Milena and Margarete

Gwen Strauss delivers a powerful and meticulously researched account of an extraordinary relationship that flourished against the backdrop of one of history's darkest chapters. "Milena and Margarete: A Love Story in Ravensbrück" chronicles the profound bond between two remarkable women who found each other within the brutal confines of the Ravensbrück concentration camp during World War II.

The narrative centers on Milena Jesenská, a Czech journalist, writer, and translator who is perhaps best known to history as a lover and correspondent of Franz Kafka, and Margarete Buber-Neumann, a German communist intellectual whose life had already been marked by extraordinary hardship before her arrival at Ravensbrück. Strauss brings these two women together on the page as they were brought together in life, showing how their friendship became a source of sustenance and meaning in an environment designed to strip away humanity.

Milena Jesenská was already a figure of considerable complexity before the war. A talented writer and translator in Prague, she had been part of the city's vibrant intellectual circles. Her correspondence with Kafka has been preserved and studied by scholars, but Strauss makes clear that Milena was far more than a footnote in a famous author's biography. She was a woman of courage and principle who worked in the resistance against Nazi occupation, a commitment that ultimately led to her imprisonment.

Margarete Buber-Neumann's path to Ravensbrück was even more circuitous and harrowing. As a committed communist, she had fled to the Soviet Union with her partner, only to be caught in Stalin's purges. She survived the Gulag before being handed over to the Nazis as part of the Hitler-Stalin pact, a twist of fate that gave her the rare and terrible perspective of having experienced both totalitarian systems from the inside.

Strauss draws on Margarete's own postwar writings, particularly her memoir "Milena," to reconstruct the relationship between these two women. The author handles her sources with care, making clear what can be documented and what has been preserved through memoir and testimony. This scholarly rigor strengthens rather than diminishes the emotional impact of the story, as readers can trust that the moments of connection, courage, and tenderness described actually occurred.

The setting of Ravensbrück itself is rendered with appropriate gravity. As the largest concentration camp created specifically for women, it held over 100,000 prisoners during its operation. Strauss provides necessary context about the camp's structure, daily routines, and the systematic cruelty that defined existence there, without allowing these details to overwhelm the human story at the book's center. The balance between historical documentation and narrative engagement is carefully maintained throughout.

What emerges most powerfully from Strauss's account is the way friendship functioned as a form of resistance. In a place where prisoners were reduced to numbers, where hunger and disease were constant companions, and where death was an everyday occurrence, the relationship between Milena and Margarete represented an assertion of human dignity. Their conversations, shared food, mutual care during illness, and intellectual exchange constituted a refusal to be entirely dehumanized by their circumstances.

The book also explores the complexities of survival and memory. Margarete lived through the war and spent decades afterward bearing witness to what she had experienced and honoring Milena's memory. Milena died in Ravensbrück in 1944, weakened by illness and the camp's harsh conditions. Strauss examines how Margarete carried this story forward and the importance of such testimony in preserving the truth of what occurred.

Strauss's prose is clear and measured, appropriate to the weight of her subject matter. She avoids sensationalism while never downplaying the horror of the historical context. The research underlying the book is evident but worn lightly, integrated into the narrative rather than overwhelming it. The author demonstrates familiarity with the broader scholarship on Ravensbrück, women's experiences in concentration camps, and the biographies of both central figures.

For readers interested in Holocaust history, women's history, or stories of resistance and resilience, this book offers valuable insights. It adds depth to understanding of how relationships and human connection functioned under extreme duress. The book also contributes to the important work of ensuring that women's stories from this period are told and remembered with the complexity they deserve.

"Milena and Margarete" stands as both a memorial and a historical document. Strauss has created a work that honors the memory of two exceptional women while providing readers with a clear-eyed view of their circumstances. The result is a book that educates even as it moves, that documents even as it commemorates, making it a significant contribution to the literature of this period.