The Gate to Hell
Novel
Anja Lundholm’s autobiographical novel is the chronology of an inhumane period in history – observed with unflinching precision.
Which of them would still be alive when the allies came? In 1944 – when only 26 years old – she was deported to the notorious women’s concentration camp of Ravensbruck. What followed was forced labour of the first order in unbearable circumstances, futile, brutal interrogations and infinite loneliness. In her autobiographical novel Anja Lundholm details her memories of and experiences in the camp with a meticulous precision and complete detachment readers may find disturbing, making abundantly clear what it really meant to be at the mercy of the wardens, of hunger and other deprivations. She is one of the very few to have survived the unimaginable.
Anja Lundholm was born in 1918 in Dusseldorf. She escaped the Nazis, fleeing to Rome, where she joined the local resistance movement. She was one of the very few to survive the appalling time at the Ravensbruck concentration camp. After the war she worked as a translator, initially in Brussels, then moving on to Stockholm and London. She is the recipient of numerous awards, her greatest honour being a nomination for the Nobel Prize in 1974. Today the author lives in Frankfurt.
Anja Lundholm’s autobiographical novel is the chronology of an inhumane period in history – observed with unflinching precision.
Which of them would still be alive when the allies came? In 1944 – when only 26 years old – she was deported to the notorious women’s concentration camp of Ravensbruck. What followed was forced labour of the first order in unbearable circumstances, futile, brutal interrogations and infinite loneliness. In her autobiographical novel Anja Lundholm details her memories of and experiences in the camp with a meticulous precision and complete detachment readers may find disturbing, making abundantly clear what it really meant to be at the mercy of the wardens, of hunger and other deprivations. She is one of the very few to have survived the unimaginable.
Anja Lundholm was born in 1918 in Dusseldorf. She escaped the Nazis, fleeing to Rome, where she joined the local resistance movement. She was one of the very few to survive the appalling time at the Ravensbruck concentration camp. After the war she worked as a translator, initially in Brussels, then moving on to Stockholm and London. She is the recipient of numerous awards, her greatest honour being a nomination for the Nobel Prize in 1974. Today the author lives in Frankfurt.
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