern farms are simply “machines” for the production of food, they are not seen as living, feeling sentient beings that suffer, their needs and desires are simply ignored. The “Henmaid” in the book title is an inspired reference to Margaret Atwood’s popular 1986 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale, where women in society are machines used for reproduction, and their babies are taken away from them at birth. We deprive them of their human dignity, respect and freedom—like we do enslaved female animals. The book underlines the speciesism that allows farmed animals to be exploited, and how that very oppression, subjugation and domination is the model for all other forms of systemic discrimination like racism, sexism and ageism, that cannot be ignored.

Karen Davis is the director and founder of United Poultry Concerns (UPC), a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. Founded in 1990, UPC addresses the treatment of domestic fowl in food production, science, education, entertainment, and human companionship situations. Since 1999, Karen and UPC have hosted eight annual conferences on farmed animal advocacy issues. Her work, letters-to-the-editor, and op-eds have been featured in dozens of national magazines and newspapers. Karen has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows including The Howard Stern Show, The Daily Show, and This American Life on National Public Radio. She is also the author of several books. On July 2, 2002, Karen was inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions to animal liberation. Karen has a PhD in English from the University of Maryland-College Park where she taught for twelve years in the English Department.

Available on Amazon and United Poultry Concerns.