Michelangelo in Ravensbruck: One Woman's War Against the Nazis [Hardcover]

Karolina Lanckoronska (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 26, 2007

In September of 1939, Countess Karolina Lanckoronska, wealthy landowner and professor of art history, watched the Soviet army march into Poland. After joining the resistance, she was arrested, sentenced to death, and held in Ravensbruck concentration camp. There she taught art history to other women who, like her, might be dead in a few days. This brilliantly written memoir records a neglected side of World War II: the mass murder of Poles, the serial horrors inflicted by both Russians and Nazis, and the immense courage of those who resisted.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Polish aristocrat born in Austria, Countess Lanckoronska (1898– 2002) became an art history professor at the University of Lvov, Poland. When the Soviets invaded in September 1939, the countess joined the resistance and eventually evaded arrest by fleeing to German-occupied Kraków, where she worked with the Polish Red Cross and continued her resistance activities. At Stanislawow, where she had been delivering care packages to prisoners, Lanckoronska was briefly imprisoned and local Gestapo chief Hans Krüger confessed to her that he had murdered 23 University of Lvov professors, a war crime she made it her mission to publicize. Imprisoned at Ravensbrück because of her political activities, the ever-resilient Lanckoronska cared for victims of medical experiments and taught art and European history. She eschewed her privileged status to join the ranks of prisoners, but as a Christian Lanckoronska never shared the ordeal of Jewish concentration camp prisoners, and her memoir says little about atrocities committed against European Jewry. Although the style is stilted and restrained, this is still a worthy, unsentimental eyewitness account that sheds welcome light on a tumultuous era of modern Polish history. 8 pages of b&w photos; map. (Apr. 5)
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From Booklist

Countess Lanckoronska's memoir of struggle and survival in Poland during World War II chronicles two tragedies: the Holocaust and the war of occupation and conquest against the Poles by the Russians and the Germans. In 1939, at the outbreak of the war, she lived in Lvov, where she held the post of professor of Renaissance Italian art. Lanckoronska (1898-2002) became active in the resistance movement. She describes her work in the underground in Soviet-occupied Lvov, her escape into Nazi-occupied Polish territories, and her imprisonment in Nazi jails and in the concentration camp of Ravensbruck. There she refused the so-called "privileged" treatment of a special solitary cell, choosing instead to share the fate of her fellow inmates, whom she tried to help. She worked in the sick bay and also gave lectures on art and European history to women facing death. First published in Poland in 2001 and containing eight pages of black-and-white photographs, the book offers a rare insight into this aspect of the Holocaust and of the courage of those who resisted the mass murderers. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; Tra edition (March 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306815370
• ISBN-13: 978-0306815379
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #452,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > History > Historical Study > Oral History

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Arresting Tale, Calmly Told, May 10, 2007

By 

Gallery90 (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Michelangelo in Ravensbruck: One Woman's War Against the Nazis (Hardcover)

Let's clear the air first.

It is a shame that Amazon has decided to highlight Susie Lindfield's rather unfortunate review of "Michelangelo in Ravensbruck" from the Washington Post's Book World. While Ms Lindfield's credentials would appear suitable to the task, her product (the review) certainly leaves one wondering by what tortured lens she viewed Karolina Lanckoronska's book.

If you have read the Lindfield review, consider then this passage from the second paragraph of the book's prologue: "My memoir is meant to be a report -- and only a report -- of what I witnessed during the Second World War. I know that others have lived through a great deal more than myself. I was never in Auschwitz or Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, I also know that every first-hand account contributes fresh detail to the picture of those years."

If only Lindfield demonstrated an understanding of those few words.

Those are the words of an historian -- because that is what Lanckoronska was. This book clearly demonstrates the historian's perspective, and the understanding that individual narrative has great value to researchers, those passionate about history and learning, and perhaps even the merely curious.

The puzzling thing about the Lindfield review is that it seems she would be more satisfied if this was a work of fiction that she could complain about for not fitting into her concept of history. The problem is that the events in this "story" happened -- and to the storyteller, not Ms Lindfield. To that extent, Ms Lindfield shows herself to be in a mild state of denial. Additionally, her review shows me no understanding of the importance of teasing out individualized threads of experienced history, and then placing them in context within that complex fabric of history -- not macerated into a homogenized "pour" of history.

I strongly recommend that you read John Carey's review from the Sunday Times (of London), published 12 FEB 06, or on the web at:

[...]

(If that link doesn't work, go to the Timesonline site and search for "Lanckoronska".) Carey's review has the advantage of actually telling you more about the book than about the reviewer.

The book itself? You certainly won't find flowery passages and gripping drama. But not so fast. Lanckoronska is a historian -- an art historian by education who later turned her talents to Polish art and culture. So perhaps her prose is a little dry. You can almost imagine a woman, speaking aloud from notes, going through this part of her life for you step by step. But as you become accustomed to her style, events emerge that surprise. Something as innocuous as a car breakdown is delivered in the same tone as a later scene were she realizes that she is witnessing fellow Poles being herded into lorries and heading for the execution grounds in the woods. More than once I had to stop reading just to let those scenes sink in.

This book is valuable because it snatches our attention away from the homogenized pour of World War Two and Nazi history that we have been spoon fed all these years. It understands the enormity and incomprehensibility of the Holocaust, while taking you into the places that Western European and North American histories are only just beginning to touch -- over 60 years after the fall of Hitler's Berlin.

At the back of the book are endnotes for each chapter (which, in future editions, I wish they would convert to footnotes) by the author or the editors. Fascinating too are the appendices which include the names of the Lwow professors that were murdered, and short biographies of major characters in this book. Just within those short biographies is a chilling reminder of the overt criminality of the Nazi regime, and all those that chose to follow it.

For students of recent Polish history, this is a must-have volume. And for anyone who would like another perspective on what happened in Poland, the Ukraine, and Germany between 1939 and 1945 -- especially to provide richer context for understanding the depths to which humanity seemed to plunge during that period -- I highly recommend "Michelangelo in Ravensbruck".

And let's make this very clear: A better understanding of this period of time from Karolina Lanckoronska's perspective in no way (at least for a moderately intelligent reader) diminishes the totality of those horrible years.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gentile's concentration camp experience, June 1, 2007

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Z Hayes (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Michelangelo in Ravensbruck: One Woman's War Against the Nazis (Hardcover)

Having read numerous accounts of the Holocaust, primarily from the Jewish point of view, I felt this book was a valuable addition to World War Two & even Holocaust literature, even though it is from a Gentile's point of view. It details the wartime [World War Two] experiences of a Polish aristocrat, Karolina Lanckoronska who was actively involved in resistance activities against the Nazis. Quite a bit of the book is devoted to detailing her resistance activities. These eventually get her labelled an undesirable and she gets sent off to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Her indefatigable spirit is evident in her lively outlook despite the horrors and bleakness around her. Her account of life in Ravensbruck is immensely valuable to enhancing our understanding of Nazi atrocities...female prisoners being subjected to horrific medical experiments, the infamous selections that make day to day living unberable for no one knew when death would come knocking, the rampant diseases that besieged the camp, all these horrors are vividly described in Countess Lanckoronska's account. Despite the worst living conditions imaginable, she was able to bring some measure of hope and light by teaching art etc. Her courage in standing up to the Nazis is inspiring and her account is a valuable addition to anyone interested in World War Two history & Nazi atrocities.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Polish Countess defies the Nazis, May 26, 2007

By 

A. J. Quin-Harkin - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Michelangelo in Ravensbruck: One Woman's War Against the Nazis (Hardcover)

This well written book is a cliff-hanger, a tear jerker and the most frightening lesson in the behaviour of supposedly civilized races.
It should be mandatory reading for all schools and universities in the free world. The bestial atrocities detailed in its pages need to be shown in the light of day so that public conscience ensures that they never be repeated.
The author's incredible faith and determination shine through, as does the spirit of the Polish people.
This might be the most comprehensive and detailed report ever written by a survivor.