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Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women Audiobook
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(4.50) - 2 listener ratings
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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.
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"This should be a must audiobook listen for anyone interested in not only the Holocaust, but also women's history. We all have heard for Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, and many other infamous Nazi Concentration Camps, but until I saw this book and started to read it, I had no idea there was a women's only camp. "
— Ian (4 out of 5 stars)
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“A sense of urgency infuses this history…Ravensbrück deserves to be remembered.”
— Economist -
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
Ravensbrück Listener Reviews
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" Excellent book well written and excellent research. Unfortunately the narration is passable but it is unforgivable that the pronunciation of of one of the very brave women is misprounced "
— David, 5/13/2024
About Sarah Helm
Sarah Helm has been a journalist for more than twenty years. She was a reporter and feature writer on the Sunday Times before becoming a founding member of the Independent in 1986. She was the Independent’s Diplomatic Editor and later became the Middle East and then European Correspondent for the same paper. Sarah Helm is the recipient of the British Press Award of Specialist Writer of the Year and was awarded the Laurence Stern Fellowship by the Washington Post.
About Christa Lewis
Christa Lewis has narrated over two hundred audiobooks. She is a classically trained actress with a four-year conservatory training in voice and acting. She has a smart and funny vibe, but can also meet the moment in straightforward or somber works of nonfiction thanks to a seventeen-year stint as a newsreader. Christa speaks accent-free German fluently and offers a variety of believable accents and dialects. Her narrations are well received—there have been seven Earphones awards across a variety of genres—YA, literary fiction, biography and memoir—a 2019 SOVAS Voice Arts Award in Biography and two Audie nominations. Pippa Jayne was the Sultry Listeners’ Award Winner 2019 in the Erotica category.