This study will highlight women’s experiences during the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide. Specifically, it will focus on women’s behaviors and choices which challenge preconceived gender roles. By examining the difficult narratives, we hope to gain a thorough understanding of women’s experiences during these horrific events. Initially, the Holocaust literature focused on women’s heroic or noble behavior. These studies focused on women’s roles as “mothers” and “caregivers.” Narratives that were inconsistent with preconceived gender roles were difficult to acknowledge. Similarly, during the Armenian Genocide, some women behaved in ways that are not considered suitable for females. During both the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, there were many who behaved “heroically,” while there were others who made difficult decisions in order to ensure their survival. Women were unable to fulfill the role of motherhood. Some chose to detach from their children in order to increase their chances of survival. For instance, during the Holocaust, women abandoned their children so that they would not be sent to the gas chambers with them. In fact, some women killed their newborn children, strangling them so that they could live. There were also mothers who poisoned babies that they had just delivered. Similarly, during the death marches of the Armenian Genocide, women would leave their children behind, knowing that their children would face certain death. Women who could no longer carry their babies would place them on the ground and walk away from them. Stories are told about Armenian women selling young children in return for a few pieces of bread. Drawing from Holocaust and Genocide survivor memoirs, this paper will present the diversity of women’s experiences during the Holocaust and Genocide, focusing on stories that may be considered unpleasant. These stories will be analyzed in order to better understand the circumstances that women faced and the decisions they made. Had these women not been targeted for extermination, they might have fulfilled their roles as mothers. But having found themselves under these extreme conditions, they behaved in ways that were unexpected.