About the book
The ’Forgotten’ Women of St. Lambrecht
This is the history of 23 female victims of Nazi terror. They were Bibelforscher, as Jehovah’s Witnesses were then known, imprisoned in the monastery at St. Lambrecht (Austria).
Read about their poignant experiences, the life-threatening incidents, as well as everyday life in various concentration camps. Find out how these women continued to believe in the power of goodness and how they conscientiously opposed the atrocities of Nazism.
Because of their religious opposition to national socialism, they were subjected to brutal treatment. Psychologist Anita Farkas, PhD, describes the effect of imprisonment on women specifically and how this particular group managed to retain its identity.
Life Stories
Corstiaantje (Sjaan) Pronk–van den Oever
was arrested in her hometown of The Hague on 24 August 1942. Sjaan was 39 years old when she left her husband and three young children feeling despondent. She survived the concentration camps and returned home some months after the war, on 25 August 1945. Sjaan then weighed only 37 kilogrammes.
Jansje Hoogers-Elbertsen
was a courier and was arrested by the Gestapo in Arnhem on 14 May 1942. Jans was only 23 years old. Despite her youth, she was interrogated for three consecutive months in an attempt to get her to divulge names and addresses. Jans arrived at the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp on 2 October 1942, where she witnessed the visit of the SS Chief of Staff, Heinrich Himmler.
Froukje Volp-Rinzema
was born in Drachten, the Netherlands, on 10 July 1913. Because of her resistance work, Froukje was arrested on 7 September 1941 and sent to the concentration camp. There she stole dandelion leaves and smuggled them into the barrack to relieve her friend’s hunger. Her best friend, Sophie Hemmink, contracted typhus, was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. That upset her badly.
When Froukje finally returned home after the capitulation of the German Wehrmacht in 1945, former collaborators were living in her house.