Workshop: Die deutschsprachige Literatur der Frauen aus dem KZ Ravensbrück. Erzähltes Leben nach dem Holocaust im geteilten Deutschland

Information from the organisers

Holocaust literature is more diverse than often assumed. This is shown by Sina Meißgeier's study. In her work, she uses the Ravensbrück concentration camp as an example to analyse the moral ambivalences of female prisoners. On the one hand, she focuses on GDR texts that reflect the anti-fascist myth. On the other hand, she examines narrative ruptures in East German memory. Her text analyses show that the Ravensbrück complex created important counter-narratives to a West German discourse of remembrance.

The workshop will shed light on how Ravensbrück literature between 1945 and 1989 renegotiated the relationship between gender, power and survival and what narrative potential lies in the reflection of these survival experiences and in the perspectives of secondary witnesses. Questions about narrative forms, gender perspectives and the limits of collective memory take centre stage.

Trigger warning: The Shoah and forms of physical, psychological and sexualised violence will be addressed in the text examples.

Please register by 24.11.25 at sophie.kuehnlenz@uni-erfurt.de. The workshop is organised by the Professorship of Modern and Contemporary History and History Didactics at the Department of History in cooperation with the Equal Opportunity Office.