Milena and Margarete : a love story in Ravensbrück / Gwen Strauss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strauss, Gwen, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jesenská, Milena, 1896-1944.

Jesenská, Milena.

Buber-Neumann, Margarete, 1901-1989.

Buber-Neumann, Margarete.

Ravensbrück (Concentration camp).

World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, German.

World War, 1939-1945.

Women Nazi concentration camp inmates--Germany--Biography.

Women Nazi concentration camp inmates.

Lesbians--Germany--Biography.

Lesbians.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

292 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : St. Martin's Press, an imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2025.

Summary:

"A profoundly moving celebration of love under the darkest of circumstances 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. But soon swept up in the fervor of the Bolshevik Revolution, she met her second partner, the Communist Heinz Neumann. Called to Moscow for his "political deviations," he fell victim to Stalin's purges while Margarete was exiled to the hell of the Soviet gulag. Two years later, traded by Stalin to Hitler, she ended up outside Berlin in Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp built for women. 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.""-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1940: Passionate friends 1

1941: The list

1942: The siren

1943: The dark cell

1944: Release

Author's note

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

List of illustrations

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-280) and index.

ISBN:

9781250285744

1250285747

OCLC:

1452441002