Milena and Margarete - A Love Story in Ravensbrück: The Nazi's Concentration Camp for Women

A profoundly moving celebration of love under the darkest of circumstances

From the moment they met in 1940 in Ravensbrck concentration camp, Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber-Neumann were inseparable. Czech Milena was Kafkas first translator and epistolary lover, and a journalist opposed to fascism. A non-conformist, bi-sexual feminist, she was way ahead of her time. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, her home became a central meeting place for Jewish refugees. German Margarete, born to a middle-class family, married the son of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. But soon swept up in the fervor of the Bolshevik Revolution, she met her second partner, the Communist Heinz Neumann. Called to Moscow for his political deviations, he fell victim to Stalins purges while Margarete was exiled to the hell of the Soviet gulag. Two years later, traded by Stalin to Hitler, she ended up outside Berlin in Ravensbrck, the only concentration camp built for women.

Milena and Margarete loved each other at the risk of their lives. But in the post-war survivors accounts, lesbians were stigmatized, and survivors kept silent. This book explores those silences, and finally celebrates two strong women who never gave up and continue to inspire. As Margaret wrote: I was thankful for having been sent to Ravensbrck, because it was there I met Milena.

About the author

Gwen Strauss is an award-winning children's book author and poet. Her poetry, short stories and essays have appeared in numerous places including The New Republic, New England Review, Kenyon Review, London Sunday Times and Catapult. She lives in Southern France with her three children and her dog Zola, where she works as the Director of the Dora Maar House, an artist residency programme.

Product details

• Authors: Gwen Strauss, Strauss Gwen
• Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 07.08.2025
• EAN: 9781785127083
• ISBN: 978-1-78512-708-3
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; True war & combat stories, Of specific Lesbian interest, Second World War, The Holocaust, c 1938 to c 1946 (World War Two period), Relating to lesbians, True stories of heroism, endurance and survival, Holocaust Memorial or Remembrance Days, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust