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Ravensbruck: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939-45
This book is designed to make it possible for today's generation of students and general readers to imagine what daily life in a concentration camp may have been like.
380 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 2000
110 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 6, 2015
This book is about life and death in Ravensbruck, the only Nazi Concentration camp solely for women (though women were in all the other camps too). It covers therefore some topics other books on the camps don't like female friendships, lesbian/bisexual relationships, absence of menstrual periods in women due to panic and poor diet, rape by SS guards and officers, how those who had menstrual periods handled hygiene (with no baths and no padding, they had blood dripping down their legs and got beaten for it), and-most horrid of all- the murder of newborns at the camp. This book is written in plain, straightforward language that breaks my heart in its honest description of what went on in Ravensbruck.
January 9, 2019
Exactly what it sounds like - an interesting look at day-to-day life in Ravensbruck.
November 13, 2021
Clear, concise, and well-researched.
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January 27, 2011Ravensbrück was an atypical Nazi concentration camp in that it was intended solely for women. The majority of the women imprisoned there were not Jewish, but were sent there on “criminal” or “political” charges. They represented just about all European nationals although most were from Eastern Europe. Morrison, like me, is fascinated and deeply touched by the systems of education, culture and affection developed by the camp’s inmates in order to survive what was basically a dehumanizing existence in hell.
Considering the subject matter, this book is incredibly readable—the narrator’s straightforward compassion and orderly presentation help to balance the horror of most of what he has to tell. Other books I’ve read on this particular subject have been memoirs of detainees, but this book gives a much broader perspective.
Few contemporary photographs of the camp survive, and those that do were taken for propaganda purposes and are probably not representative. But Morrison’s book is lavishly and movingly illustrated with sketches and drawings by the camp’s inmates—some of them professional artists—offering hauntingly unsparing portraits of suffering and survival.
All in all, this is a solid, well-researched and accessible overview of life at Ravensbrück. In his acknowledgments, Morrison thanks the taxpayers of Pennsylvania, who helped fund his research sabbaticals between 1994 and 1997. I am proud to say that I helped fund this book.
Considering the subject matter, this book is incredibly readable—the narrator’s straightforward compassion and orderly presentation help to balance the horror of most of what he has to tell. Other books I’ve read on this particular subject have been memoirs of detainees, but this book gives a much broader perspective.
Few contemporary photographs of the camp survive, and those that do were taken for propaganda purposes and are probably not representative. But Morrison’s book is lavishly and movingly illustrated with sketches and drawings by the camp’s inmates—some of them professional artists—offering hauntingly unsparing portraits of suffering and survival.
All in all, this is a solid, well-researched and accessible overview of life at Ravensbrück. In his acknowledgments, Morrison thanks the taxpayers of Pennsylvania, who helped fund his research sabbaticals between 1994 and 1997. I am proud to say that I helped fund this book.
June 16, 2008
A kind of socio-anthropological study of life in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. I've never read another book like this, and it was an illuminating experience. Ravensbruck is not one of the better-known camps and there aren't many memoirs of survivors from there, but this book gives a very clear picture of what was going on inside the camp. Though obviously scholarly, it doesn't have the dreadful dry tone you find in many academic books, and it is richly illustrated with photographs and drawings of camp life.
May 31, 2012
Read this book because my daughter had to do a report on concentration camps for a project at school. There were very few sources available on Ravensbruck at the school or public library, so we ordered this one. It was extremely well done, and I gave it 4 stars, not because I "enjoyed the read", but because of the amount and organization of the material given. As with the other books I have read relating to the Holocaust, it causes me to shake my head in wonder and shame.
July 22, 2016
Incredible detail of everyday life, exactly as the title states. The information is well-organized and accessible, with clear chapter headings and section headings to ease note-taking and general understanding of the facts within. This book helped tremendously with my research.
October 9, 2014
This was an incredible book. Read my full review here:
http://www.readingforsanity.blogspot....
http://www.readingforsanity.blogspot....
October 9, 2014
For this review, and more, please visit us at: http://readingforsanity.blogspot.com/...
July 8, 2016
Extremely in depth description of the camp.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews