Solidarita i agitace. Příslušnice československé komunistické elity v Ravensbrücku
Solidarity and agitation. Women members of Czech communist elite in Ravensbrück

Summary/Abstract: Over 3,000 women from pre-Munich Czechoslovakia passed through the Ravensbrück concentration camp in the years 1939–1945. This group was extremely heterogeneous. Among them, women members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC) formed a relatively cohesive unit. They at the same time became a centre of all political disputes because of their strong ideological background. The study analyzes the group’s activities, also within the community of female prisoners from Czechoslovakia, based on comparison of memories of both communist women and their opponents. It thematizes political agitation by communist female prisoners in the camp and looks into the possibilities and limits of solidarity they showed to their supporters and to other female prisoners. The study also deals with the role communist women played in post-war interpretation of the Ravensbrück history and the impact the communist narrative had on how Czech women in this camp are depicted in the collective subconscious. The paper concentrates on women members of the CPC that were politically active also before WWII as well as those who were drawn to the party after the war through their Ravensbrück experience, or for whom it marked the beginning of their later political career. Short bios of eleven leading personalities from among them are attached to the study.

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