MILENA AND MARGARETE

A profoundly moving celebration of love under the darkest of circumstances from the author of The Nine From the moment they met in 1940 in Ravensbrück concentration camp Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber Neumann were inseparable Czech Milena was Kafka s first translator and epistolary lover and a journalist opposed to fascism A non conformist bi sexual feminist she was way ahead of her time With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia her home became a central meeting place for Jewish refugees German Margarete born to a middle class family married the son of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber But soon swept up in the fervor of the Bolshevik Revolution she met her second partner the Communist Heinz Neumann Called to Moscow for his political deviations he fell victim to Stalin s purges while Margarete was exiled to the hell of the Soviet gulag Two years later traded by Stalin to Hitler she ended up outside Berlin in Ravensbrück the only concentration camp built for women Milena and Margarete loved each other at the risk of their lives But in the post war survivors accounts lesbians were stigmatized and survivors kept silent This book explores those silences and finally celebrates two strong women who never gave up and continue to inspire