Short Synopsis
A masterly and moving account of the most horrific hidden atrocity of World War II: Ravensbrück, the only Nazi concentration camp built for women.

Full Synopsis
On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 867 women—housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes—was marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded in through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards.

Their destination was Ravensbrück, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Holocaust. By the end of the war 130,000 women from more than twenty different European countries had been imprisoned there; among the prominent names were Geneviève de Gaulle, General de Gaulle’s niece, and Gemma La Guardia Gluck, sister of the wartime mayor of New York.

Only a small number of these women were Jewish; Ravensbrück was largely a place for the Nazis to eliminate other inferior beings—social outcasts, Gypsies, political enemies, foreign resisters, the sick, the disabled, and the “mad.” Over six years the prisoners endured beatings, torture, slave labor, starvation, and random execution. In the final months of the war, Ravensbrück became an extermination camp. Estimates of the final death toll by April 1945 have ranged from 30,000 to 90,000.

"This book deserves significant attention, both for Helm’s notable interviews of aging witnesses and as a beautifully written history of events that offers additional insight into Nazism and those caught in its path." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"A detailed analysis of the institution's history . . . [Helm's] work, which is based on extensive archival research and oral histories, will likely become the standard account. Highly recommended for all libraries." ---Library Journal Starred Review

"Not just another tale of concentration camp terrors, Helm delivers a gripping story of the women who outlasted them and had the strength to share with the author and us 60 years later." ---Kirkus

"[An] extraordinary book. . . . Helm manages to bring to light the unimaginable abuse and suffering, but in Ravensbrück she goes beyond the atrocities to chronicle the lives of the women, both the Nazi staff and the regime's victims." ---Shelf Awareness

Publishers Weekly Review

Library Journal Review