Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women

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In re-reading my review I realized that I make the book sound very dry, it isn't at all. There is much emotion here and relationships between prisoners, Ms. Ferriday's friends, etc. I have just pointed out the bones of the book and how I felt about it. It is a book that you will get caught up in because the characters are real and their friendships and loved ones are what kept most all of them going to pursue their goal. Survival was the goal of the prisoners and for Ms. Ferriday and her friends the goal was to lend help to orphans and women prisoners and to ensure that those responsible will be held to account for their actions. Throw in some really odd dialog*, an unnecessary and confusing prologue, an unnecessary and confusing epilogue, a "twist" that could be seen coming a mile away, and phrasing that made me regularly think Miriam had reached the last letter when there were actually several more to go, and it was just a mediocre reading experience. Illuminates the attempted escapes, executions, and impossible courage of women history conspired to forget.” — O, The Oprah Magazine Sarah Helm brings attention to a part of WW2 history that doesn't get discussed quite often or get the attention it deserves. A women only prison set on German soil and run mostly by women as labor camp. The extent to which women were separated and differentiated is hardly surprising at this point. Jews were in minority where as asocials - prostitutes, lesbians, small time criminals were large in number. Helm has interviewed women, guards and auxiliary personnel to compile this book. She notices early on that most of the women who died in this camp were asocials who go till this day, unidentified. When the camp closed, the records were burned and the ashes were dumped into the river. No extensive records exist for this camp. December 1989. The Wall between East and West Germany is open. Miriam is taking care of her dying father.

Anna Ellory lives in Bath and has just completed her MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her book is poignant, highlighting how one fictional family was affected by the Holocaust. And Miriam, the daughter, has a lot to unravel here – in her personal life, besides trying to figure out who her Dad was. Caroline Ferriday's was a wealthy American woman who made it her life's work to help the female prisoners. She was a strong quiet woman...yet we felt her suffering ..her aching love for her family -and the women she was helping. Her dedication was endless...a leader who was ruthless and unreasonable -- she stood for justice and was going to make sure the world became aware of the horrors which took place.It is a story I knew little about and am grateful that Helm decided to shine a light on this neglected but vital part of the holocaust.

Helm runs her narrative through people. If This Is a Woman is constructed of personal accounts, many of them coming from a series of interviews that Helm diligently conducted. Her research has allowed a wide cross-section of the camp to tell their stories. Everyone gets heard, one way or another, whether it is a guard, a German communist, a member of the Polish intelligentsia or the French resistance, a Red Army soldier, or a British SOE agent. Johann Schwarzhuber, assistant to Fritz Suhren, replaced Edmund Bräuning [ de] around January 1945. He introduced the gas chamber in the camp. [22] How does one find out the truth about ones’ history when her father lies in Hospice care, and all he can do is say the name of a woman she does not know – and it is not her mother’s name?Dr. Gil David The Brilliant Code Used by Concentration Camp Inmates to Tell the World About Nazi Experiments Haaretz 18 May 2019. And when she discovers these letters from another woman, not her mother, hidden amongst her father’s things? Eventually, all these stories weave into one, a tapestry of pain, horror, sadness, and even some love and beauty. Grace, even. Hopefully, stories like these will never be forgotten, and hopefully we’ll get to a point where we won’t need to remember them. In the meantime, I am left feeling a bit haunted by this story, by the stories of these women, and all they endured.