Mile­na and Mar­garete pro­vides a pow­er­ful and mov­ing account of a for­bid­den love sto­ry that flour­ished in the unlike­li­est of places: Ravens­bruck con­cen­tra­tion camp. The lit­tle known his­to­ry of women impris­oned at Ravens­bruck, includ­ing les­bians and oth­ers the Nazi’s clas­si­fied as part of the Asoziale class, is illu­mi­nat­ed in this nar­ra­tive. Com­posed of metic­u­lous research of Mile­na and Margarete’s love sto­ry and the his­to­ry of les­bian women, Strauss’ account is so seam­less­ly and beau­ti­ful­ly craft­ed that it reads like a nov­el. This book reminds us of the impor­tance of human con­nec­tion and the pow­er of love at a time when the Nazis tried to destroy any shred of human­i­ty amongst pris­on­ers in the camps. 

Mar­garete Buber-Neu­mann, known as Grete, was born in Ger­many. In the late 1920’s, she became roman­ti­cal­ly involved with Heinz Neu­mann, who became the prin­ci­pal mouth­piece of the Ger­man Com­mu­nist Par­ty. Over time, Grete became dis­il­lu­sioned with the Com­mu­nist Par­ty, lead­ing to her arrest in 1938 by the Rus­sians. The Rus­sians ini­tial­ly sent her to a gulag, but in 1940 — as part of a Russian/​German pris­on­er exchange — she was trans­ferred to Ravensbruck. 

Mile­na Jesen­s­ka was a Czech born jour­nal­ist opposed to fas­cism. She also sup­port­ed the Com­mu­nist Par­ty for a peri­od of time. Like Gre­ta, she became dis­il­lu­sioned with the Com­mu­nists and ulti­mate­ly worked with the resis­tance in Prague at the begin­ning of World War II. She was arrest­ed in Novem­ber 1939 and sent to Ravens­bruck in Octo­ber 1940. 

Grete and Mile­na met in 1940 dur­ing a pris­on­er exer­cise peri­od. Grete ​“would remem­ber her first encounter with Mile­na as the turn­ing point of her life.” Strauss grad­u­al­ly reveals the grow­ing love between Gre­ta and Mile­na, while also shed­ding light on their lives pri­or to Ravens­bruck. Strauss imag­ines con­ver­sa­tions the two women might have had dur­ing their stolen moments away from the Nazi guards. 

The book details a mov­ing account of two women find­ing strength and love through their ​“pas­sion­ate friend­ship” (a term they used to describe their rela­tion­ship at the time) as their world at Ravens­bruck descends into a hellscape of dis­ease, over­crowd­ing, and med­ical exper­i­men­ta­tion on the female pris­on­ers. As Strauss details the hor­rid con­di­tions at Ravens­bruck, she also dives deep­er into the com­plex and lit­tle known or doc­u­ment­ed world of les­bian love with­in the prison. She sheds light on the social stig­ma and bru­tal treat­ment of les­bians in the camps and the stig­ma that con­tin­ued long after the war, which forced many les­bians into silence and many of their sto­ries to be lost — until now. Gwen Strauss pro­vides a pow­er­ful voice to the mov­ing, emo­tion­al, and com­plex his­to­ry of les­bian love with­in the con­cen­tra­tion camps.