** A huge thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book! **

Wow, just wow! I have previously read historical fiction books based on Ravensbruck, but reading the experience in a much more indepth way was very empowering and inspirational. This book brings to light the very real and hard challenges that many women faced years ago while they were part of the Resistance and as victims of the Holocaust, much less through a prison camp that history hardly talks about! More people need to learn about Ravensbruck and the smaller camps from WWII.

The four women are brought together in terrible circumstances and yet forge these extraordinary bonds and document the history and cruelty of Ravensbruck, while also serving their fellow women. Honestly, I think this is a book that students should read in high school and/or college because of it's nature in combining historical accounts in a cohesive and unbiased way, and breaks the mold of the cliche history book. Hats off to Lynne Olson for her stellar job researching and writing this book!

It's so hard to put into words how moving this book is. These women go beyond the definition of what the human spirit can do. I am truly struggling with finding the words to describe how powerful this book is. To honor them and many more like them - read this book! Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp
by Lynne Olson was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I had never read this author but I was really interested in this book as I had visited Ravensbruck in the past, shortly after the Berlin Wall fell. The author does a real good job of telling the tale of the Nazi atrocities at the site. Since it was so long ago I am uncertain how much is speculative fact and how much is real fact. I did read the entire book without skimming, which is a good thing for me nowadays. If you, or someone you buy gifts for is interested in these type materials, certainly give this book a read.

I had heard of Ravensbruck before I read this book. I’ve read a lot of history, including a fair amount covering World War II, and I spent many years in Europe. Even so, I’d heard and read far more about the other camps, and the opportunity to discover more about Ravensbruck interested me. Sisterhood of Ravensbruck more than fills the bill in that regard. Thoroughly researched and packed full of rich detail, this book is not only informative, it stirs the emotions in ways that are uncommon for books on historical events.

Tens of thousands of women were imprisoned at Ravensbruck during its years of operation, and while author Lynne Olson provides a wealth of background information, the book largely focuses on a group of Frenchwomen active in the Resistance who were captured by the Nazis and sent to the camp. The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck describes what these women endured, but it also tells the stories of some of the women they encountered at the camp, the hardship and brutality they all suffered, and the relationships they forged.

These women – French, Polish, Russian, and even American – survived the unspeakable, but there is little mention of them, or of Ravensbruck, in textbooks. Yet again history would shuffle them aside and marginalize their contribution, if not for books like The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck. The lengths that these women went to, to shield and encourage one another, defies explanation in a brief paragraph, but Olson does an incredible job of sharing their stories in a way that illustrates the courage, tenacity, and dignity of these women. And The Sisters of Ravensbruck is unusual in that it did not end with the war’s end and the liberation of the camp; Olson follows these women through the aftermath as they fight to regain their lives, and to gain recognition from governments who first refuse to acknowledge their contributions and then simply wish to forget their sacrifices. All while continuing to care for one another, even when it required that they find ways to defy and shame government bureaucracies to do so.

The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck provided me with a wealth of information on a subject I knew little about, which I expected. But it also moved me, which I did not, and I’m not sure that I’m grateful for that, but I am better for it.

Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and am leaving a voluntary review.