An Oral History of Women in World War II
Svetlana Aleksievich, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky: Unwomanly Face of War (Paperback, 2017, Penguin Books, Limited)
Paperback, 384 pages
English language
Published April 18, 2017 by Penguin Books, Limited.
"Casi un millón de mujeres combatió en las filas del Ejército Rojo durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, pero su historia nunca ha sido contada. Este libro reúne los recuerdos de cientos de ellas, mujeres que fueron francotiradoras, condujeron tanques o trabajaron en hospitales de campaña. Su historia no es un relato de la guerra ni de los combates, es la historia de hombres y mujeres en guerra. ¿Qué les ocurrió? ¿Cómo les transformó? ¿De qué tenían miedo? ¿Cómo era aprender a matar? Estas mujeres, la mayoría por primera vez en sus vidas, cuentan la parte no heroica de la guerra, a menudo ausente de los relatos de los veteranos. Hablan de la suciedad y del frío, del hambre y de la violencia sexual, de la angustia y de la sombra omnipresente de la muerte. Alexiévich deja que sus voces resuenen en este libro estremecedor, que pudo reescribir en 2002 para …
"Casi un millón de mujeres combatió en las filas del Ejército Rojo durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, pero su historia nunca ha sido contada. Este libro reúne los recuerdos de cientos de ellas, mujeres que fueron francotiradoras, condujeron tanques o trabajaron en hospitales de campaña. Su historia no es un relato de la guerra ni de los combates, es la historia de hombres y mujeres en guerra. ¿Qué les ocurrió? ¿Cómo les transformó? ¿De qué tenían miedo? ¿Cómo era aprender a matar? Estas mujeres, la mayoría por primera vez en sus vidas, cuentan la parte no heroica de la guerra, a menudo ausente de los relatos de los veteranos. Hablan de la suciedad y del frío, del hambre y de la violencia sexual, de la angustia y de la sombra omnipresente de la muerte. Alexiévich deja que sus voces resuenen en este libro estremecedor, que pudo reescribir en 2002 para introducir los fragmentos tachados por la censura y material que no se había atrevido a usar en la primera versión."--Page 4 of cover.
This book is a confession, a document and a record of people's memory. More than 200 women speak in it, describing how young girls, who dreamed of becoming brides, became soldiers in 1941. More than 500,000 Soviet women participated on a par with men in the Second World War, the most terrible war of the 20th century. Women not only rescued and bandaged the wounded but also fired a sniper's rifle, blew up bridges, went reconnoitering and killed... They killed the enemy who, with unprecedented cruelty, had attacked their land, their homes and their children. Soviet writer of Bychorussia, Svetlana Alexiyevich spent four years working on the book, visiting over 100 cities and towns, settlements and villages and recording the stories and reminiscences of women war veterans. The Soviet press called the book "a vivid reporting of events long past, which affected the destiny of the nation as a whole." The most important thing about the book is not so much the front-line episodes as women's heart-rending experiences in the war. Through their testimony the past makes an impassioned appeal to the present, denouncing yesterday's and today's fascism...
Schmerzhafte Lektüre. Nach der Hälfte musste ich ein paar Monate Pause machen, dann ging es wieder.
This is an extremely tough and painful book, both emotionally and intellectually. It is so tough that I could only read a little bit at a time. It was all these feelings, the thoughts, the naive excitement of all these girls, yes, they were just girls, some just fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old. When I finished reading it, I thought I couldn’t write anything about it. For a few days, I really couldn’t bring myself to think about it.
This is a book about the war, a women’s war. The women who gave interviews for this book were nurses, surgeons, partisans, underground resistance fighters, nurses, surgeons, sappers, snipers, front line soldiers, radio operators, and more Each one has a story of experiences but also a story of feelings, desires, dreams, and disappointments.
There were so many and they were so young. Who are these women? Why they did it? What …
This is an extremely tough and painful book, both emotionally and intellectually. It is so tough that I could only read a little bit at a time. It was all these feelings, the thoughts, the naive excitement of all these girls, yes, they were just girls, some just fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old. When I finished reading it, I thought I couldn’t write anything about it. For a few days, I really couldn’t bring myself to think about it.
This is a book about the war, a women’s war. The women who gave interviews for this book were nurses, surgeons, partisans, underground resistance fighters, nurses, surgeons, sappers, snipers, front line soldiers, radio operators, and more Each one has a story of experiences but also a story of feelings, desires, dreams, and disappointments.
There were so many and they were so young. Who are these women? Why they did it? What were the reasons that made these young girls to decide to take up arms on par with men? Svetlana Alexievich listens to their experiences and presents the interviews non-judgmentally. The connection that develops between her and her subjects is fascinating.
The horror, the absurdity and the incomprehensibleness of war appears so much clearly in the feelings, the thoughts, but also the silences of these women. You won’t find heroes, important generals, great deeds and heroic events in this book. It is not about winners and losers. What you will find, are small, intimate, human things. Alexievich’s documents are living beings. This is a story of small human beings, that have thrown out of ordinary life into the great depths of a horrific event. They were thrown into History.
A human being is greater than war ….., says Svetlana Alexievich. It is reality.
