The Dawn of Hope: A Memoir of Ravensbruck and Beyond

Arrested in Paris in 1944 because of her work in the Resistance movement, the niece of the former President of France, General Charles de Gaulle, relates in this short, stark memoir how she was shipped to the Ravensbr ck concentration camp in a cattle car when she was in her early 20s. Possibly because she was a political prisoner rather than a Jew, Anthonioz was not immediately exterminated, but was kept in a constant state of fear that every day might be her last. In spare but powerful prose, she documents the condition of the 75 Polish women in the camp who were operated on without anesthesia by a surgeon who later deliberately infected their wounds with gangrene, tetanus and streptococcus. Anthonioz herself was subjected to beatings and near starvation conditions. After several months of performing backbreaking labor, however, she was mysteriously transferred to an area of the camp where inmates were treated less harshly. Shortly thereafter, she was put in a solitary confinement cell. Since she did not know the reason for these changes, Anthonioz expected to be executed momentarily. What kept her from falling into total despair was the kindness of a fellow inmate, a Jehovah's Witness who brought her meals and gifts from other French prisoners. A few weeks after Paris was liberated, she was released from Ravensbr ck. In the 1950s, Anthonioz, who is the founder of the international organization Aid in Total Distress, began her lifelong commitment to easing the plight of the poor. (Nov.)