Why did five Irish women end up in Ravensbrück Concentration camp in World War II? They were like me, you or someone you know – nun, secretary, nanny, au pair and mostly anonymous until now. In February 2025 the Irish Embassy in Berlin will commemorate these women eighty years after their liberation. The Director of Ravensbrück Memorial Museum, Dr Andrea Genest will participate in a discussion, moderated by Kate Katharina Ferguson. The Berlin choir (lavoixmixte.de) will premier Hope and History a choral composition by Uta Schlegel from verses by Seamus Heaney. 

Cathi Fleming who has researched the life of Franciscan nun, Sister Kate Mc Carthy will give insight into the compassion of these women which saved the lives of hundreds of British servicemen. Cathi’s biography of Sister Kate is due to be published this year.

How did these Irish women end up in a concentration camp near Berlin? Answers include participating in the French and Belgian resistance, betrayal, torture, forced labour, hunger, death or survival. What inspired these “ordinary” women to engage in resistance? Why has there been so little known about them until now? Hard questions to answer.

Before I knew their stories, they inspired me to find out more about Ravensbrück and to write a novel (Bone and Blood, a Berlin novel pub.2014) which sought to explore connections between the silence of an Irish woman survivor of Ravensbrück and Celtic Tiger Ireland at the turn of this century.

Register for event: https://www.ireland.ie/en/germany/berlin/news-and-events/news-archive/commemorating-irish-women-of-ravensbruck-concentration-camp-19-20-february/

Bone and Blood, a Berlin novel by Margo Gorman available online from books.ie and curiousfoxbooks.com in Berlin

Performance of this choral composition of verses from Seamus Heaney by Uta Schlegel is restricted to this event in Berlin and one event in Donegal.

The post Ravensbrück 1945-2025 first appeared on Margo Gorman.

On 14^th November, 2024,  the first 19 Stolpersteine/stumble-stones were laid in Wunstorf. the Heimat of my partner, Schorse. Stolpersteine are small brass plaques inscribed with  individual names and details of their extermination or persecution by the Nazis. Anybody who didn’t fit in was a potential target. Among those who didn’t fit in were the -Jewish people, Sinti and Romani people (known as Gypsies/Zigeuner) Homosexuals, Communists, Socialists, Christians, people with mental or physical disability, freemasons, deserters from military, Conscientious Objectors, people charged with treason, military disobedience or “anti-social” behaviour, Black people, people of many nationalities, Allied forces and those who helped them.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out 
- because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out 
- because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out 
- because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no-one left to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller

Schorse Rennert shares his impressions in German with an English Translation below:

Ihre Namen bleiben. Stolpersteine in Wunstorf verlegt

Am 14. November 2024 wurden die ersten 19 Stolpersteine in meiner Heimatstadt Wunstorf verlegt. Damit hat der Arbeitskreis Erinnerungskultur Wunstorf einen wichtigen Zwischenschritt erreicht. Dieser Kreis engagierter Wunstorfer:innen hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, allen von den Nazis ermordeten Wunstorfern individuelle Denkmale zu setzen. Die Stolpersteine des Künstlers Gunter Demnig sehen sie als die am besten geeignete Form dafür.

„Der Künstler Gunter Demnig erinnert an die Opfer der NS-Zeit, indem er vor ihrem letzten selbstgewählten Wohnort Gedenktafeln aus Messing ins Trottoir einlässt. Inzwischen liegen STOLPERSTEINE in 1265 Kommunen Deutschlands und in einundzwanzig Ländern Europas. ‘Ein Mensch ist erst vergessen, wenn sein Name vergessen ist’, zitiert Gunter Demnig den Talmud.“ (https://www.stolpersteine.eu/start – Zugriff 18.11.24)

Die Stolpersteine erinnern an 19 Menschen, die hier lebten und aufgrund ihres jüdischen Glaubens erniedrigt, entrechtet, beraubt, ermordet wurden. Nun kann es passieren, dass man auf dem Schlendern durch die Fußgängerzone über die Erinnerungen an diese ehemaligen Nachbarn „stolpert“ und zum Nachdenken angeregt wird. Über die Vergangenheit, die heutige Situation und das mögliche eigene Verhalten.

Eine wichtige Grundlage für die Recherchen des Arbeitskreises bildet das Buch „Das Schicksal der Juden in Wunstorf“ von Heiner Wittrock, 2. Auflage Wunstorf 2007. Mich hat die Lektüre dieser akribischen Arbeit beeindruckt und erschüttert. Für acht aus Wunstorf stammende Juden wurde Auschwitz zur letzten Station ihres Leidensweges. Aus der Langen Straße auf die Todesrampe: das gab es auch in Wunstorf und das darf es niemals wieder geben!

Was können wir dafür tun?

Die Stolpersteine erinnern an: Hans Bensew, Hugo Bensew, Kurt Bensew, Martha Bensow, Werner Bensew, Ferdinand Blank, Renate Salinger, Bernhard Kreuzer, Else Kreuzer, Hans-Joachim Kreuzer, Klaus Kreuzer, Albert Mendel, Henry Mendel, Rosa Mendel, Willi Mendel, Flora Roth, Henriette Schloss, Jacob Schloss, Ruth Schloss

Wer mehr über diese 19 Menschen wissen möchte, kann die Broschüre „Ihre Namen bleiben“ des Arbeitskreis Erinnerungskultur Wunstorf lesen, die hier zu finden ist: https://www.wunstorf.de/portal/seiten/wunstorfer-stolpersteine-922001543-20550.html

Their names remain. Stolpersteine laid in Wunstorf

On November 14, 2024, the first 19 Stolpersteine/stumbling blocks were laid in my hometown, Wunstorf. The Wunstorf Working Group for the Culture of Remembrance has achieved an important milestone. This group of committed Wunstorf residents has set itself the goal of placing individual memorials to all Wunstorf residents murdered by the Nazis. They see the stumbling blocks by artist Gunter Demnig as the most suitable form for this.

“The artist Gunter Demnig commemorates the victims of the Nazi era by placing brass memorial plaques on the pavement in front of their last chosen place of residence. There are now STOLPERSTEINE in 1265 municipalities in Germany and in twenty-one European countries. ‘A person is only forgotten when his name is forgotten’, Gunter Demnig quotes the Talmud.” (https://www.stolpersteine.eu/start – accessed 18.11.24)

The Stolpersteine in Wunstorf commemorate 19 people who lived here and were humiliated, stripped of their rights, robbed and murdered because of their Jewish faith. While strolling through the pedestrian zone, you may stumble across the memories of these former neighbours and be prompted to reflect. About the past, the current situation and how you would have behaved.

The book “The Fate of the Jews in Wunstorf” by Heiner Wittrock, 2nd edition Wunstorf 2007, forms an important basis for the working group’s research. Reading this meticulous work impressed and shocked me. For eight Jews from Wunstorf, Auschwitz was the last stop on their path of suffering. From Lange Straße to the death ramp: that also happened in Wunstorf and it must never happen again!

What can we do about it now?

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At seminars and workshops in Belfast, Derry and Dublin, participants will explore creative ways of thinking about borders. They will learn from border expert Declan Long and security experts Mark Maguire and Eileen Murphy.  The seminars will be open to the public.

In the next four months, participants will produce a piece of fiction or non-fiction on the theme of borders. They will be guided by Patsy Horton, editor at Blackstaff Press and facilitator Maria McManus.  www.irishwriterscentre.ie

The post Writers XBorders first appeared on Margo Gorman.

My self-image for as long as I can remember has been as a reader/writer and important to my survival. My literary efforts have mainly been a private affair. Non-fiction writing has been a necessary part of my commitment to causes and to work where I earned my living. Reading and writing are ways of connecting more than they are the product of commodities, bought and sold in the market, where books “have the shelf life of a banana” to quote one blogger/writer.

Are writers motivated by a desire to say what is left unsaid; to explore what is ignored and to spotlight the shadows? To write the books they want to read as the rain beats on the windows?

The post Self-definition first appeared on Margo Gorman.

I thought I could avoid the “second book syndrome” by having a few novels on file ready for editing but the crisis comes anyway. Editing Silent Fife has become a major rewrite as I struggle to get it to do what I want it to do. I tell myself I’m not a “real writer” as I don’t fit the professional profile which is all about how the writer is perceived by the media and the market. I tell myself I can stop but that’s a lie. I can’t. Why? For me it’s more about self-definition.

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When reality failed to make sense or measure up to my dreams, my bedroom provided a dissolving wall, where characters, created by me, could do whatever they wanted to. The kitchen hid a trap door, under which lived angry monsters, who had the power to whisk off a loving adult and send a monster replica. They could reverse the change just as quickly. I am still committed to recognising the potential monster in each of us. For me it is a step towards de-programming the codes used by the forces that corrupt our collective power.

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