This interview focuses on the wartime story of Hedi Solzbach. Beyond the touching human story, several issues arise which are intrinsically linked to the female experience in the Holocaust. Thus, for instance, we learn about the day-to-day conversations in the women’s block at Birkenau, the humiliation of nakedness and fear of bodily harm, use of margarine as an anti-wrinkle cream, “support groups” amongst the female prisoners, care for others as a strengthening or consoling experience, and more. Read more

Born in a cultured German-Jewish environment to a troubled family with a history of suicides, Charlotte Salomon escaped to France in 1938, following the Kristallnacht pogrom. While there, Salomon created a series of semi-autobiographical gouache paintings combined with texts and poems, collectively called “Life? Or Theatre?” Read more