Synopsis
Professor Edward Ullendorff begins his foreword to Melanie Oppenhejm's memoir, Theresienstadt: Survival in Hell: "After her release from Theresienstadt and return to Denmark in 1945, Mrs Melanie Oppenhejm lived another thirty-seven years until her death in 1982. Her account of life in that concentration camp focuses on the daily experiences of the hapless victims of Nazi cruelty, but she says little about her own sufferings and is much more concerned with those of her fellow prisoners. Her story, though not intended as a scholarly or historical record, closely reflects what is now known about that infamous place." He concludes: "Her story, taken in conjunction with the travail and fate of men such as [Rabbi Leo] Baeck and [Paul] Eppstein cannot but be read with emotion." Mrs Oppenhejm survived together with the two of her four children who were also deported, and her husband Morits, "a senior member of the Danish Judicial system... who had for decades acted, inter alia, as legal adviser to the German embassy in Denmark" - as her son, Ralph Oppenhejm, writes in his preface. Theresienstadt concludes with a selection from the photographs and illustrations supplied by Ralph Oppenhejm. It joins earlier Menard books - memoirs and a diary, poetry and literary criticism - telling of experiences in occupied Europe in World War Two. In association with the European Jewish Publication Society.
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