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Gefängnistagebuch.
English
Original German
Original German
Paperback
First published January 1, 1946
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June 20, 2019Luise Rinser's prison diary gives us a worm's eye view of women's lives in the dying months of the Hitler regime.
She was arrested at the age of 33 late in 1944, and bundled into prison on remand, it is only after a couple of months that she has a hearing, unluckily for her her case is then referred up to Berlin, but luckily for her the war ended before the case was resolved. She was accused of political offences by a friend, even so the lack of energy or basic interest on the part of the police and the prison officers is remarkable - once arrested two police officers escort her home were she is left as she tells us to burn potentially incriminating papers and brochures in the oven and to hide others. There's a general atmosphere of exhaustion and of the day to day reality of the Nazi regime as bullying, score settling and criminality.
In prison Rinser discovers some paper hidden beneath a floorboard, and later the prisoners are given paper to write to their families, with this she keeps a diary, after a while she is moved to a group cell with three other women curiously none of whom ever reports her for writing a diary although she is accused of taking part in anti-Hitler conversations, the cell is searched only once but the diary is not discovered, it's text ends abruptly on the 21st of December 1944.
Eventually she is allowed to work, in a bread factory - the other potential workplace is a chemical plant producing colours using toxic ingredients - but the prisoners are provided with a half litre of milk as a protective measure. In the bread factory the prisoners just have to steal what they can.
The bulk of this very short book is taken up by the people she meets mostly her fellow prisoners. A Black market trader, a couple of young women who murdered their own babies, a woman who attempted to get an abortion, a woman taken in adultery by her SS husband her is himself a philanderer, Jevohah's Witnesses, French forced labourers caught trying to escape back to France, a young member of the Communist party who had been held in Auschwitz released by the Russians she wandered home where she was picked up by the police and is in transit to Dachau she is completely mad, the wife of an army deserter, a woman involved with a feud with her brother ad since he is a Nazi party member with some influence and authority she finds herself in prison, the wife of another SS man - but the couple have fertility problems so she is behind bars, a deaf woman accused by her landlady of listening to foreign radio stations, a women pregnant by a French man which after the liberation of France becomes a criminal offence, and so on a parade of injustices and pettinesses.
Despite all this Rinser still finds women who still support Hitler and even the war , unsurprisingly she frequently comments on the incredible stupidity of this or that person. What I particularly liked was her determination to survive, to lie to her inquisitors, to be wary of people trying to ingratiate themselves with the prisoners, to do all that she could to see things through to the inevitable end of the war and the Hitler regime.
She was arrested at the age of 33 late in 1944, and bundled into prison on remand, it is only after a couple of months that she has a hearing, unluckily for her her case is then referred up to Berlin, but luckily for her the war ended before the case was resolved. She was accused of political offences by a friend, even so the lack of energy or basic interest on the part of the police and the prison officers is remarkable - once arrested two police officers escort her home were she is left as she tells us to burn potentially incriminating papers and brochures in the oven and to hide others. There's a general atmosphere of exhaustion and of the day to day reality of the Nazi regime as bullying, score settling and criminality.
In prison Rinser discovers some paper hidden beneath a floorboard, and later the prisoners are given paper to write to their families, with this she keeps a diary, after a while she is moved to a group cell with three other women curiously none of whom ever reports her for writing a diary although she is accused of taking part in anti-Hitler conversations, the cell is searched only once but the diary is not discovered, it's text ends abruptly on the 21st of December 1944.
Eventually she is allowed to work, in a bread factory - the other potential workplace is a chemical plant producing colours using toxic ingredients - but the prisoners are provided with a half litre of milk as a protective measure. In the bread factory the prisoners just have to steal what they can.
The bulk of this very short book is taken up by the people she meets mostly her fellow prisoners. A Black market trader, a couple of young women who murdered their own babies, a woman who attempted to get an abortion, a woman taken in adultery by her SS husband her is himself a philanderer, Jevohah's Witnesses, French forced labourers caught trying to escape back to France, a young member of the Communist party who had been held in Auschwitz released by the Russians she wandered home where she was picked up by the police and is in transit to Dachau she is completely mad, the wife of an army deserter, a woman involved with a feud with her brother ad since he is a Nazi party member with some influence and authority she finds herself in prison, the wife of another SS man - but the couple have fertility problems so she is behind bars, a deaf woman accused by her landlady of listening to foreign radio stations, a women pregnant by a French man which after the liberation of France becomes a criminal offence, and so on a parade of injustices and pettinesses.
Despite all this Rinser still finds women who still support Hitler and even the war , unsurprisingly she frequently comments on the incredible stupidity of this or that person. What I particularly liked was her determination to survive, to lie to her inquisitors, to be wary of people trying to ingratiate themselves with the prisoners, to do all that she could to see things through to the inevitable end of the war and the Hitler regime.
May 28, 2007
Luise Rinser, a mother of two young children, was denounced by a friend to the Nazis for her socialism and anti-Nazi beliefs. At great risk, Luise kept a diary while in prison awaiting trial. She narrowly escaped execution. Her observations of prison psychology are still chillingly accurate. Excellent read.
October 12, 2017
"A volte, qui, mi confronto con me stessa come mai mi era accaduto prima. Mi vedo come sono, con tutti i miei bassi istinti, con tutte le false, bugiarde e romantiche concezioni dell'onore, della morale, della coscienza di classe, e con tutti quegli altri bei valori posticci e convenzionali. Ma alla fin fine non sei altro che l'animale che vuol mangiare e dormire, che ha paura delle botte, che vuole scappare, in libertà. Fuori di qui ci limitiamo a mascherare tutto questo con tante parole." (pp. 131, 132)
February 28, 2016
A real journal by a woman sent to prison for writing books and saying things that were considered "treasonous" by the nazis. Very well-written.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews