The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp

Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. Q2 - A first edition (numberline starts at "1") hardcover book SIGNED by Rochelle G. Saidel on the title page in very good condition in good dust jacket that is mylar protected. Dust jacket has some wrinkling, chipping and crease on the edges and corners, soiled patch and large soiled patch on the back top, scattered light scratches, rubbing, stains, scuffing and some dents, light discoloration and shelf wear. Book lightly cocked, some bumped corners, wrinkling on the spine edges, a few scattered light stains on the page edges and endpapers, light discoloration and shelf wear. Also, SIGNED by author (first name only) and inscribed to previous owner on the half-title page. 9.5"x6.5", 279 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Ravensbrück was the only major Nazi concentration camp for women. Located about fifty miles north of Berlin, the camp was the site of murder by slave labor, torture, starvation, shooting, lethal injection, "medical" experimentation, and gassing. Although this camp was designed to hold 5,000 women, the actual figure was six times this number. Between 1939 and 1945, 132,000 women from twenty-three countries were imprisoned in Ravensbrück, including political prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, "asocials" (including Gypsies, prostitutes, and lesbians), criminals, and Jewish women (who made up about 20 percent of the population). Only 15,000 survived. Drawing upon more than sixty narratives and interviews of survivors in the United States, Israel, and Europe as well as unpublished testimonies, documents, and photographs from private archives, Rochelle Saidel provides a vivid collective and individual portrait of Ravensbrück's Jewish women prisoners. She worked for over twenty years to track down these women whose poignant testimonies deserve to be shared with a wider audience and future generations. Their memoirs provide new perspectives and information about satellite camps (there were about 70 slave labor sub-camps). Here is the story of real daily camp life with the women's thoughts about food, friendships, fear of rape and sexual abuse, hygiene issues, punishment, work, and resistance. Saidel includes accounts of the women's treatment, their daily struggles to survive, their hopes and fears, their friendships, their survival strategies, and the aftermath. On April 30, 1945, the Soviet Army liberated Ravensbrück. They found only 3,000 extremely ill women in the camp, because the Nazis had sent other remaining women on a death march. The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp reclaims the lost voices of the victims and restores the personal accounts of the survivors.. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.