The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck

A tale of great enterprise and great fortitude, and of wonderful female solidarity and nobility of spirit, in the bleakest of circumstances. For decades after World War II, histories of the French Resistance were written almost exclusively by men and largely ignored the contributions of women. Many current overviews of the subject continue to underplay the extent and importance of women¿s participation in the Resistance, treating the subject, in the words of one historian, as ¿an anonymous background element in an essentially male story¿. The Sisterhood of Ravensbru¿ck corrects that omission, surveying the bond between four women ¿ Germaine Tillion, Anise Girard, Genevieve de Gaulle, and Jacqueline d¿Alincourt ¿ who fought valiantly against Nazi oppression. While the women belonged to different Resistance movements and networks, they were united by a common thread: they were arrested by the Gestapo, underwent merciless interrogations and beatings, were jailed ¿ and, most significantly,