Milena and Margarete
07 August 2025Imprint: Ithaka
Synopsis
A profoundly moving celebration of love under the darkest of circumstances
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. As Margaret wrote: "I was thankful for having been sent to Ravensbrück, because it was there I met Milena."
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. As Margaret wrote: "I was thankful for having been sent to Ravensbrück, because it was there I met Milena."
Details
07 August 2025304 pages
9781785127083Imprint: Ithaka
Reviews
'Strauss draws us skillfully into the world of the prison camp at Ravensbrück, in the darkest years of the 20th century. Milena and Margarete remind us that, amidst depravity and cruelty, the passionate friendship of women can be its own act of powerful resistance'Tilar Mazzeo, bestselling and award-winning author of Irene's Children and Sisters in Resistance
'Riveting, mesmerizing important work... The details and perspectives of women prisoners at Ravensbruck concentration camp are juxtaposed to these extraordinary individuals' proximity to the lives of the Martin Buber family and to Franz Kafka, reminding us that the lack of full autonomy for even free-thinking bourgeois women relegated them to secondary status in both freedom and enslavement. A magnificent work of contextualization that opens new doors of understanding'Sarah Schulman, Lambda Literary Award winner, author of Let the Record Show
'For the first time, Strauss writes about Ravensbrück as a place of a great romantic story, of love between two women. In equal parts intellectual history, queer history, and history of the Holocaust, Milena and Margarete forces us to rethink our understanding of the concentration camps'Anna Hájková, University of Warwick, pioneer of queer Holocaust history
'Whenever you think everything has been said about World War Two, Gwen Straus writes another meticulously researched, heart-breaking story to remind us of the importance of human connection and the invincible belief in the power of love. Her work reads like a novel, a brutal but sensory world, evocative characters and a forbidden passion that bubbles with joy in ... a concentration camp! ... Milena and Margarete is one of the first books of nonfiction to accurately and movingly address the consequences of a queer female love affair in the camps ... I am so grateful for the existence of this book and for the existence of its marvellous writer. Oh, this Gwen Straus is a wonder! I'd read anything she writes, on any subject'Golda Goldbloom, award-winning author of On Division