Sarah Helm
Born
in The United Kingdom
November 02, 1952
Genre
Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
43 editions
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published
2015
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A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII.
22 editions
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published
2005
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The Aftermath: A correspondent's return to Gaza
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published
2015
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The Odysseys
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Loyalty
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“I wish I could be built so that stupidity and dullness wouldn't bother me as much, but I just can't help it. It may sound paradoxical, but with time one wishes to be a hermit instead of always being around people. - Doctor Doris Maza”
― Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
― Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
“Most are pious, but with a peculiar sort of piety. They seem to me to be hiding behind God in disgust at their own meanness.”
― Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
― Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
“From the start the proportion of asocials in the camp was about one-third of the total population, and throughout the first years prostitutes, homeless and ‘work-shy’ women continued to pour in through the gates. Overcrowding in the asocial blocks increased fast, order collapsed, and then followed squalor and disease.
Although we learn a lot about what the political prisoners thought of the asocials, we learn nothing of what the asocials thought of them. Unlike the political women, they left no memoirs. Speaking out after the war would mean revealing the reason for imprisonment in the first place, and incurring more shame. Had compensation been available they might have seen a reason to come forward, but none was offered.
The German associations set up after the war to help camp survivors were dominated by political prisoners. And whether they were based in the communist East or in the West, these bodies saw no reason to help ‘asocial’ survivors. Such prisoners had not been arrested as ‘fighters’ against the fascists, so whatever their suffering none of them qualified for financial or any other kind of help. Nor were the Western Allies interested in their fate. Although thousands of asocials died at Ravensbrück, not a single black- or green-triangle survivor was called upon to give evidence for the Hamburg War Crimes trials, or at any later trials.
As a result these women simply disappeared: the red-light districts they came from had been flattened by Allied bombs, so nobody knew where they went. For many decades, Holocaust researchers also considered the asocials’ stories irrelevant; they barely rate mention in camp histories. Finding survivors amongst this group was doubly hard because they formed no associations, nor veterans’ groups. Today, door-knocking down the Düsseldorf Bahndamm, one of the few pre-war red-light districts not destroyed, brings only angry shouts of ‘Get off my patch'.”
― Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
Although we learn a lot about what the political prisoners thought of the asocials, we learn nothing of what the asocials thought of them. Unlike the political women, they left no memoirs. Speaking out after the war would mean revealing the reason for imprisonment in the first place, and incurring more shame. Had compensation been available they might have seen a reason to come forward, but none was offered.
The German associations set up after the war to help camp survivors were dominated by political prisoners. And whether they were based in the communist East or in the West, these bodies saw no reason to help ‘asocial’ survivors. Such prisoners had not been arrested as ‘fighters’ against the fascists, so whatever their suffering none of them qualified for financial or any other kind of help. Nor were the Western Allies interested in their fate. Although thousands of asocials died at Ravensbrück, not a single black- or green-triangle survivor was called upon to give evidence for the Hamburg War Crimes trials, or at any later trials.
As a result these women simply disappeared: the red-light districts they came from had been flattened by Allied bombs, so nobody knew where they went. For many decades, Holocaust researchers also considered the asocials’ stories irrelevant; they barely rate mention in camp histories. Finding survivors amongst this group was doubly hard because they formed no associations, nor veterans’ groups. Today, door-knocking down the Düsseldorf Bahndamm, one of the few pre-war red-light districts not destroyed, brings only angry shouts of ‘Get off my patch'.”
― Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women
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Topics Mentioning This Author
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Reading Along Wit...: Sarah Helm: “Ravensbruck: Life And Death In Hitler’s Concentration Camp For Women” | 1 | 16 | Apr 08, 2015 06:06AM | |
Non Fiction Book ...: Book of the Month Suggestions ~ 2015 | 22 | 10 | Dec 03, 2015 01:02PM | |
2024 Reading Chal...: Let's Turn Pages Challenge - 2015 | 2325 | 1541 | Jan 03, 2016 11:49AM | |
2024 Reading Chal...: #readwomen - 2015 | 994 | 1153 | Jan 05, 2016 03:37PM | |
2024 Reading Chal...: Jessica's 250 Books in 2016 | 201 | 285 | Dec 31, 2016 10:21AM | |
All About Books: Tweedledum's 2018 reading plan | 24 | 21 | Jan 01, 2018 04:35AM | |
All About Books: March 2019 Readathon | 60 | 59 | Apr 05, 2019 04:40AM |
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