Hasag-Leipzig Slave Labour Camp for Women

The Struggle for Survival told by the Women and their Poetry

Karay, Felicja

Here for the first time in the historiography of the Holocaust is the story of an international forced labour camp for women, the largest of the auxiliary women's camps attached to KZ Buchenwald in Germany. It was the place where the Jewish prisoners sang the satiric camp 'anthem': Hasag is our father, the best father there is! / He promises us - long years of happiness! / In Leipzig - a paradise on earth. Was Hasag-Leipzig really a 'paradise' compared to other Nazi installations, in terms of the treatment of prisoners and their living conditions? This study provides answers to this question as it depicts the camp for 5,500 from 18 countries, among them 1,200 Jewish prisoners brought there from Poland.Special attention is paid here to the cultural activities, adding a refreshing new dimension to the scholarly work, bringing the reader closer to the alien, unfamiliar world known as the Hasag-Leipzig Women's Camp.

261 pages

Copyright: 12/31/2002