Sarah Helm's Ravensbruck is a phenomenal achievement

When Sarah Helm’s editor sent me an advance copy of Sarah’s latest book, Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women, I couldn’t wait to read it. Over the holidays when my family was looking for me they’d find me sequestered with the book, in my favorite chair, unable to tear myself away.

I thought I knew all there was to know about Ravensbruck. In order to prepare to write my novel, Lilac Girls, about Caroline Ferridy and how she helped a group of young Polish Ravensbruck survivors known as “the rabbits” after the war, I’ve read every non-fiction book there is on the subject. But Sarah has gone deep into the archives to piece together the definitive history of the camp. It not only provides a terrifying, real sense of what it was like to be a prisoner at Ravensbruck, chronologically from when the camp was built to liberation, but also provides a fascinating look at what was going on with the Nazi camp administration, an incredible achievement.

I’ve been a Sarah Helm fan since I read her first book, A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII and she brings the same deep research and flair for storytelling to this latest book. It will be available March 31, so clear your calendar, pull up your favorite chair and get ready to settle in with Sarah Helm’s Ravensbruck. You may not be getting up for a while.

Images from Sarah’s article for London’s Daily Mail: (link below)