FACES OF EUROPE

ENGLISH FACES OF EUROPE DAUGHTERS REMEMBER THEIR MOTHERS, PRISONERS OF THE RAVENSBRÜCK CONCENTRATION CAMP PREFACE

FACES OF EUROPE DAUGHTERS REMEMBERING THEIR MOTHERS, PRISONERS OF RAVENSBRÜCK CONCENTRATION CAMP

Management: Jeanine Bochat (International Ravensbrück Committee), Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War, only a few Dr. Insa Eschebach (Ravensbrück Memorial) survivors are still alive. It is now their daughters, sons, grandsons and Coordination: Rüdiger Hahn, Šárka Kadlecová granddaughters who deal with the legacy of their parents and grandparents. Artistic consulting: Kateřina Kočková International communication: Rüdiger Hahn, Šárka Kadlecová, Kateřina Kočková Also, in the International Ravensbrück Committee (IRC), which was founded Graphics and Layout: Stefan Osciatka in 1965, former prisoners of the women’s concentration camp, to a large Editing: Guido Bochat, Anne Cordier, Dr. Insa Eschebach, Rüdiger Hahn, Aleksandra extent, have passed the relay baton of memories on to the second and Holubowicz, Kateřina Kočková, Natalia Timofeewa third generations. Print: Osthavelland-Druck Velten GmbH i.L. (brochure), SMART MEDIA SYSTEM s.r.o. Prague (portraits) The exchange of generations is taking place at a time when Europe Translation: Interlingua servis Prague is confronted with newly ignited nationalism; new dividing lines © Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück | Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten 2020 and demarcation of borders are disturbing, and they make communication difficult. In contrast, the Ravensbrück International Committee and the Ravensbrück Memorial Museum want to focus on the common points in history, which include persecution in the era of Nazism, and to encourage Supported by: dialogue between European nations. Approximately 120,000 women were imprisoned in Ravensbrück. According to Nazi ideology, there was no place in Europe for these women who were persecuted for racial and political reasons – so in Ravensbrück there was a “different Europe”. The process of European understanding is a response to the experiences Loans of photographs: of the Second World War. The committee, which still meets once a year Jeanine Bochat, Bente Børsum, Jevgenije Ivanovna Bojko, Marie Cabeza-Marnet, in one of Europe’s cities, was honoured by the United Nations in 1987 Margarita Català, Anne Cordier, Vera Dehle-Thälmann, Agnes Dessing, Siegrid Fahrecker, Gabriela Havlůjová, Šárka Kadlecová, Kateřina Kočková, Péter Kunsàgi, Ambra as a “messenger of peace”. Laurenzi,Françoise Marchelidon, Vera Modjawer, Stella Nikiforowa, Hanna Nowakowska, Barbara Piotrowska, Bärbel Schindler-Saefkow, Vanda Straka Vrhovnik, Natalia Timofeewa, Since it was founded, the survivors of Ravensbrück concentration Rosel Vardera Jonas, Dominique Villard-Gamage camp, as well as their daughters, one son and their grandchildren, have been represented on the committee. The survivors, who are still actively represented on the committee today, were children deported to Ravensbrück with their mothers. The idea of a joint exhibition by the committee and the Memorial Museum site arose during the committee’s annual meeting in May 2019 in Gorizia, Italy. The exhibition shows large portraits of mothers, grandmothers and friends of today’s committee members from thirteen countries. The pictures of Rosa Kugelman and Anna

3 Burger, who lost their lives while they were imprisoned, date from the time a week after returning home. She had to support her mother and younger before they were arrested. The other portraits come from the late 1940s sister,” writes Šárka Kadlecová about her Czech grandmother. “We had to start and early 1950s. Daughters, one son, grandchildren and friends comment from scratch, we had nothing at all”, recalls Barbara Piotrowska, who was on these photos. deported to Ravensbrück from Warsaw with her mother: “My mother worked and faced huge problems. Yet she created the conditions for me to study Why photos of these women from after the war? Today’s young people got and start a family.” Some of the daughters also mention the emotional to know the survivors of the Nazi camps primarily as pleasant older people wounds their mothers suffered from, such as Vanda Straka Vrhovnik from who told them about their experiences in schools and museums or at Slovenia: as a child her mother seemed to her an “incredibly sad woman” memorials. There are well-known photographs of the liberation of the camps, who “only rarely laughed. (…). She was emotionally exhausted after all the in which the prisoners are seen mostly looking gaunt and in striped clothing, suffering she had had to overcome.” And Natalia Timofeeva writes about with shaved heads. Women were deprived of their dignity in the camps. Above Sofie Iwanowna Schkatula, who was born in the Crimea, that, like others, all, having their hair cut off was a great shock to all of them and was seen she had to hold back “her anger and hatred” through willpower and stifle it as a loss of womanhood. Photographs from concentration and extermination inside herself. camps today show us the absolute lowest point in the history of civilisation. The fact that after the liberation the survivors were looking for a new beginning In addition to the memories of their suffering, for many survivors – mostly after they returned into a traditional surrounding that was not “Ravensbrück”, however, also meant something else: many of the women interested in their particular stories, or after emigrating to a foreign country – in the concentration camp, where people from more than 30 countries is not evident in any of the publicly known photographs. were imprisoned, met exceptional women, learned new ways of thinking and, above all, solidarity. Friendships were maintained across borders. In Eastern Europe, the Wehrmacht razed towns and villages to the ground. And they were the foundations on which the International Ravensbrück Those individuals who survived Ravensbrück returned to a ruined world. Committee was built. A “Friendly Europe” came naturally to these women. Imprisonment in the concentration camp initially represented a finished Many of them were politically involved in the post-war period, fighting for chapter of life that was hardly spoken about. The girls and women tried social justice and women’s rights. “Someone who doesn’t think like you to leave their extreme experiences behind as fast as possible by starting may be better than you,” Margarita Catalá quotes her Spanish mother, a new normal life. Many of them got married. From this perspective, the Neus Catalá Pallejà. And Anne Cordier notes that in raising her children her portrait photographs that these women had taken a few years after the French mother “never encouraged them to hate the Germans.” liberation can be seen as a sign of victory. We made it! Traces of the suffering we experienced can hardly be seen, we have reached a new era. The exhibition features portraits of former prisoners in Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp from the , , Italy, ”I have been born again, I’m rising from the dead, leaving the misery behind me Hungary, France, Spain, Austria, , Russia, Poland, Ukraine, the (…), I’m sleeping normally, eating bread, drinking water in great gulps and at and Slovenia. That is how the countries are named today. night I have difficult dreams of Ravensbrück camp, which took my youth from In fact, these countries did not necessarily exist in this form during the long me,” Hanna Nowakowska quotes her mother Janina, who returned to a ruined 20th century, and it was therefore not always easy to name the nationality Warsaw. The photos tell us less about the nightmares and the problems of the women. To give two examples: Rosa Kugelman was born in 1904 of living in the post-war period. However, more about this can be found in the in Smarhon near Vilnius, which at that time belonged to Russia, from 1918 texts of these women’s children and grandchildren, which we present alongside to the , from 1921 to Poland, after the end of the Second World the photographs in the accompanying brochures: after returning home many War it again belonged to the Soviet Union and since 1991 it has belonged of their mothers and grandmothers led a life full of strenuous work and to Belarus. Pavla Cedilnik was born in 1925 in Gameljne near Ljubljana. hardship. “Although she would have liked to have studied, she started work At that time this village belonged to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which

4 5 in 1945 became a People’s Republic. Since 1991 it has been part of Slovenia. We therefore decided to include only the place of birth alongside the names of the people depicted. The current names of the countries are attached to the names of the authors of the texts. The exhibition will open on Sunday, 19 April 2020 in the Ravensbrück Memorial Museum on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of this women’s concentration camp. It is designed as a touring exhibition and will be shown in different European cities from autumn 2020. This exhibition will serve as a forum for various educational and discussion formats on the themes of national socialist persecution and a common Europe.

We sincerely thank all the members of the International Ravensbrück Committee for providing the photographs of their mothers, grandmothers and friends, as well as for their written commentaries accompanying the photographs. We would like to thank the international team responsible for the exhibition – Kateřina Kočková, Šárka Kadlecová and Stefan Osciatka from Prague, Jeanine Bochat from Bad Schandau and Rüdiger Hahn and Britta Pawelke from the Ravensbrück Memorial for their excellent work on the exhibition. We thank the Interlingua office in Prague for excellent translations of this project into six languages. Last but not least, we thank the Culture and Media Commissioner of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal State of Brandenburg for the generous financial support of this exhibition.

Dr. Insa Eschebach Ambra Laurenzi Director of the Ravensbrück Memorial Museum President Brandenburgische Memorial Foundation International Ravensbrück Committee

6 7 My mother was born on 12 October 1902 in Düsseldorf, the daughter of a travelling carpenter, Wilhelm Thiebes, and his wife, Elisabetha Thiebes, who was a seamstress. Already during her youth, Aenne was politically active and she became AENNE SAEFKOW a member of the German Communist née Thiebes Party and moved to in 1927. In 1928, her daughter Edith was born. After May 1945 my mother was one From 1933 on my mother worked of the activists for a new society. in small illegal groups against the She was involved in social work and Nazis and in 1941 she met my father, became the mayor of one of the “ON 13 MAY 1945, I SET Anton, who was a motorist. They got boroughs of Berlin. Her extraordinary OFF WITH PAULA (A FRIEND married and in 1943 their daughter commitment led to the creation FROM RAVENSBRÜCK) Bärbel came into the world. With of a memorial site at Ravensbrück, ON THE JOURNEY TO BUCH. others, my father built up a resistance where I went to commemorative I SAW YOU AND CALLED network. My mother helped, she events with her from when I was TO YOU, ‘BÄRBELE’, BUT provided courier services and a child and where I had the chance YOU DIDN’T HEAR ME. participated in many discussions. The to make friends with people from BUT EDITH’S KEENER EAR organisation became a victim of the Germany and abroad. RECOGNISED HER MOTHER’S , and my father, like hundreds VOICE. […] ‘BÄRBELE, OUR of other comrades, had to pay for his I try to continue her commitment MOTHER IS HERE!’ IT WAS illegal work with his life. My mother, to the goal: “No Ravensbrück ever A WONDERFUL FEELING who was also arrested, was held in again!” FOR ME TO BE SURE THAT born 12 October 1902 in Düsseldorf, various prisons before being sent to THE MEMORY OF ME WAS died 4 August 1962 March – April 1945 Ravensbrück in March 1945. When Bärbel Schindler-Saefkow STILL ALIVE.“ in Ravensbrück she arrived at the concentration Germany camp, she was shocked by the Aenne Saefkow’s daughter conditions there, but on the other hand, she drew hope for the future from meeting anti-fascists from many European countries who held the same beliefs as she did.

Even though her health was weakened as a result of her detention, as a single parent, she took care of two children.

8 9 She was born in Spain and later lived in France. Thanks to her working-class background, she was proud of her revolt and was involved in the young communist movement. While still She was later transferred to Zwodau, very young, she joined progressive, a sub-camp of Flossenbürg anti-fascist movements (red aid, the concentration camp. In March girls’ union in France, trade unions…). 1945, as the Soviet troops were ANGELA CABEZA Subsequently, she became a member approaching, she was sent to Graslitz, of the “National Front” resistance then back, on foot. She worked organisation with the rank of sergeant. for Siemens, which used the deportees During the German occupation to produce weapons at the lowest of French territory, she participated possible price. My mother was often in secret meetings, distributed leaflets punished because she sabotaged “MY MOTHER REMAINED and magazines and engaged in other work on machine parts and delayed ACTIVE, SYMPATHETIC prohibited activities. production. AND MILITANT EVEN AFTER THE WAR. SHE CONTINUED On 23 March 1941, she was arrested She was liberated by the Red TO FIGHT FOR THE FREEDOM by the French police after someone Army on 8 May and arrived in OF NATIONS, AND ABOVE ALL informed on her and sentenced to two on 19 May 1945. Her family seemed SHE GAVE HER DAUGHTERS years in prison. Instead of being to be inhibited by her return. No one A DESIRE TO CONTINUALLY released as expected, she was dared tell her that they had suffered FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY, later deported to the indescribable in France too. She was cared for by the RACISM, SEXISM, Ravensbrück Nazi camp, which she National Federation of Deportees FOR FREEDOM AND MANY never spoke to us about and which she and went to a sanatorium in Haute- OTHER VALUES.” forbade us to visit. Savoie to recover and socially adapt. born 28 December 1915 in Magaz de Cepeda (near Léon), died 21 December 1992 She arrives there on 18 May 1944. She kept in contact with her friends 18 May 1944 – 1945 From now on, like her comrades, she from the time she was deported. in Ravensbrück is just one “Stück”, a piece, that has She occasionally took part in meetings number 39144. She must memorise and rallies. it in German in order to avoid being beaten during roll call. She experiences Marie-France Cabeza Marnet humiliation, dehumanisation and fear, France but also solidarity and dignity Angela Cabeza’s daughter in degradation. She carries out exhausting work, assigned to transport stones for road construction.

10 11 On 23 October 1944, my mother had to go to the “Kisok” sportsground in Budapest. From there she was transferred to Szigetmonostor to dig trenches. DEZSŐNÉ SZILÁGYI In November she was moved to the brick factory in Óbuda née Rózsa Nagy and then to Hegyeshalom. In Hegyeshalom, her “protective passport” arrived which meant she could return to Budapest. There she was deported by train Only my mother, Rózsa, survived. to Ravensbrück. She was liberated on 5 May 1945 in Mauthausen. She weighed From my family, my mother, my aunt just 28 kilograms. She arrived and my grandmother were included in Budapest on 8 June. Even then, “RAVENSBRÜCK IS OUR on the lists for transportation she was still in very poor health. FAMILY’S TRAGEDY to Ravensbrück. They were AND THE CONSCIENCE transported in livestock wagons All these tragedies were caused by OF GERMANY AND HUNGARY without toilets and therefore among murderous anti-Semitism. AT THAT TIME.” human excrement. The journey took three days. Rózsa Fehérvári, Péter Kunsági my grandmother, born in 1896, Hungary was killed three days after her Dezsőné Szilágyi’s son born 23 July 1922 in Budapest, arrival in Ravensbrück. The biggest died 22 September 2016 1944 – April 1945 tragedy was that my grandmother in Ravensbrück was 48 years old, and only people up to the age of 45 were supposed to be taken. But she already knew that her two daughters, Rózsa and Marianna, were to be taken to Ravensbrück to die, so she went with them and died as a martyr. Marianna died in Mauthausen the day before the liberation.

12 13 DENISE ROUSSEAU-VILLARDE “Rechlin, that was horrific. Rechlin, the tomb of my fellow prisoners,” wrote Denise Rousseau-Villarde about the Ravensbrück sub-camp in the book “Kommandos de femmes” published by Christian Bernadac (Paris, 1973). And I found information about this commando in Rechlin in the book “La Grande Misère” (Great “RECHLIN, THAT WAS Misery) written by her close friend HORRIFIC. RECHLIN, Maisie Renault. My mother was THE TOMB OF MY FELLOW never able to describe the conditions PRISONERS.” in Rechlin herself. She only said, “It was horrific.”I read this book when I was 13 and I understood. Then I was unable to read any other book about born 30 January 1920 Ravensbrück for the next 25 years. in Nogent-sur-Marne (near Paris) 3 May 1944 – 1 May 1945 in Ravensbrück Dominique Villard-Gamage France Denise Rousseau-Villarde’s daughter

14 15 My grandmother, Anna Burger, had five children, and they lived in very poor conditions. She was often forced to make a living by stealing and begging, but even that small amount was hardly enough. On one dark night she stole some blankets for her ANNA BURGER children. She was seen and betrayed, as a result of which she was arrested née Lasser in 1940 with the comment “return not desirable” and was sentenced to one year in prison. After serving For me, Ravensbrück concentration her sentence she was deported camp means different things: Here you to Ravensbrück concentration camp. can feel sorrow, pain, but also joy, all at the same time. It’s the place that took My grandmother was imprisoned my grandmother from me. I missed in Ravensbrück from 6 May 1941 her when I was a child and a young to 2 December 1943, and she died woman, even though I had never there at the age of just thirty as a result known her. However, in Ravensbrück, “MY GRANDMOTHER of a lethal injection. All I have to remind I have also made loving friendships. WAS A VERY BRAVE me of her are some photographs When I enter Ravensbrück AND COURAGEOUS WOMAN.” and stories from my mother and what concentration camp, I imagine I have found out through years I am visiting my grandmother. of research. Siegrid Fahrecker For my grandmother, Ravensbrück Austria born 4 June 1913 in Klosterneuburg concentration camp only represented Anna Burger’s granddaughter (Lower Austria), died 2 December 1943 many kinds of suffering, and knowing 6 May 1941 – 2 December 1943 that her five children had been left in Ravensbrück behind and had to rely on themselves, and it was there that she lost her life. For my mother, Ravensbrück concentration camp was the place that deprived her of her mother and her childhood. In 2016 my mother said, “when I am in that place where my mother was, I feel myself walking in her footsteps...”

16 17 My mother was involved in the as part of the Communist Youth Union. In 1940, after her group was betrayed, she delayed by my demented grandmother, was arrested and sentenced to two who was only in her underwear. She years in prison. She was subsequently had just been to the toilet first thing taken into protective custody. in the morning, and she thought it BARBARA HIRSCH Protective custody at that time meant extremely insolent of members of deportation to a concentration camp. the male sex to interrupt her in such née Wentz She was deported to Auschwitz with a rude way and she made their lives the comment “Return is not desirable!” suitably difficult. In the meantime, my Then she was transferred to Birkenau middle sister was able to tear up all the for some time. leaflets and get rid of them down the She was imprisoned there until back toilet. January 1945. She was then sent on her first death march, the destination ”For my mother it was always her great being Ravensbrück. There she had to wish to tell the following generations spend some time in the Uckermark what had enabled these horrific acts “I WAS FIGHTING FOR MYSELF. camp. to happen: hatred, fear and disloyalty. NOT FOR MY FAMILY OR No space for fascism means, among FOR ANYONE ELSE. I DIDN’T During her second death march in April other things, advocating for peace and WANT TO LIVE UNDER THIS 1945, she and four other friends were fighting for it. REGIME!” able to escape into a forest. From there they headed for Vienna, most of the We never talked about it in this sense. time walking on foot. For short parts If I can interpret her here, however, of the journey they were able to go by I would say that Ravensbrück was born 6 October 1919 train or horse-drawn carriage. a place of remembrance for her, in Gramatneusiedl/Marienthal (Lower Austria), died 15 January 1996 but above all a reminder for future January 1945 – 28 April 1945 She never regretted the path she generations, although the time she in Ravensbrück had taken. She was always aware spent here was only a fraction of the of the possible consequences if her total time she was interned. involvement in the resistance was revealed. When she spoke about Vera Modjawer her arrest, she always described it Austria with humour: “The Gestapo came at Barbara Hirsch’s daughter seven in the morning. Besides me, my mother, my two sisters and my grandmother were present. The men searched our house, but they were

18 19 Erna was born in 1898 in Berlin as Erna Voley. She trained as a seamstress and married when she was seventeen. A year later, her daughter Ingrid was born. She was not politically active and, out of solidarity and compassion, helped and also in one television interview. ERNA LUGEBIEL Jewish friends. In 1983, a collection of memoirs was published, including those of Erna née Voley Following her divorce in 1935, Erna Lugebiel under the title “Camaraderie Lugebiel lived as a single parent, was the greatest thing for me”. and was later conscripted to the Wehrmacht as a telephone operator. In 1981, she took part in a historical In the early 1940s she came and political initiative started by in contact with the “Kampfbund”, Gertrud Müller and the Ravensbrück the Communist resistance group, Camp Association in West Germany. “CAMARADERIE WAS THE and supported persecuted people Contact with other Ravensbrück GREATEST THING FOR ME. with money and provided them survivors was very important IT WAS ONLY THROUGH with accommodation. Her arrest to Erna Lugebiel throughout her CAMARADERIE THAT WE in July 1943 was followed by one life. Her signature can also be found WERE ABLE TO SURVIVE, year in pre-trial detention in Berlin. on a postcard from one meeting AND WE WANT TO KEEP Her trial ended with an acquittal. to commemorate their liberation. THIS CAMARADERIE AS LONG Nevertheless, she was transported The meeting took place on 30 April AS WE ARE ALIVE!“ to Ravensbrück in November 1959 in East Berlin. Next to her 1944. There she came into contact name are also the names of Emmi with captured members of the Handke, Rosa Thälmann, Maria born 24 August 1898 in Berlin, German Communist Party, as well Wiedmaier, Trude Neuhof from West died 17 November 1984 November 1944 – April 1945 as Katharina Jakob and Martha Berlin and her daughter Ingrid Rabe, in Ravensbrück Paucka. The help that she was as well as her granddaughter. given by them and other prisoners was one of her most important Jeanine Bochat memories from Ravensbrück. In Germany the 1980s, there was a growing Erna Lugebiel’s granddaughter interest in the history of Nazism in West Germany and in the people who opposed it. Erna Lugebiel was asked about her life and her thoughts about Nazism and the resistance in interviews, books, an exhibition

20 21 Käthe Jonas was born into a working-class family in Dörnigheim am Main, in the district of Hanau. She was an active member of the German Communist Party. In the municipal elections in March 1933 she stood as a Communist Party candidate for the Hanau local KÄTHE JONAS council and the municipal parliament in Dörnigheim.

After the Reichstag fire in February 1933, Käthe was arrested and imprisoned in a women’s prison in Frankfurt am Main-Preungesheim of the camp and sent on the death during the first mass arrests. march. After 1945, Käthe Jonas, After one month she was released. together with other survivors in West Germany, founded the Ravensbrück In February 1935 she was again Camp Association, of which she was “WE FOUGHT AGAINST arrested. She had been handing out the first president. THE WAR AND AGAINST leaflets for the illegal Communist FASCISM…” Party in the Hanau area. The Higher Rosel Vadehra-Jonas Regional Court in Kassel sentenced Germany Käthe to three years in prison for high Käthe Jonas’s daughter treason. She was imprisoned until February 1938. born 12 July 1902 in Dörnigheim (near Frankfurt am Main), died 25 January 1977 The attempted assassination 22 August 1944 – 28 April 1945 of Hitler on 20 July 1944 was the in Ravensbrück impetus for the mass arrests that were intended to eliminate the adversaries of the Nazi regime once and for all. As a functionary and elected representative of the German Communist Party, Käthe was again arrested on 22 August 1944 and taken to the women’s concentration camp in Ravensbrück. On 28 April 1945 she was forced out

22 23 After the outbreak of war, Lise soon joined the resistance. In October 1942, the Børsum family home became a centre for rescuing Norwegian Her courage and her sober account Jews. Concerts were held there with of her experiences made a great Jewish artists performing. Then Lise impression. The book was published Børsum became part of a network in four editions over two years. LISE BØRSUM that organised refugee transports Later, other books followed, the last to neutral . On the night in 2007 at the suggestion of her née Milly Elise Alnæs of 28 April 1943, Mr and Mrs Børsum daughter Bente (who also dramatized were arrested. Lise was imprisoned a monologue based on the book at Grini prison camp in Oslo from and as an actress she performed 27 April to 13 June 1943. Then it for a number of years). The book was she was sent to Ravensbrück named one of the ten most important concentration camp. She was assigned books about the war in Norway. “THE TIME SPENT prison number 20807. There were IN CAPTIVITY GAVE LISA only 102 Norwegian prisoners in the In 1947, she began working for the BØRSUM AN EMPATHY camp. Occasionally they were allowed National Fund for Aid to War Victims, TOWARDS PEOPLE WHO to receive food packages from the Red which she led from 1966 until she HAD WOUNDS ON THEIR Cross. However, Lise was registered retired. She was also a member BODY AND SOUL. SHE WAS as a prisoner in the Nacht und of the International Commission UNCONVENTIONAL, Nebel programme, so she was to be against Concentration Camp Practices COURAGEOUS, AND WOULD in total isolation and was not allowed (Commission internationale contre NEVER REFUSE ANYONE to receive letters or parcels. Fellow le régime concentrationnaire) from HELP.” Norwegian prisoners sometimes gave when it was founded in 1950. She her food from the Swedish Red Cross visited Ravensbrück once after the war born 18 September 1908 in Oslo, packages. but was in contact with several died 29 August 1985 June 1943 – 7 April 1945 fellow prisoners for many years. in Ravensbrück On the verge of death, rescue came She bought a piano from the financial in the form of the “” sent compensation she received for her by the Swedish Red Cross to bring time spent in prison. Scandinavian prisoners home before chaos broke out in April 1945. Bente Børsum Norway In 1946, she published the book Lise Børsum’s daughter “Fange i Ravensbrück” (“Prisoner in Ravensbrück”), in which, among other things, she described how she was tortured during interrogation.

24 25 At the end of 1942, when France was occupied by the Germans, at the age of nineteen my mother decided to join the “Centurie” resistance network and the Youth Wing of the Civil and Military Organisation (l’Organisation Civile et Militaire des Jeunes) MARIE CORDIER as a courier: sending supplies, helping refused to work for the Germans. rebels, political prisoners and their So, she was sent to a penal camp née Girard families, searching for the missing. in Königsberg am Oder and got On 31 July 1944, she was betrayed typhoid. Then they returned her by a member of the network, to Ravensbrück detained by the Gestapo and tortured on 20 November. and on 15 August 1944 she was taken away from Pantin, in the last On 29 April 1945 she was liberated train carrying deportees from the by the Swedish Red Cross, suffering “MY MOTHER WAS Paris area. As they were leaving from avitaminosis, pleurisy and DEMANDING, SHE for Germany she managed to throw extensive swelling. She was first FOUGHT INJUSTICE, a piece of paper out of the train, treated in Sweden and returned SHE WAS GENEROUS, which was then found by an unknown to France on 10 July 1945. When her A STAUNCH GAULLIST, SHE person and delivered to her mother pleurisy returned in November, she LOVED HER FAMILY, HER in Pierre Nicole Street in Paris. was treated in a sanatorium in Haute- GRANDCHILDREN, SHE Savoie. In 1947 she married Bernard LIKED FLOWERS AND WAS “Beloved parents, I am still in a fairly Cordier and had three children and A VERY GOOD COOK.” good condition and I have only eight grandchildren. one love, a love for my France and born 16 October 1923 in Sceaux for those who have made me a good My mother never went back (near Paris), died 2 April 1999 23 August 1944 – 29 April 1945 French woman. Thank you, thank you, to Ravensbrück and never raised her in Ravensbrück I love you. I thank the person who has children to hate the Germans. been looking after me: I have partially given him back what he did for me. Anne Cordier I love you, have faith, I’ll be with you France soon, trust me and believe me. Marie Cordier’s daughter Maryton” (her family nickname)

On 23 August 1944 arrival at Ravensbrück. Then in September she was moved to Torgau. But she

26 27 During the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans seized more and more neighbourhoods, the civilian population was driven out without their property, their houses were demolished. The inhabitants of Warsaw (including MARTA my mother, my father and me) were I remember my mother as being STACHOWICZ placed in the “Dulag 121” transit an extraordinarily brave, courageous, camp. We were there for several days, mentally strong, but also a very née Łucyk during which the Germans picked sad woman. We survived being people for transports. After a few days in Ravensbrück concentration of travelling, the men from our transport camp, the wandering and the death arrived at Neuengamme concentration march only thanks to the strong will camp. My father lost his life there of my mother, who did not despair on 8 December 1944. The women and but believed in freedom and divine “WHEN THE GERMANS children were taken to Ravensbrück and protection. OCCUPIED WARSAW, placed in a large tent. The stay there NORMAL LIFE ENDED. EVERY was terrible, and everyone was terrified All her experiences from the war were DAY, MY MOTHER WAITED of being separated. Subsequently, we tragic for my mother – she lost her IN FEAR FOR MY FATHER were sent with a large group of women husband and her property and had TO RETURN FROM WORK. and children to work on a farm and then to look after her daughter on her SHE WOULD HOLD ME, in a brick factory and a sugar refinery own. The return to Poland was bitter. A LITTLE GIRL, AND SAY: where the mothers worked hard Warsaw in ruins. We had to start HE’LL DEFINATELY RETURN, and were beaten. life again, we had nothing. Distant WE WON’T BE LEFT ON OUR relatives and my father’s friends helped OWN.” In the final period of the war in 1945, us. My mother worked and faced born 5 October 1900 in Lwów, at the time of the death march, huge problems. Yet she created the died 25 December 1971 October 1944 – April 1945 my mother showed great courage conditions for me to study and start in Ravensbrück and strength, and somewhere she a family. She did not want to return got hold of a pram and carried me to the time of the war in her memories. in it because I could not walk. At the end of April 1945, the US Army liberated us. Barbara Piotrowska After the war, we stayed in Germany Poland in centres built by the Americans to take Marta Stachowicz’s daughter care of war victims. We returned to Poland in July 1946 after receiving the official report of my father’s death.

28 29 Míla Kalibová was deported to Ravensbrück at the age of nineteen together with her mother Anna, her younger sister Jaroslava and 193 other women from Lidice. This village My grandmother was a very clever, was chosen by the Gestapo as a place modest and energetic woman. Until MILOSLAVA of revenge by the Nazi regime for the her old age she worked in her garden assassination of Reich Protector and around the house, she was KALIBOVÁ , which had been interested in world events, she did née Suchánková successfully carried out by the exercises and enjoyed spending time Czechoslovak resistance fighters in the sun and the fresh air. She was Gabčík and Kubiš. The male inhabitants very disciplined in everything she did. of the village were shot on the spot I felt that she took life as it was, with and some children were selected pleasure. She is an inspiration to me. for Germanization, but most were murdered. The village was plundered, I think Ravensbrück was a place that burned and razed to the ground. affected her for life. She survived three years in terrible conditions and with “GRANDMA HAD A STRONG All three of the Suchánková women no freedom. She found friends there WILL TO LIVE AND A POSITIVE survived three years in Ravensbrück. from other countries. After the war ATTITUDE TOWARDS On 28 April 1945, they set out with she returned home where there was THE WORLD.” others on the death march. They nothing. Although she would have walked in the wild conditions of the liked to have gone to university, she war that was coming to an end, slept started work a week after returning wherever possible, lived off whatever home. She had to support her mother they could find and walked about thirty and younger sister. Later she became born 29 December 1922 in Lidice, kilometres a day. They later formed a member of the International died 27 December 2019 14 June 1942 – 28 April 1945 a national group with male prisoners Ravensbrück Committee and was in Ravensbrück from Sachsenhausen. Eventually they actively involved in keeping the reached Neu Brandenburg. On 1 June memory of the story of Lidice alive. they returned to Czechoslovakia. As they crossed the border at Cínovec, Šárka Kadlecová they were greeted by soldiers who Czech Republic had tears running down their cheeks Miroslava Kalibová’s granddaughter as they chanted the national anthem. It was there that the Lidice women learned of the fate of their loved ones and the village that had been destroyed.

30 31 My mother’s brother was one of the partisans in the GAP (Gruppi di azione patriottica) patriotic unit. Because information was revealed about a secret meeting in her house, the Gestapo invaded her home and arrested everyone there. My mother and grandmother were taken to the MIRELLA STANZIONE Gestapo headquarters where they were interrogated without betraying For my mother, who until then had anything, and were then taken to Villa lived a happy student life, being Andreini Prison, and subsequently kept in captivity in Ravensbrück was to Ravensbrück. like being violently ripped from her previous life. It was as if she had After the Siemens plant was closed, suddenly entered a strange world my mother returned to the main in which her sole support was her “MY MOTHER OFTEN SAID camp and was forced to go on the mother, whom she was fortunately THAT SHE WOULD NOT HAVE death march in the last days of April never separated from, and Bianca SURVIVED THIS HELL AT THE 1945. After a few days, they were hit and Bice Paganini, girls from the AGE OF SEVENTEEN IF HER by bombing and she had to lie down same town with whom she spent MOTHER HAD NOT BEEN on the ground with her mother and most of her time in captivity. But THERE TOO. SHE WAS WITH other prisoners. By not getting up, above all, captivity in Ravensbrück HER THE WHOLE TIME THEY they managed to save themselves filled her with the feeling of being WERE KEPT IN CAPTIVITY.” and escape from the march. an innocent sacrifice, and she has They then met some Russian soldiers never got rid of this bitterness in her who told them that the war had heart. born 11 March 1927 in La Spezia ended and advised them to seek out October 1944 – April 1945 in Ravensbrück American troops. In a refugee camp Ambra Laurenzi set up by the Americans, they had Italy to wait a while for a train to transport Mirella Stanzione’s daughter them to Italy. They arrived in Bolzano and from there took another train to Genoa, where my mother’s aunt lived, and finally on 25 October 1945, they reached La Spezia.

My mother is still alive while my grandmother died at the age of 99.

32 33 My mother was deported to Ravensbrück for her work in the movement. Neus mainly acted as a mediator in the resistance, among other things, during the handover of reports, documents and weapons between the NEUS CATALÀ departments of Dordogne and Corrèze. Neus belonged to the “Roland” group Mother would say that Dante Alighieri, PALLEJÀ of the resistance movement in the when writing his “Inferno”, did not “Perigord” area. Her house was used know Ravensbrück. for meetings between guerrillas and He couldn’t imagine the unimaginable. deserters from the Forced Labour Ravensbrück was a place of unimagin- Service. able horror, but not just that. It was also a place of solidarity where After the liberation of Holýšov, Neus different experiences were gained. “WHEN I LOOK AT THE YEARS first of all travelled in American trucks Neus often used to say that she had THAT I HAVE AHEAD OF ME through Nuremberg and then by train learned the truth there, perhaps the AND LOOK BACK AT THE across the Rhine back to France. absolute truth: “Someone who doesn’t PAST, I FEEL THAT I STILL Those who came from the south think like you can be better than ENJOY LIFE AND THAT THE of France returned to their homes you.” For her, it was a “demonstration ONLY DEATH THAT WEIGHS by train. Neus arrived at the station of the beauty of the grand idea of the UPON ME IS THE DEATH in Périgueux, where fellow members great brotherhood, from heroism OF MEMORIES.” of the resistance movement and other to death.” They endured everything institutions were waiting for her. “for a beautiful ideal that makes sense to being human and makes you feel born 6 October 1915 in Els Guiamets All her life my mother was an honest infinitely better than the executioner.” (near Tarragona), died 13 April 2019 3 February 1944 – 5 May 1945 woman, strong, and true to her ideals in Ravensbrück and Holýšov and values. She always said she would Margarita Catalá Van Amsterdam sub-camp never have changed her life. Despite Spain her suffering, her life was full of Neus Català Pallejà’s daughter encounters and experiences that she never regretted. Neus was a champion for peace, freedom, social justice and women’s equality. Her joy and attitude towards difficulties gave us an idea of how to fight against injustice. Until the end of her life, she was a tireless witness to the horrors of the Nazis.

34 35 At the end of August 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising and the destruction of Warsaw’s Old Town, Janina Buszkowska was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp along with her mother (Janina’s prison number was 63 392, her JANINA CISZEWSKA mother Władysława’s was 63 393) via the Pruszków transit camp. née Buszkowska The reason for their deportation was the hatred of the German occupying force for the Polish nation. Janina Buszkowska was a Pole living “AFTER RETURNING in Warsaw and was part of Warsaw’s TO WARSAW SHE SAID: civilian population. I AM LIVING AGAIN, RISING hell of war and start building a new FROM THE DEAD, LEAVING In May 1945, along with a group life in the completely destroyed city MISERY BEHIND, FINDING of several Poles rescued from of Warsaw. NAMES, SURNAMES, Ravensbrück they set off on foot ADDRESSES, SLEEPING to Poland; the journey took about Hanna Nowakowska NORMALLY, EATING BREAD, one month. My mother and grand- Poland DRINKING WATER IN GREAT mother returned to the ruins Janina Ciszewska’s daughter GULPS AND AT NIGHT of Warsaw flattened to the ground, I HAVE DIFFICULT DREAMS to a house that was no longer there. OF RAVENSBRÜCK CAMP They returned on foot for their WHICH TOOK AWAY human happiness, paid for with the MY YOUTH.” born 25 May 1922 in Ludwików, tears and suffering experienced died 1 May 2014 August 1944 – May 1945 in the camp, when they were just in Ravensbrück “numbers”. On this journey they were accompanied by the torment of uncertainty and fear, tears and prayer.

My mother was a brave woman, stubborn but helpful, with a resilient will to survive. The hope of a better fate and the support she had from her mother and my grandmother Władysława helped her survive the

36 37 In 1938, Odette was employed by a married couple, friends of her mother, Jeanne and André Goupill, who had four young children. In 1940 they adopted a war orphan and Odette took care of the house and this little boy. Henceforth she became part of the ODETTE MÉTAIS family.The Demarcation Line passed deported, what they tell us is terrible, through La Haye Descartes. The whole I can’t wait to get home to see what’s MARCHELIDON family was involved in the resistance – going on. that meant receiving refugees, people 20 May – Train Offenbach, Frankfurt… who refused to do forced labour, 21 May – We only have 30 km to go Jewish families, airmen and handing and we will be in France, our hearts are over information. Lucien Marchelidon pounding. joined the group. Together with Louis Thursday, 24 May – 12 o’clock Paris! “EVERY DAY IS HOPE, EVERY he was given the job of seeking out DAY IS A RISK. IF ONLY terrain suitable for dropping weapons The whole family was reunited between THE MEMORY OF THESE by parachute. In 1944 the situation May and July 1945, Odette and Lucien HORRORS BE WRITTEN was difficult because the network was were married on 6 November 1945! INTO EVERYONE’S infiltrated. On the night of 15 February CONSCIOUSNESS everyone was detained by the To my mother, Ravensbrück AND SUPPORT THEIR WILL Gestapo and deported.The women represented hell, but she also met TO CREATE A FRATERNAL were taken first to Romainville and extraordinary women there. My parents, EUROPE IN A WORLD on 18 April to Ravensbrück, where who had both gone through the OF PEACE.” they arrived on 22 April. Odette was same ordeal, knew how to keep silent given the number 35253, on 4 May with respect to each other, but they born 25 February 1922 she was transferred to Holýšov in were also able speak to convey what in La Haye-Descartes (near Tours) 22 April 1944 – 5 May 1945 Czechoslovakia to the arms factory. they had experienced and the value in Ravensbrück, Holýšov sub-camp of freedom. The liberation, as recounted by Odette: Françoise Marchelidon Saturday, 5 May 1945 - 11 o’clock – France Liberation. The Poles surrounded the Odette Métais Marchelidon’s daughter camp and imprisoned all our wardens and wardresses. 17 May - We finally leave by truck, it’s 7 o’clock, it’s a great parade, we have 18 American trucks, we travel 300 km to Würzburg, where we meet people who had been

38 39 I was born in Germany in Ravensbrück concentration camp. My mother, Porvina Pelageja Nikititschna, who lived before and after the war in the village of Gusarka in the Kuybyshev district in the Zaporizhia region, PORVINA PELAGEJA worked as a livestock specialist on a collective farm before the war. NIKITITSCHNA She was a member of the Communist Party. During the German offensive, she led cattle further to the east. However, she was not able to escape. She was betrayed by a policeman. At the beginning of the summer “I WOULDN’T WISH of 1943 she was arrested and sent In 2000, as a member of the FOR ANYONE TO EVER to a prison in Berdyansk. There she Ukrainian delegation, I visited the EXPERIENCE WHAT was interrogated and tortured and Ravensbrück Memorial on the 55th MY MOTHER, PORVINA in the autumn of 1943 she was anniversary of the camp’s liberation. PELAGEJA NIKITITSCHNA, sent to Germany. Her first stop was AND HUNDREDS Buchenwald concentration camp, from Jevgenije Ivanovna Bojko OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER where she was sent to Ravensbrück. Ukraine PRISONERS OF FASCIST Porvina Pelageja Nikititschna’s CONCENTRATION CAMPS My mother is no longer alive, she daughter EXPERIENCED.” died in 1991, so I can no longer write the exact facts about life in the born 4 October 1906 in Gusarka concentration camp. But according (near Mariupol), died 12 April 1991 Autumn 1943 – May 1945 to what she said, it was communists in Ravensbrück from and Holland that helped her and me survive in this hell. I can’t remember being in the concentration camp because I was too small. I only remember when we came back to our homeland that they asked me, “What did you eat there in Germany?” and I replied, “Beet and spinach.”

40 41 Apparently we were imprisoned as non-Aryan people (I don’t know exactly why). We were first of all kept in the Gestapo prison, then in Mechelen concentration camp in Belgium. Then they divided us: all the men and adolescent boys ROZA KUGELMAN were sent to Buchenwald, women with children to Ravensbrück. I only née Klionsky saw my mother in the camp once, thanks to a Belgian woman, Claire “I REMEMBER WHEN MY van den Boom. My mother did MOTHER AND I WENT TO not return from Ravensbrück, she FIND MY FATHER AT WORK was burned in the furnaces of the TO GET THE KEYS TO OUR concentration camp crematorium. HOME AS THE DOOR HAD They took everything from her, she of us who survived into friends. SLAMMED SHUT ON US. doesn’t even have a grave. My father, This love is the greatest value WE WALKED THROUGH however, survived, and I found him in the world that exists to the end, BEAUTIFUL COUNTRYSIDE in Brazil, in Sao Paulo. From him to the last hour of life. (GREEN GRASS, FLOWERING I learned only the little that I did not BUSHES, A LIGHT BLUE remember from my early childhood, Stella Nikiforova (Kugelman) SKY). SUDDENLY I ASKED MY for 20 years had passed. Russia MOTHER: MUMMY, WHERE Roza Kugelman’s daughter DID I COME FROM? SHE I cannot say what Ravensbrück ANSWERED: I FOUND YOU would have meant to my mother. UNDER A ROSE BUSH. THERE But Ravensbrück affected my life WAS SUCH BEAUTY AROUND born 25 March 1904 in Smarhon as the most terrible weapon that US THAT I BELIEVED HER (Belarus) – died in July 1944 13 December 1943 – July 1944 deprived me of what was dearest (THIS WAS IN BELGIUM, IN in Ravensbrück to me and what I loved most. I was ANTWERP).” orphaned before I reached the age of five. If I remember correctly, I always lived in the hope of finding my father. And if it hadn’t been for the women at Ravensbrück, I would never have found him. And I would never have understood what the sacrificial love of people who had survived hell is. And for us Ravensbrück was what connected us and what turned those

42 43 Rosa and her daughter Irma were both arrested because the Nazi regime was afraid of the labour leader Ernst Thälmann. The whole family was to be destroyed in this way. By Himmler’s decision, “Return not desirable” was written on the ROSA THÄLMANN transport documents. Irma experienced the liberation née Koch Both were deported to Ravensbrück of Neubrandenburg by the Soviet concentration camp. Even before Army on 29 April 1945. Rosa the arrest, Rosa felt there was a “big managed to escape during the death family” in Ravensbrück and a kind march. Rosa and Irma were first solidarity that in the end saved her treated in a hospital and later life. She once said, “I will never forget they both recovered in the same this it”. sanatorium in the Soviet Union.

Comrades also helped to make sure I have to stress it over and over again “THE MOST BEAUTIFUL Irma was saved. For Rosa and Irma and I am very grateful that today MOMENT OF OUR LIVES HAD to stay together in Ravensbrück’s I can live thanks to the international ARRIVED, LIBERATION BY THE main camp was too dangerous. solidarity of the women who were SOVIET ARMY.” That is why Irma was placed on the in Ravensbrück and that I can give transport list to the Neubrandenburg something back to them through sub-camp and transported there my work at the Lagergemeinschaft the following day. The Gestapo Ravensbrück/Freundeskreis e.V. prohibited Irma to use her real name: born 27 March 1890 in Bargfeld “Vester”. Because of the solidarity (near ), died 21 September 1962 of the women at the Ravensbrück Vera Dehle-Thälmann 27 September 1944 – April 1945 concentration camp, Irma regained Germany in Ravensbrück her name after a long time. One Rosa Thälmann’s granddaughter, woman with a red band on her arm Irma Gabel-Thälmann’s daughter called out loudly and harshly, “Where is Irma Vester?” – “That was my name again now!”

Rosa and Irma had met the night before Irma was relocated and before the harrowing months in the Neubrandenburg sub-camp began.

44 45 Before the war my mother was a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. She worked in film and was very active in sports as a member of the athletics team at Prague Sports University. I owe my good health. I was among the She skied, race walked and played field first children born to prisoners after the MIROSLAVA hockey. When the war started, she and war. I was very ill, and my grandmother BERDYCHOVÁ my father joined the resistance. From the treated me and my parents with a healthy second half of 1941 she was imprisoned diet that was not available in towns. née Teplá in Pankrác, Prague, while my father was In 1995 I attended an international later imprisoned in the Terezín Small workcamp in Ravensbrück as the first Fortress and Mauthausen concentration descendant of one of the inmates, where camp. My mother was later transported I first got hold of the book “Ravensbrück” to Ravensbrück, where she survived to the which my mother had helped to write. end of the war. She was assigned number Mother was a straight, honest person. 9030. From her mother she had a strong social sense and a great sense of humour. At the end of April 1945, the women were “IF I HADN’T BEEN AN ACTIVE forced out of the camp and sent on the When I asked my mother about the SPORTSPERSON BEFORE death march. My mother, together with concentration camp, she said, “The most THE WAR, I WOULDN’T HAVE four friends, escaped to near the small beautiful spring in my life was when SURVIVED.” town of Goldberg. The first thing the young I escaped from the death march.” women did was make civilian clothes My parents never talked to me about the in an abandoned house. After a one-day horrors of the camp. My mother started battle for Goldberg, they managed to get to talk about her experiences in the on to the side of the Soviet Army. They then concentration camp only in old age with my born 27 October 1914 in Prague, stayed to help in the dairy near Goldberg sons. She said that she survived due to the died 26 July 1995 14 January 1942 – April 1945 until mid-August 1945. Then they met camaraderie with others, their mutual in Ravensbrück a Czech who was with the British Air Force help and because they kept up standards, and who had run out of petrol in Goldberg. but mainly because she had been actively The women got petrol for him from involved in sports before the war. the Russian garrison and he took them to Prague by car. Each of the women was Kateřina Kočková given six kilograms of butter from the dairy Czech Republic for the journey. Miroslava Berdychová’s daughter

After the war, my mother worked for a film weekly newsreel and I grew up in the countryside with her mother, to whom

46 47 When the German army invaded Yugoslavia in the spring of 1941, my mother joined its national liberation movement. During the summer she time for fun or joy. I would watch became a member of the Rašica squad, her avidly as she sat on her bed and the first organised armed military unit dressed. I did not understand her anger that in September 1941 wounded and sadness about the reports from a local policeman, a collaborator with wars all over the world. As I grew older, PAVLA CEDILNIK the occupying forces. The German her pain began to ease. She slowly army then attacked the Rašica squad. began to enjoy life, but never wanted My mother was imprisoned, together to remember the years spent with the rest of the detained squad. in Ravensbrück. She managed to escape from her cell, but within days she was again She never talked to us about the long captured and imprisoned in Begunje years she had spent in the camp. Only prison, where she was indicted from time to time she would share and sentenced to death for rebellion. small fragments with us – the smell “THE IMMENSE SUFFERING The death sentence was cancelled that came from the crematorium MY MOTHER EXPERIENCED due to her young age. At the beginning when there was no wind in winter; WHILE SHE WAS STILL of 1942 she was transported to the the problems of eating with a wooden YOUNG AFFECTED HER concentration camp in Ravensbrück. spoon despite being incredibly WHOLE LIFE. AND MY WHOLE hungry; the blisters that came from LIFE TOO.” Like most prisoners, my mother wearing clogs; the wardress who hit returned home after her liberation her ear until she became deaf; about by foot and by train. The journey home freezing cold winds raging over the took months. When she returned, she plains. Occasionally she met some born 4 July 1925 in Gameljne (near was physically and mentally exhausted. of her former fellow prisoners. Once Ljubljana), died 21 December 2005 1942 – 1945 in Ravensbrück she attended a meeting of people When I was a child, my mother interned in concentration camps. It led appeared to me to be an extremely to the return of many sleepless nights sad woman, who rarely smiled. and too much sadness, so she did not I cannot remember that we played, go to any further meetings. spent mornings together or chatted to each other. She performed her Vanda Straka Vrhovnik daily duties carefully, cooked delicious Slovenia meals, and tried to prepare everything Pavla Cedilnik’s daughter perfectly for me. She was emotionally exhausted after all the misery she had had to overcome. There was no

48 49 In 1942 Sofja Iwanowna was deported from the Crimea to Germany to perform forced labour. She was taken to a labour camp not far from Frankfurt am Main. After the factory was bombed by the British and the Americans, she was moved to another labour camp. From there, SOFJA IWANOWNA Sofja Iwanowna was taken to a farm. But three months later they returned SCHKATULA her to the camp near Frankfurt. Living conditions deteriorated significantly. That and which they stifled inside themselves. is why she and other prisoners refused Their strength waned every day and to eat supper once in protest. The workers as time went on they had less and less. were punished, so Sofja Iwanowna was imprisoned in Frankfurt. There was a court They would say that my mother had “IMMEDIATELY AFTER trial and, according to its verdict, she found at least two guardian angels. I think her LIBERATION, I DECIDED herself in Ravensbrück. third guardian angel was her mother, TO FORGET ABOUT who, through her wisdom, kindness, THE CONCENTRATION CAMP Liberation came in 1945. For eight and patience, protected all her children AND TO PUT EVERYTHING months, Sofja Iwanowna worked in the from suffering during the war and from OUT OF MY MIND ONCE Soviet Army material supply department. hunger and cold in the no less difficult AND FOR ALL. IT DID NOT In December of the same year she post-war period. It was under her ‘wings’ OCCUR TO ME THAT AFTER returned home to the Crimea, where she that my mother wanted to be when she SIXTY YEARS SOMEBODY still lives today. was in the camp.” WOULD ASK ME ABOUT IT.”

Her daughter Ljudmila about Sofja Natalia Timofeewa born in 1926 in the Crimea Schkatula: Russia 1943–1945 in Ravensbrück A friend of Sofja Iwanowna Schkatula “My mother hated to talk about what Ravensbrück meant in her life. I first found out about it by accident at the age of 10 or 12. Every night she would dream about the ‘dogs’ in the camp. From then on, I took care of her as much as I could.

Ravensbrück and its horrors never completely defeated the prisoners. Through willpower they held back their anger and hatred, which they did not show

50 51 As a 16-year-old girl, Jaroslava Skleničková was imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp together with the women from Lidice. She was the oldest of the Lidice children. She also survived thanks JAROSLAVA to being imprisoned with her mother and her sister Miloslava and the SKLENIČKOVÁ support they gave her. They were née Suchánková also lucky and lived to see the end The stories that the Suchánková of the war. Women from Lidice were sisters told me motivated me not only transported to Ravensbrück after the to study history with a focus on war Nazi occupation of their village. Lidice history, but also to reconstruct the was burnt down on 10 June 1942, death march of the Lidice women, the men and the boys over the age which I myself underwent in 2017. of fifteen were shot and 102 children It is remarkable what inner strength were gassed in Chelmno extermination the women found at the end of the camp. Only seventeen children war to survive. Jaroslava Skleničková survived the war. does not only remember Ravensbrück “IF I HAD BEEN A BOY THEY as a place of suffering and tragedy, but WOULD HAVE SHOT ME...” At the end of April 1945, Jaroslava instead she emphasises the strong underwent a four-day death march friendship and enormous solidarity of 127 kilometres and was liberated of some of her fellow prisoners in Crivitz. The return home was very who saved her and others’ lives. sad because the house she had been Today she is the last living Lidice born in had been destroyed and her woman. born 27 March 1926 in Lidice beloved father had been shot. 14 June 1942 – 28 April 1945 in Ravensbrück Gabriela Havlůjová In 2006, she published a book about Czech Republic her life that became a bestseller A friend of Jaroslava Skleničková and was translated into many global languages. Despite the serious health problems that originated from the time she was imprisoned at a young age, she still enjoys her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and is concerned about the current problems of society. She speaks out publicly against xenophobia and injustice.

52 53 Aat was a drawing teacher in The Hague. In September 1940 she married a former member of the After the camp was liberated, Aat was International Brigades and communist repatriated to the Netherlands in July Krijn Breur. They had two children: 1945, where it was found that she a son Wim and a daughter Dunya. was suffering from tuberculosis. She From the very beginning of the war, therefore had to be treated for a long Krijn and Aat were involved time in Davos. She also suffered from AAT BREUR-HIBMA in the resistance movement. Krijn camp trauma, which greatly affected carried out assassinations, Aat forged her son and daughter’s childhood. personal documents. They also hid Jews in their house but were betrayed In the autumn of 1945, she got her and arrested on 19 November drawings back from the camp thanks 1942. Aat and her daughter were to a fellow prisoner who had saved taken to a prison in Scheveningen them. Aat hid them in a suitcase and did and then to the Wehrmacht Gefängnis not want to know anything more about in Utrecht. In June 1943 she was put them. Only in 1980 did Aat’s daughter on a transport. Thanks to the prison manage to break her mother’s silence “WITH HER DRAWINGS, director, who was well-disposed and the suitcase could be opened. AAT PORTRAYED THE FULL towards her, she was able to hand When the drawings were restored HORROR OF LIFE IN THE Dunya to her parents when she left. and exhibited in the Rijksmuseum CAMP.” in Amsterdam, they attracted a lot On 10 September 1943, Aat arrived of attention. Dunya used the drawings as a prisoner in Ravens- in her book Een Verborgen Herinnering brück. Thanks to the guards, she got (A Hidden Memory), which was a job in a bookbinding shop, where she published in 1983. For Aat, it was a kind born 28 December 1913 would draw cards for the birth of children of release. Finally, she could talk about in The Hague, died 31 December 2002 for the Germans. She was able to get the concentration camp. 10 September 1943 – 30 April 1945 scraps of paper and on them she drew in Ravensbrück her fellow prisoners. These drawings Aat was a strong and brave woman were hidden. who painted, drew and also taught painting until old age. On 1 March 1945, Aat was transferred to the Strafblock, which was practically Agnes Dessing equivalent to a death sentence. The Netherlands One doctor, however, pulled Aat out of line A friend of Aat Breur-Hibma and pinned the camp number of a dead prisoner on her, thus saving her life.

54 55 VILMA BRAINI née Wilma Brainic Because of the Italianization of the Slovenian population by the will of the fascist regime, Vilma had to change her name. Her family traded in fruit and vegetables and she had been involved in this business since she was a little girl. She was arrested for her active involvement in the resistance movement “THEY MADE US GET OUT in Gorizia, placed in the local prison and AND WALK TOWARDS on 24 February 1945 transported first THE CAMP. ON ONE SIDE to Ravensbrück and later to -Belsen OF THE ROAD WAS A LAKE. on the last known train to depart from the WE WALKED, LOOKED Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral. AND DIDN’T UNDERSTAND After liberation by the Allied troops, she WHAT IT WAS.“ was infected with typhus. But she was able to save herself and returned to Gorizia, where she lived for the rest of her life. born 14 June 1928 in Gorizia (near Trieste), died 22 April 2017 24 February 1945 – March 1945 Patrizia Del Col in Ravensbrück Italy A friend of Vilma Braini

56 57 Constanza was an active member of the United Socialist Youth (Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas). She worked in the editorial office With the approaching Soviet troops, of the newspaper intended the SS decided to evacuate Ravens- for the fighters, in the Military Political brück and its sub-camps. When Commission of the Central Committee the guards disappeared, the women CONSTANZA and in the Ministry of Defence until split into small groups , each of which 1939, when she left for France. When continued on separately. The group MARTÍNEZ PRIETO France entered the war, the authorities that Constanza, three other Spanish urged Constanza to return to Spain. women and one Frenchwoman She refused. In June 1941 she were in was accepted by another was recruited by the German army, group of prisoners of war (a Czech, which did not prevent her from being a Yugoslav and an Italian) who worked in contact with the banned Spanish on a farm. They hid them there until “THE INCREDIBLE JOY Communist Party (Partido Comunista the Soviet troops arrived in Schönefeld OF BEING REUNITED WITH MY de España) through its secret on 22 April 1945. They were gathered HUSBAND WAS DIMINISHED structure. On 27 June 1942 she was in a large camp and later taken WHEN WE LEARNED OF THE arrested during a raid. She was taken to Torgau, and from there US troops DEATHS OF MANY FRIENDS to prison in Paris. Constanza and Juan returned them to France to the Lutecia WHOSE LIVES HAD ENDED Escuer, her future husband, met for the Hotel. There she met her husband, who IN THE DEATH CAMPS first time when they were questioned had returned fifteen days earlier. AND WHO COULD NOT in the police station. Juan secretly ENJOY THE VICTORY THAT gave Constanza a piece of paper which There is the story that she owed CAME AT SUCH A HIGH PRICE.” she thought was just a letter to the her life to her glasses. She had had women in prison. Upon returning to wear them since childhood, born 16 January 1917 in Madrid, to her cell, she discovered that it was and the day after she arrived in , died 3 January 1997 25 June 1944 – 22 April 1945 a declaration of love. The following day, they broke. The guards said they would in Ravensbrück and in the Leipzig- in the middle of the trial, Constanza fix the glasses, but they never returned Schönefeld sub-camp told him yes. them. The first days without glasses were terrible. One day, however, In June 1944, Constanza was brought Constanza was grateful for losing to Ravensbrück concentration camp them when the camp commander via Saarbrücken, where she stayed issued an order that all the women for almost a month. From the end who wore glasses had to go of July 1944 until the liberation she to the . had to perform forced labour for war production in the Ravensbrück sub- camp at Leipzig-Schönefeld.

58 59 Constanza suffered from serious health problems as a result of the suffering she experienced during deportation. However, she continued to testify to what happened in the concentration camps and was vice-president of the Amical de Mauthausen association.

Teresa del Hoyo Spain A friend of Constanza Martinez Prieto

60 61 My mother, Eva, was born in 1926 in Oradea (whose name in Hungarian is Nagyvarad) - a city located in the North-West of Romania, in Transylvania. In 1940, a part arrived for a period in Ravensbrück). of Romania’s territory (North-West As for the Jews belonging Transylvania), including Oradea, was to Romania’s territory during the war, EVA TURCU ceded to Hungary - and it was not they were deported to the camps recovered until after the war. located in Eastern Europe, née Markovits So my mother and her family were closer to Russia (in Transnistria). on Hungarian soil when anti-Semitic So, in Romania laws began. In 1941, my grandfather refers to what happened with was forbidden to profess; in schools these people and not a situation the numerus clausus was introduced like that of my family. It is true that and, in the universities, numerus Eva became a member of the IRC nullus. In April 1944, the ghettoisation following the repeated requests began and then, at the end of May, of Charlotte Gruia, another former the deportation to Auschwitz, by the prisoner in Ravensbrück, a Jew born “death trains”. in Oradea - but Charlotte was arrested in France because of her involvement My mother and her family arrived in the French Resistance; her origin in Auschwitz on June 1, 1944 was not relevant. - it was there that her mother, sister and father died. In August 1944, So the case of my mother, who Eva was transferred to Ravensbrück arrived in Ravensbrück, aged 17, by chance, and in September she as a Jewish prisoner (and not because born 26 november 1926 in Oradea, was sent to Altenburg (Thuringia) of political activities) of the Hungarian died 24 november 2002 August 1944 - April 1945 for forced labour in a factory. territory, is rather singular; it is not in Ravensbrück, Altenburg, In April 1945, the front approached representative and has no connection Waldenburg and the prisoners were evacuated with the Holocaust of Romania. to the city of Waldenburg, where they were released by US troops. Lucia Spulber Rumania Thus, my mother and her family Daugther of Eva Turcu were deported from Hungary, by the Hungarian authorities, to the Auschwitz camps, like all the Jews of North-West Transylvania (and from there, by a sequence of events, she

62 63