On February 4, 1941, Nanda Herbermann, a German Catholic writer and
editor, was arrested by the Gestapo in Munster, Germany, and became
a political prisoner of the Nazis because of her work with
anti-Nazi Catholics. Accused of collaboration with the Catholic
movement, Herbermann was deported to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
for Women in July 1941 and later released upon direct orders from
Heinrich Himmler on March 19, 1943. Although she was instructed by
the Gestapo not to reveal information about the camp, Herbermann
soon began to record her memories of her experiences. One of the
first concentration camp memoirs to appear in print, Herbermann's
book contributed to the shaping of German memory about the Third
Reich and the Holocaust. The Blessed Abyss was originally published
in German under the imprint of the Allied occupation forces in
1946, and it now appears in English for the first time.
Hester Baer and Elizabeth Baer include an extensive introduction
that situates Herbermann's work within current debates about gender
and the Holocaust and provides historical and biographical
information about Herbermann, Ravensbruck, and the Third Reich.
Presenting herself as both a member of the collective German nation
and as a victim of Nazi crimes, Herbermann used the story of her
own persecution -- despite the fact that she considered herself a
"good German" -- to convince fellow Germans to break with Nazi
ideology and atone for Nazi crimes. In her narrative, Herbermann
presents invaluable historical information about the daily
operations of the largest concentration camp for women. However, it
is the ambivalence and tension at the heart of Herbermann's
narrative -- her reflection on hercompeting identities and victim
status -- that make her memoir not only informative but
compelling.
Students and scholars of Holocaust studies, German history and
culture, and women's studies will welcome this complex and unusual
addition to Holocaust literature.
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