T.E. W. (terez93) reviewed Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women on + 323 more book reviews
This extraordinary book is a testament to the inhumanity and the depths of depravity to which humans can descend, but, more importantly, it's a testimonial to survival by sheer force of will and a fair degree of luck. It is by far the most comprehensive and important work on a vastly understudied topic, the death factory Ravensbrück, which was located about fifty miles from Berlin. It is a neglected site probably because it fell under Russian control after the war, and then was located in the territory of East Germany; hence, little information was available until after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Helm draws heavily on the testimony of surivors and some information from surviving trial documents, as well as British counterintelligence reports.
This camp is also very neglected because very little physical evidence survives, which makes the testimony of survivors so much more vital. A few memoirs have survived which were written by prisoners, but Helm has reconstructed life and death there based on many interviews with an ever-dwindling corps of survivors. The portrait they paint is indescribable: the sheer scale of murder, misery and suffering that occurred at this site is almost incomprehensible. From the beatings and torture, to the unimaginable horror inflicted on Polish women, dubbed "the rabbits," who had their legs mutilated to study the efficacy of medications used to treat wounds sustained in battle by German soldiers, to the deaths influced by disease, neglect, exposure to the elements, and violence inflicted at the whim of the guards, both German and fellow prisoners, to the deaths of countless infants born to Polish rape victims who were forced to helpessly watch as their infants died of starvation, Helm recounts the horror as a testament to the resilence of both the survivors and the victims whose strength and dignity was not diminished by their deaths. The result: an untold number (estimates range wildly, from about 30,000 to nearly 90,000) of human beings were murdered at this site, young and old, of dozens of nationalities (particuarly Polish, Jewish, Russian and French women) and backgrounds, from royalty to "asocials," criminals, beggars and prostitutes.
This book was certainly difficult to write. As such, the author has relied on a dizzying collection of evidence and memoirs, from testimonials to archives to the occasional foray into amateur archaeology, in visiting long-forgotten sites to reconstruct visually what happened there. Because of the sheer effort in producing this encyclopedic volume, which will doubtless serve as the definitive authority for some time to come, I would be highly interested in at least an article or perhaps a short book on the monumental task of assembling a book such as this one. The story of this tireless researcher's efforts to tell the story of what happened at this carefully concealed camp is as vital and inspiring as the story of the survivors.
Frustratingly, the testimony of the survivors has been treated differently depending on their status, which was seemingly less the case with their male counterparts. The testimony of entire categories of prisoners was discounted and has disappeared almost completely. Thus, so much of the experience of even numerous survivors has been tragically lost to history. The camp was used as something of a testament to the Communist resistance of fascism during its time behind the Iron Curtain, and, as such, testimony and evidence from the "red triangles," the politicals, has taken precedence over that of other groups, such as the "blacks," the "asocials," which included prostitutes, Gypsies and gay women, or the "greens" or "yellows," common criminals and Jewish prisoners. Helm devotes a fair amount of time to the "purples," which was comprised almost exclusively of Jehovah's Witness prisoners, whose experiences she recounts in admirable detail.
Curiously, and importantly, this book also chroncles the lives of the German guards and even the prisoner overseers, termed "Blockovas," the counterparts of the dreaded male "capos." She recounts both the horrid and the mundane: picnics, orgies, internal infighting and backstabbing, and the torture and murder of camp prisoners was all the norm in that place of suffering. Some of the guards were at least human, while others descended into a type of madness from which there was no return, and sadistically and methodically inflicted cruelty too inhuman to imagine.
It's difficult to read these type of books, although I have read many of them, and shall continue to do so, when they are as excellent, exhaustively researched, and well-written as this one, because it's what I CAN do: I can bear witness to the suffering and the resilience of the persons who survived, and pay tribute to those who didn't.
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The sheer number of "notable passages" which I usually include at the conclusion of my reviews is simply too vast to include here, so I think I will just add those which were most profound to me. The first is as follows: "Listening to the voices of the Ravensbruck women I looked for clues about why this group survived. I could almost hear Maria Bielicka banging her fists on the table as she tried to explain why survival was in the blood of every Polish woman, 'passed on from mother to daughter. Jeannie Roussau⦠survived because she refused not to... she refused to make German arms... she refused to die on the freezing airfield and escaped back to the man camp, hiding in a typhus truck. When Bernadotte arrived, Jeannie was locked in the Strafblock but refused to be left behind, and persuaded the Blockova to let her out. 'You can refuse what is happening. Or go along with it. I was in the refusal camp,' she said. I asked her how she had the courage. 'I don't know. I was young. I thought if I do it, it will work. You simply cannot accept some things. Certain things.'"
Another: "The entire time I was in the camp it was as if I had a double personality. My real self seemed to be observing what was happening to my physical self."
This camp is also very neglected because very little physical evidence survives, which makes the testimony of survivors so much more vital. A few memoirs have survived which were written by prisoners, but Helm has reconstructed life and death there based on many interviews with an ever-dwindling corps of survivors. The portrait they paint is indescribable: the sheer scale of murder, misery and suffering that occurred at this site is almost incomprehensible. From the beatings and torture, to the unimaginable horror inflicted on Polish women, dubbed "the rabbits," who had their legs mutilated to study the efficacy of medications used to treat wounds sustained in battle by German soldiers, to the deaths influced by disease, neglect, exposure to the elements, and violence inflicted at the whim of the guards, both German and fellow prisoners, to the deaths of countless infants born to Polish rape victims who were forced to helpessly watch as their infants died of starvation, Helm recounts the horror as a testament to the resilence of both the survivors and the victims whose strength and dignity was not diminished by their deaths. The result: an untold number (estimates range wildly, from about 30,000 to nearly 90,000) of human beings were murdered at this site, young and old, of dozens of nationalities (particuarly Polish, Jewish, Russian and French women) and backgrounds, from royalty to "asocials," criminals, beggars and prostitutes.
This book was certainly difficult to write. As such, the author has relied on a dizzying collection of evidence and memoirs, from testimonials to archives to the occasional foray into amateur archaeology, in visiting long-forgotten sites to reconstruct visually what happened there. Because of the sheer effort in producing this encyclopedic volume, which will doubtless serve as the definitive authority for some time to come, I would be highly interested in at least an article or perhaps a short book on the monumental task of assembling a book such as this one. The story of this tireless researcher's efforts to tell the story of what happened at this carefully concealed camp is as vital and inspiring as the story of the survivors.
Frustratingly, the testimony of the survivors has been treated differently depending on their status, which was seemingly less the case with their male counterparts. The testimony of entire categories of prisoners was discounted and has disappeared almost completely. Thus, so much of the experience of even numerous survivors has been tragically lost to history. The camp was used as something of a testament to the Communist resistance of fascism during its time behind the Iron Curtain, and, as such, testimony and evidence from the "red triangles," the politicals, has taken precedence over that of other groups, such as the "blacks," the "asocials," which included prostitutes, Gypsies and gay women, or the "greens" or "yellows," common criminals and Jewish prisoners. Helm devotes a fair amount of time to the "purples," which was comprised almost exclusively of Jehovah's Witness prisoners, whose experiences she recounts in admirable detail.
Curiously, and importantly, this book also chroncles the lives of the German guards and even the prisoner overseers, termed "Blockovas," the counterparts of the dreaded male "capos." She recounts both the horrid and the mundane: picnics, orgies, internal infighting and backstabbing, and the torture and murder of camp prisoners was all the norm in that place of suffering. Some of the guards were at least human, while others descended into a type of madness from which there was no return, and sadistically and methodically inflicted cruelty too inhuman to imagine.
It's difficult to read these type of books, although I have read many of them, and shall continue to do so, when they are as excellent, exhaustively researched, and well-written as this one, because it's what I CAN do: I can bear witness to the suffering and the resilience of the persons who survived, and pay tribute to those who didn't.
--------------------
The sheer number of "notable passages" which I usually include at the conclusion of my reviews is simply too vast to include here, so I think I will just add those which were most profound to me. The first is as follows: "Listening to the voices of the Ravensbruck women I looked for clues about why this group survived. I could almost hear Maria Bielicka banging her fists on the table as she tried to explain why survival was in the blood of every Polish woman, 'passed on from mother to daughter. Jeannie Roussau⦠survived because she refused not to... she refused to make German arms... she refused to die on the freezing airfield and escaped back to the man camp, hiding in a typhus truck. When Bernadotte arrived, Jeannie was locked in the Strafblock but refused to be left behind, and persuaded the Blockova to let her out. 'You can refuse what is happening. Or go along with it. I was in the refusal camp,' she said. I asked her how she had the courage. 'I don't know. I was young. I thought if I do it, it will work. You simply cannot accept some things. Certain things.'"
Another: "The entire time I was in the camp it was as if I had a double personality. My real self seemed to be observing what was happening to my physical self."
