Erzähltes Leben von und über Frauen nach dem Holocaust – Die Deutschsprachige Literatur über das KZ Ravensbrück Zwischen 1945 und 1989

Abstract

Ravensbrück near Berlin was one of the Nazi concentration camps. It is mainly known as the only women’s camp. It has a rich literary and cultural history of remembrance in former East Germany – also known as the GDR – that still needs to be discovered. Particularly for political prisoners, Ravensbrück can be described as a place of atrocity that led the women to forming familial bonds of solidarity. Some prisoners also managed to gain privileges within camp society as so-called Funktionshäftlinge (prisoner functionaries). My research focusses on the literary representation of German-speaking female voices from Ravensbrück because they are still marginalized in Holocaust discourse in general. In this dissertation, I am bringing together the multidisciplinary fields of Literary Studies, Holocaust Studies as well as Gender and Women’s Studies. The texts that were written and mostly also published in the GDR regarding Ravensbrück show multiple perspectives even though the over-all narrative has been centred around prescribed anti-fascism and communist heroism. Which narrative techniques were used to portray and subvert a one-sided antifascist view on camp society? By presenting literary examples from different decades, I argue that the illustrated discourse in the texts goes beyond a mere ‘Nazi perpetrator versus victim’-binary that is usually visible in Holocaust literature. Moreover, the camp society that comes to life here consists of a dualism between the political prisoners and the ones who have been persecuted by the Nazis because they did not fit into their racist and patriarchal ideology (so-called ‘asocial’ and ‘criminal’ prisoners). After providing an introduction and a chapter on theory and methodology, I am analysing three texts from the immediate post-war period (1945-1949): Margarete Buber-Neumann’s Als Gefangene bei Stalin und Hitler, Rita Sprengel’s Im Schatten der eisernen Ferse and Dorothea ‚Mopsa‘ Sternheim’s diary entries about Ravensbrück (Tagebuchaufzeichnungen über Ravensbrück). Through close reading these three testimonials, I examine the peculiarities of the early camp literature, wherein the authors critically reflect their own involvement in crimes. These texts also operate outside of a clear victim-perpetrator-binary.The following chapters provide insights into the narratives surrounding Ravensbrück in the GDR. Using the example of the literalization of Liselotte ‚Lilo’ Herrmann in the 1950s and Ruth Werner’s bestseller Olga Benario. Die Geschichte eines tapferen Lebens from 1961, I first reconstruct the emergence of female communist heroism. By interpreting Die Kommandeuse by Stephan Hermlin from 1954, I show how female concentration camp guards were depicted in the early years of the GDR. Similar to the view on female guards in the Western discourse, the protagonist Hedwig Weber is portrayed as a deviant and sadistic Nazi woman, however, the East German take on her comes with equating fascism and capitalism. The chapter about the 1950s and 1960s shows the rise of ‘prescribed anti-fascism’, on whose myth the GDR was largely based. It further shows the formation of the binary pattern of Nazi perpetrators and political prisoners who rise above the role of victims and who become heroines. To show consistencies in the anti-fascist narrative, I examine the texts Die Klempnerkolonne in Ravensbrück by Charlotte Müller from 1981 and Geboren am See der Tränen by Christa Wagner from 1987. These texts show concentration camp imprisonment as a way of empowerment in communist belief and a test of will. They further glorify the Soviet Army. Another main aspect of this dissertation is analyzing the ruptures in these anti-fascist narratives. Based on my interpretations, it can be stated that ruptures have existed since the 1960s – beginning with the theater play Ravensbrücker Ballade by Hedda Zinner. As examples of further contradictions to the GDR-Ravensbrück narrative, I am presenting two unpublished novels by Rita Sprengel from the Ravensbrück Memorial Site archives. Zinner’s novel Katja from 1980 is another example of a text that goes beyond the memoir and creates a fictional Ravensbrück survivor as female protagonist. In the last chapter of this dissertation, I focus on the ‘Jewish view on Ravensbrück’ and interpret Der Ausflug zum Schwanensee from 1983 by Lenka Reinerová and two novels by Anja Lundholm (Morgengrauen, 1970, and Das Höllentor, 1988). Reinerovás text ties into anti-fascist narratives and binary patterns but uses narrative techniques from the realm of autofiction. Lundholm’s complex literary figures illustrate aspects of West German critique of GDR narratives, however problematic views on so-called ‘asocial’ and ‘criminal’ prisoners remain. From testimonials to Holocaust fiction – This dissertation contributes to research on women as camp inmates by using Ravensbrück as an example. It also illustrates how in a society – such as the GDR – narratives were shaped through survivor’s activism and publications, and vice versa.