I Aucun de nous ne reviendra, 1965
II Une Connaissance Inutile, 1970
III Mesure de Nos Jours, 1971
Charlotte Delbo was arrested in 1942 as part of the French communist resistance during WWII. In 1943, she and 229 other women, mostly resistants, were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Delbo was transferred to Ravensbrück in 1944, and finally liberated in April 1945. Of the 230 women deported in 1943, only 49 survived.
For 20 years, Delbo kept the manuscript for the first volume of Auschwitz and After, before finally deciding to publish it as part of a collection of memories of female holocaust survivors. She then wrote the second and third volumes which include poems and stories of her experiences.
Well-worth the read for its original style and point of view, and because if she lived through it and wrote about it, I want to respect her life by listening to her story.
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