Book Description
Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück still evokes horror for those with knowledge of this infamous all-women’s concentration camp, better known since it became the setting of Martha Hall Kelly’s bestselling novel, Lilac Girls. Particularly shocking were the medical experiments performed on some of the inmates. Ravensbrück was atypical in other ways as well, not just as the only all-female German concentration camp, but because 80 percent of its inmates were political prisoners, among them a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance.
Already well-practiced in sabotaging the Nazis in occupied France, these women joined forces to defy their German captors and keep one another alive. The sisterhood’s members, amid unimaginable terror and brutality, subverted Germany’s war effort by refusing to do assigned work. They risked death for any infraction, but that did not stop them from defying their SS tormentors at every turn—even staging a satirical musical revue about the horrors of the camp.
After the war, when many in France wanted to focus only on the future, the women from Ravensbrück refused to allow their achievements, needs, and sacrifices to be erased. They banded together once more, first to support one another in healing their bodies and minds and then to continue their crusade for freedom and justice—an effort that would have repercussions for their country and the world into the twenty-first century.
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
THE SISTERHOOD OF RAVENSBRUCK by Lynn Olson is an amazing testament to the lives of the featured French women who survived the infamous women’s concentration camp of Ravensbruck which was in Germany during WWII. I knew nothing about this camp which ended up in the Soviet controlled portion of Germany which is why I feel this book is so important. The infamous camps that are remembered, like Auschwitz and Buchenwald, are important, but there were many others, and they all deserved to be remembered.
This well researched non-fiction book tells the story of many women, but the focus is on a small group of French women who leaned on each other to survive at Ravensbruck after being arrested for their resistance work during WWII. The story tells of their lives before the war, how they became involved in the resistance and were arrested, and then their time in a French jail in Paris before being shipped like cattle to Ravensbruck. Arriving at different times, they were still able to form a bond to help each other survive and even help other women of many nationalities and religions. The liberation of the camp did not occur all at once and the story goes on to tell of the friends varying recuperations and reunions.
The women’s lives after the war are followed as they build families and work to help all survivors of the camp. The work they did to get healthcare and reparations from the French and German governments was inspiring. I also was in awe of the Polish lapins “rabbits” that were experimented on in the camp and the ladies’ determination to help them get reparations.
All non-fiction history books that tell the stories of the WWII concentration camps are heartbreaking and leave you questioning humanity and this one was no different, but it also gave you the ladies’ lives after and demonstrated the resilience and strength they had after the horror. The research is evident. The author immerses you in these women’s journey, avoiding a dry historical account. I will definitly be picking up other history books written by this author.
I highly recommend this incredible non-fiction story of the women of Ravensbruck!
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About the Author
Lynne Olson is a New York Times bestselling author of ten books of history. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has called her “our era’s foremost chronicler of World War II politics and diplomacy.”
Lynne’s latest book, The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler’s All-Female Concentration Camp, will be published by Random House on June 3, 2025. Her earlier books include three New York Times bestsellers: Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against the Nazis; Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941, and Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour.
Born in Hawaii, Lynne graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a journalist for ten years, first with the Associated Press as a national feature writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP’s Moscow bureau, and a political reporter in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national politics and eventually the White House.
Lynne lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Stanley Cloud, with whom she co-authored two books.
Social Media Links
Website: https://lynneolson.com/
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BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-sisterhood-of-ravensbruck-by-lynne-olson
