The Forgotten Concentration Camp

November 17, 2016 11:50 PM

"Nobody knows about Ravensbrück at all. Nobody ever wanted to know from the moment we came back." Journalist and author Sarah Helm reconstructs the history of the only Nazi concentration camp for women. (Previously: 1, 2, 3)
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? (12 comments total)

I couldn't even finish Sarah Helm's earlier book, about Vera Atkins trying to discover the fate of her missing SOE agents and, maybe, find if any had survived and were somewhere amid the "displaced persons" of Europe. It was so relentlessly grim. Atkins would get a glimmer of hope, follow it up, and every time she found either nothing or another story of arrest, torture, and death.
posted by thelonius at 1:58 AM on November 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

The Ravensbruck Monument at the Museumplein in Amsterdam was adopted by the school my children went to when they were young. They met survivors in class, they interviewed them and they worked together on a poem that was recited during the commemoration. Seeing ten year old kids holding hands with the survivors during a minute of silence is one of the most intense memories of despair and hope at the same time. If you're in Amsterdam, do not forget to walk across the lawn when you're at Museumplein. (warning! downloads video, but it's okay)
posted by ouke at 2:26 AM on November 18, 2016 [8 favorites]

Need some cheering up? Feeling down about man's callousness and inhumanity towards his fellow man? Skip reading this for another time. It's important history, maybe (though I desperately hope not) especially given recent events.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:47 AM on November 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Corrie Ten Boom writes about Ravensbruck in The Hiding Place.
posted by anshuman at 3:49 AM on November 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yes, Corrie Ten Boom! She was a Dutch woman who survived the camp and lived to 91. She was sent there along with her sister for hiding Jews and obtaining ration cards for them. Her memoir contains a vivid description of the camp - from the lice to the food to what they did to stay sane and survive. It has been 18 years since I read "the Hiding Place" but I still think about it once a week or more.

She was a spinster, a watchmaker and truly one of the best examples of how to live a life as a Christian in the image of Jesus during trying times. It would be a good book for right now; Corrie would get the award for bravest resident of Crone Island.
posted by Alison at 4:05 AM on November 18, 2016 [19 favorites]

Excellent (if often horrifying) ninety-minute interview with Sarah Helm from the New Books In Genocide Studies podcast.
posted by Kinbote at 5:17 AM on November 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

Ravensbruck was the camp where a former guard visited and described her experiences there in a way that does not align with, well, everything else. Because memory and denial are weird. previously on the blue
posted by rmd1023 at 5:23 AM on November 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh, hey, that link is 3 in the post itself. For some reason it didn't show up as a visited link for me.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:47 AM on November 18, 2016

Zoe Waxman's new book 'Women in the Holocaust: a feminist history' may also be of interest.
posted by melisande at 6:45 AM on November 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

A fictional depiction: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein, which follows (but is not a direct sequel to) her excellent book Code Name Verity.
They are classified as YA, but I think that is mainly because the protagonists are young people.
posted by maryrussell at 7:13 AM on November 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm about a third of the way through this book now; it's pretty grim but certainly that is to be expected. Right now I am reading the parts about how they sabotaged the manufacture of Goering's silver fox overcoat by beating the fur just enough so that it falls later, while Goering owns the coat.
posted by lstanley at 9:36 AM on November 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Corrie Ten Boom spoke at my church when I was a little girl. I am straight, white, cis and raised in a Republican home. It was the first time I had heard about the Holocaust. I can trace all of my social justice beliefs and actions coming from hearing her speak that day. She looked like a particularly adorable grandmother. She was so calm and matter of fact that when anyone is at risk of course you put your life at risk to save them. That there really isn't a choice. Fight evil or be it. I remember promising my little girl self that I would never forget her and would live up to her example if the situation arose. (I don't think that my church brought her in to turn me into a liberal, pro-choice, pro gay equality, anti-racism Democrat, but thanks Calvary Baptist!)

Her memory has given me some strength, comfort and motivation this week. Thanks for the post.
posted by colt45 at 7:06 PM on November 18, 2016 [12 favorites]