The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler’s All-Female Concentration Camp

Olson’s (Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples from Destruction) latest book focuses on the lives of four French women Resistance fighters who were arrested and sent to Ravensbrück, Germany’s largest concentration camp for women. Their lives are traced from before the war to their wartime activities as French Resistance fighters and their daily lives in Ravensbrück, recounting what they witnessed, how they coped, and the ways in which they continued to rebel. At Ravensbrück, they were housed with other Resistance fighters, and here Olson focuses on how her subjects were stood up to their Nazi captors by protecting others, by creating art that documented the daily horrors of the camp, and by refusing to do forced labor. After the war and being freed from Ravensbrück, the women continued their activism to ensure they and others were given restitution for their imprisonment, while also combating racism and antisemitism in France. Using primary sources, including conversations with the women, and original artwork from one of them, Olson’s book celebrates the lives of a brave band of women who became a force in an unbearably cruel time and place.