Michelangelo in Ravensbruck: One Woman's War Against the Nazis

by Karolina Lanckoronska

Book Overview

In September of 1939, Countess Karolina Lanckoronska, wealthy landowner and professor of art history, watched the Soviet army march into Poland. After joining the resistance, she was arrested, sentenced to death, and held in Ravensbruck concentration camp. There she taught art history to other women who, like her, might be dead in a few days. This brilliantly written memoir records a neglected side of World War II: the mass murder of Poles, the serial...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306815370
• ISBN13: 9780306815379
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Perseus Books
• Length: 341 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Amazing book!

This is a missing link in WW2 history taught in the US.WW2 wasn't just about Jews. They suffered a lot and everybody knows it but nobody have any idea that during that war 25% of Polish nation was killed by Germans, Russians and Ukrainians.

Should serve as an inspiring, outstanding addition to Holocaust literature

In 1939 the author was a wealthy landowner and professor of art history, and also witness to the Soviet army's march into Poland as the Nazis staged their invasion from the west. She joined the resistance and was captured and sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp - there to teach art history to other women who believed they would soon die. Her account discusses the mass murder of Poles and the ability to survive the most inhumane conditions, and should serve as an inspiring, outstanding addition to Holocaust literature for any collection seeking expanded views from eyewitness survivors.

A Gentile's concentration camp experience

Having read numerous accounts of the Holocaust, primarily from the Jewish point of view, I felt this book was a valuable addition to World War Two & even Holocaust literature, even though it is from a Gentile's point of view. It details the wartime [World War Two] experiences of a Polish aristocrat, Karolina Lanckoronska who was actively involved in resistance activities against the Nazis. Quite a bit of the book is devoted to detailing her resistance activities. These eventually get her labelled an undesirable and she gets sent off to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Her indefatigable spirit is evident in her lively outlook despite the horrors and bleakness around her. Her account of life in Ravensbruck is immensely valuable to enhancing our understanding of Nazi atrocities...female prisoners being subjected to horrific medical experiments, the infamous selections that make day to day living unberable for no one knew when death would come knocking, the rampant diseases that besieged the camp, all these horrors are vividly described in Countess Lanckoronska's account. Despite the worst living conditions imaginable, she was able to bring some measure of hope and light by teaching art etc. Her courage in standing up to the Nazis is inspiring and her account is a valuable addition to anyone interested in World War Two history & Nazi atrocities.

A Polish Countess defies the Nazis

This well written book is a cliff-hanger, a tear jerker and the most frightening lesson in the behaviour of supposedly civilized races. It should be mandatory reading for all schools and universities in the free world. The bestial atrocities detailed in its pages need to be shown in the light of day so that public conscience ensures that they never be repeated. The author's incredible faith and determination shine through, as does the spirit of the Polish people. This might be the most comprehensive and detailed report ever written by a survivor.