Showing results by author "Gwen Strauss" in All Categories

As the Second World War raged across Europe, and the Nazi regime tightened its reign of horror and oppression, nine women, some still in their teens, joined the French and Dutch Resistance. Caught out in heroic acts against the brutal occupiers, they were each tortured and sent east into Greater Germany to a concentration camp, where they formed a powerful friendship. In 1945, as the war turned against Hitler, they were forced on a Death March, facing starvation and almost certain death.

From the moment they met in 1940 in Ravensbrück concentration camp, Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber-Neumann were inseparable. Czech Milena was Kafka's first translator and epistolary lover, and a journalist opposed to fascism. A non-conformist, bi-sexual feminist, she was way ahead of her time. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, her home became a central meeting place for Jewish refugees. German Margarete, born to a middle-class family, married the son of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber.

Milena and Margarete loved each other at the risk of their lives. But in the post-war survivors’ accounts, lesbians were stigmatized, and survivors kept silent. This book explores those silences, and finally celebrates two strong women who never gave up and continue to inspire. As Margaret wrote: “I was thankful for having been sent to Ravensbrück, because it was there I met Milena.”

Een meeslepend verhaal over negen vrouwelijke verzetsstrijders die tijdens een dodenmars ontsnappen aan de nazi's. De negen is het waargebeurde verhaal van negen vrouwelijke verzetsstrijders, die zich in verschillende regio's van Frankrijk aansluiten bij het verzet; sommigen van hen zijn dan nog maar vijftien jaar oud. De jonge vrouwen smokkelen wapens door Europa, herbergen parachutisten en zorgen voor onderduikadressen voor Joodse kinderen. Na hun arrestatie door de Franse politie worden ze gedeporteerd naar een werkkamp in Leipzig, waar ze een hechte vriendengroep vormen.