Concluded projects
of the Institute of Conflict Research
Reminiscences. A Documentation of Former Austrian Female Inmates of the Ravensbrück Women’s Concentration Camp
| Project Management: | Professor Dr. Anton Pelinka, Professor Dr. Erika Thurner |
| Project Team: | Mag.a Dr.in Helga Amesberger Mag.a Dr.in Brigitte Halbmayr |
| Concluded in | May 2000 |
The study pursues both documentary and scientific aims. The documentation is supposed to preserve the memory of the experiences of Austrian female victims of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, their individual histories and inconceivable sufferings. The collected life stories are not only historical testimonies of the time of National Socialism, but also of the 20th century, and a contribution to women’s history.
The life stories of the former inmates of the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp differ remarkably. We, therefore, considered it of scientific interest to work out the differences in socialisation, in persecution, in strategies of coping with one’s own history, etc. We did not restrict our analysis to the period in which the interviewees were persecuted, as is usual in historical research, but extended it to their lives after liberation. Nevertheless, the structural determinants (such as the time and reason of imprisonment) of and the experiences during incarceration are central to our study.
The research project was published in 2001 under the title “Vom Leben und Überleben – Wege nach Ravensbrück. Das Frauenkonzentrationslager in der Erinnerung”. The publication comprises two volumes: Volume I deals with the above-mentioned topics, Volume II is a compilation of the biographies of the 42 Austrian Ravensbrück survivors interviewed for the project.
[GERMAN]
