[The memoir jumps back and forth between times. Even with each chapter clearly dated, it’s hard to determine what my aunt’s writing in the present, and what’s the past. For a person like me who has a tenuous understanding of English grammar, much less all the numerous tenses in French, it’s not easy. It truly […]
Tag: Ravensbruck
K.W.4: Chapter One, First Encounters
[In Georges Huisman’s introduction, I was a little annoyed by how much emphasis he placed on the prisoners maintaining their femininity despite the horrible conditions and treatment. It seemed like a strange thing to tout, and cringe-worthy, like Maurice Chevalier singing “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” in the 1958 movie Gigi. Then I read the […]
K.W.4: Avant Propos
[In this next chapter, my great aunt Catherine Ammar writes in dedication to those she knew who died at the hands of the Nazis, and to the memory of her husband. Last night I asked my father if anyone ever found out how Raymond Ammar died, but he just shrugged. “Everyone begged him not to […]
K.W.4, a preface
On August 3, 1944, my great aunt, Catherine Ammar, was taken by the Gestapo in France for her work in the resistance and transported to Ravensbrück, and then later to Sachsenhausen concentration camp where she was forced to labor, I suspect, for Seimens. After liberation the following year, she joined about 80,000 other POWs marching […]
