Sarah Helm

Traces the sobering history of World War II's largest female concentration camp, revealing the torturous experiences and deaths of thousands of women prisoners of more than 20 nationalities. By the author of A Life in Secrets. 20,000 first printing.

Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women

Ravensbruck

Describes the life and espionage career of Vera Atkins, a talented agent who rose to the top of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British secret service dedicated to aiding resistance efforts throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, focusing on her personal quest to uncover the fate of twelve female agents who vanished during the war. 20,000 first printing.

Vera Atkins And the Missing Agents of Wwii

A Life in Secrets

Il cielo sopra l'inferno. La drammatica storia vera di Ravensbrück il campo di concentramento nazista per sole donne

Ravensbrück

On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 800 women - housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes - were marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards. Their destination was Ravensbruck, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Nazi genocide. For decades the story of Ravensbruck was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War, and interviews with survivors who have never spoken before, Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating for the reader in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved.

Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women

If This Is a Woman

Una storia di orrori tenuta nascosta per 70 anni La drammatica storia vera di Ravensbrück, il campo di concentramento nazista per sole donne Maggio 1939. Centinaia di donne – casalinghe, dottoresse, cantanti d’opera, politiche, prostitute –, provenienti da un carcere comune, raggiunsero prima in treno e poi su camion un luogo nascosto nei boschi a nord di Berlino. Attraversarono, poi, gli enormi cancelli di ferro tra gli insulti, le urla, i latrati dei cani e le percosse delle guardie. Erano le prime prigioniere di Ravensbrück, il nuovo campo di concentramento femminile “modello” ideato da Heinrich Himmler. In sei anni vi furono rinchiuse 130.000 donne, provenienti da più di venti Paesi in tutta Europa. Erano di diversa estrazione, nazionalità, credo politico; solo poche tra loro erano ebree: Ravensbrück serviva ai nazisti per eliminare tutti “gli esseri inferiori”. Zingare, esponenti della Resistenza, nemiche politiche vere o presunte, disabili, “pazze” dovettero sopportare privazioni, sevizie, malattie, lavori forzati, esperimenti “medici” ed esecuzioni sommarie. Negli ultimi mesi di guerra il lager divenne un campo di sterminio, perché era necessario far sparire in fretta “le prove” della sua reale funzione ed entro l’aprile del 1945 vi vennero trucidate tra le 30.000 e le 90.000 donne, molte con i loro bambini. Per anni, fino alla fine della Guerra Fredda, la verità su Ravensbrück è rimasta nascosta. Grazie a interviste esclusive e documenti inediti, Sarah Helm ci offre una vivida ricostruzione e una testimonianza indimenticabile di uno dei capitoli più tristi della nostra Storia. Osannato dalla critica alla sua uscita in Germania e Inghilterra All’orrore sono sopravvissute in poche, alla Storia tutte «Questo libro merita attenzione, per le straordinarie interviste e per un’ulteriore analisi del nazismo e di coloro che ne furono vittime.» Publishers Weekly «Ravensbrück dev’essere ricordato.» The Economist «Un racconto davvero coinvolgente.» The Guardian «Straordinario, potente, devastante, scioccante.» The Independent «Proprio quando si pensa di sapere tutto sui campi di concentramento, la Helm ci racconta la storia semisconosciuta di questo lager femminile.» Kirkus Reviews Sarah HelmGià redattrice del «Sunday Times» e corrispondente estera dell’«Independent», attualmente collabora con diverse testate. È autrice della biografia A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII e dell’opera teatrale Loyalty sulla guerra in Iraq. Vive a Londra con il marito e le figlie.

Il cielo sopra l'inferno

On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 800 women - housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes - were marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards. Their destination was Ravensbrück, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Nazi genocide. For decades the story of Ravensbrück was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War, and interviews with survivors who have never spoken before, Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating for the reader in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved.

Inside Ravensbruck - Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women

From an award-winning journalist comes this real-life cloak-and-dagger tale of Vera Atkins, one of Britain’s premiere secret agents during World War II. As the head of the French Section of the British Special Operations Executive, Vera Atkins recruited, trained, and mentored special operatives whose job was to organize and arm the resistance in Nazi-occupied France. After the war, Atkins courageously committed herself to a dangerous search for twelve of her most cherished women spies who had gone missing in action. Drawing on previously unavailable sources, Sarah Helm chronicles Atkins’s extraordinary life and her singular journey through the chaos of post-war Europe. Brimming with intrigue, heroics, honor, and the horrors of war, A Life in Secrets is the story of a grand, elusive woman and a tour de force of investigative journalism.

Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII

Das Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück

Ohne Haar und ohne Namen

Numa manhã soalheira durante o mês de maio de 1939, um grupo de cerca de 800 mulheres foi conduzido em marcha forçada pelos bosques até um local a 90 quilómetros a norte de Berlim. Entre elas, podiam encontrar-se donas de casa, médicas, cantoras de ópera, prisioneiras políticas e prostitutas, O seu destino era Ravensbrück, um campo de concentração concebido só para mulheres por Heinrich Himmler, o líder da SS e principal arquiteto do genocídio nazi. Por lá passaram até ao final da Segunda Guerra Mundial mais de 130 mil mulheres. Eram provenientes de mais de 20 países europeu e foram sujeitas a formas brutais de tortura e extermínio. Durante décadas, a história de Ravensbrück permaneceu oculta atrás da Cortina de Ferro, e ainda hoje continua a ser pouco conhecida. Sarah Helm, num meticuloso trabalho de pesquisa e recolha de informação, até então perdida ou de difícil acesso, abre-nos finalmente as portas deste lugar sombrio. Mostra-nos testemunhos descobertos após a Guerra Fria e entrevistas com sobreviventes que nunca antes tinham partilhado a sua experiência. Em Se Isto é Uma Mulher, a autora dá-nos a conhecer, além dos horrores mais impensáveis praticados pelo regime nazi, vários exemplos notáveis da incrível tenacidade do espírito humano.

Se Isto é Uma Mulher

Winner of the Longman-History Today Book Prize: A 'profoundly moving chronicle' (Observer) that tells the story of Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp designed specifically for women, using new testimony from survivors On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 800 women - housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes - were marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards. Their destination was Ravensbrück, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Nazi genocide. For decades the story of Ravensbrück was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War, and interviews with survivors who have never spoken before, Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating for the reader in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved. 'It not only fills a gap in Holocaust history but it is an utterly compelling read' Taylor Downing, History Today 'A sense of urgency infuses this history, which comes just in time to gather the testimony of the camp's survivors . . . meticulous, unblinking . . . [Helm's] book comes not a moment too soon' The Economist

Sarah Helm

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