Ravensbruck: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939-45 [Paperback]

Jack G. Morrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A comprehensive history of the only concentration camp entirely for women, this book tells the story of Ravensbr?ck from the moment when the first 867 women were transported to the camp in 1939 until the moment when most of the remaining inhabitants were forcibly marched away from it in 1945. Morrison, a professor of history at Shippensburg University, spent two years meticulously conducting research at (and helping to organize) the archives at the former concentration camp. Since the Nazis destroyed most of the camp's records, he relies heavily on memoirs and interviews to provide a comprehensive picture of the administrative hierarchy and the prisoners' daily lives. Ravensbr?ck, he explains, was a labor camp rather than an extermination camp--still, tens of thousands of women died there due to the harsh conditions and the brutal treatment. He notes that although the inmates were divided into groups (designated by differently colored triangles) depending on their status as political prisoners, criminals, prostitutes, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses or Jews, they worked together to better their chances of survival, by sharing food, assisting ill women and "adopting" the younger prisoners. Most important, Morrison takes issue with Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners, arguing that most of the German townspeople near the camp did not know much about it and that many of those who did treated the inmates with kindness. In contrast to survivor accounts such as Genevi?ve de Gaulle Anthonioz's The Dawn of Hope: A Memoir of Ravensbr?ck, Morrison's study has a detached, scholarly feeling that contrasts with the drama of what he relates. Photos and drawings by former Ravensbr?ck inmates. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In May 1939 the Ravensbruck concentration camp for women was founded in Germany. Designed to hold 15,000 prisoners, it eventually housed more than 42,000 women from 23 countries. Morrison, a history professor and an archivist, helped to reorganize Ravensbruck's files in 1994 and spent two years (1997 and 1998) there as a visiting scholar. He also interviewed many survivors. The book is a study of the social dynamics of the prisoners, their relationships with each other, and--to a lesser extent--with their SS masters. Morrison focuses on such topics as the inmates' trauma of processing, camp routine and the female overseers, friendships, cultural and educational activities, and slave labor. Morrison also discusses the 70 subcamps of Ravensbruck, the system used to punish inmates, medical experiments on the prisoners, diseases, and the camp's children. The book includes photographs of prisoners at various workshops. They were taken by the SS in 1940 and 1941 and were intended to give a misleading impression of life in the camp. It also includes 50 drawings by inmates. George Cohen

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Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Markus Wiener Publishers; Everyday Life in Women's Concentration Camp edition (July 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558762183
• ISBN-13: 978-1558762183
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,256,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Highly recommended addition to Holocaust studies, February 24, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ravensbruck: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939-45 (Paperback)

Ravensbruck was the only Nazi concentration camp that was built and operated exclusively for women prisoners. It was a labor camp located within Germany, not far from Berlin. Originally designed for indoctrination and industrial production (and mainly administered by the inmates), by war's end it had degenerated into just another overcrowded death camp with an agenda of mass extermination and the gas chamber (More than 140,000 Ravensbruck inmates did not survive the war). Jack Morrison's Ravensbruck: Everyday Life In A Women's Concentration Camp is an informative case study of how women of different nationalities and social backgrounds coped for years with a chronic lack of food and basic sanitation, illnesses, prejudices, and death. It was through asserting courage, love, and carving out their own cultural life under the harshest of conditions that the survivors overcame fear, hunger and hate. Ravensbruck is an impressive, much appreciated, highly recommended addition to Holocaust studies reading lists and library reference collections.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Analysis of the Holocaust thru a Women's Camp, August 25, 2000

By 

Justus G. Hartzok - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ravensbruck: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939-45 (Paperback)

As a former student of Dr. Morrison's, I was especially happy to read about his top-notch research in a published format. Dr. Morrison informatively and lucidly illustrates the complex dynamic of women's history, Nazi Germany, and the horror of the Holocaust while at the same time bringing a human face to the tragedy which befell so many people from various backgrounds during the Second World War. I was lucky enough to hear Dr. Morrison speak about this engrossing topic on several occasions, but for those who have not, this book provides an excellent format for exploring Dr. Morrison's meticulous work. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in general history as well as the Holocaust. Bravo, Dr. Morrison!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An anecdotal history mixing solid research/easily-read prose, August 8, 2000

By 

"wee-cottage-online" (Shippensburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ravensbruck: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939-45 (Paperback)

You don't have to be a German history professor or a Holocaust expert to enjoy Jack Morrison's fascinating and informative "Ravensbruck: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939-45." Though Morrison is clearly well-versed, widely-read and highly knowledgeable about his subject, he has the unique ability to translate his vast amounts of knowledge into words which will capture the attention and imagination of everyday folks like myself, while still fully serving his academic research mission.

Highly interesting, extremely well-researched, and rich in illustrations, Morrison's book is perfect for anyone wanting more information about the experience of women in the Holocaust, especially in Ravensbruck, a concentration camp reserved especially for them. Using what was in many cases newly-discovered information, his book details every aspect of concentration camp life as it happened to the very real women victims of Ravensbruck.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Holocaust, and especially those with an interest in the camps or in women's unique perspective on their "everyday lives."