“Morrison presents an insightful case study of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, the only Nazi camp specifically designed for women. This book successfully blends the larger history of Nazi Germany — absolutely essential in order to understand how most of the inmates ended up in the camp — with the women’s experiences. Interspersed throughout the text, which is based on a solid foundation of primary and secondary sources, are illustrations done mostly by camp inmates. Such features help individualize the women’s ordeals. Morrison’s chapter on Jewish women integrates Nazi anti-Semitism with the specific experience of the camp inmates, even to analyzing the significance of job assignments. The book also examines the experience of children and the women’s attempts to shield them from the worst of camp life.”
— Library Journal
“A comprehensive picture of the prisoners’ daily lives.”
— Publishers Weekly
“The descriptions are immensely moving. The book is well-written, all the more gripping for not striving to be so.”
— Renate Bridenthal, Brooklyn College; co-editor, When Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany