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Info / context to the poem
I love nature... I was a scout. Before my imprisonment I took a trip to eastern Czechoslovakia. We have mountains there and such lovely people... that remained with me for a long time... that was longing...
Vera Hozáková from an interview, 1997.
There are three words that recur in camp poetry and that not only the then young Czech communist Vera Hozáková considers the source of her survival power: Hope, friendship, and longing. For Vera Hozáková, longing was nourished above all by a deeply felt sense of harmony with nature. (C. Jaiser)
Dr. phil. Constanze Jaiser
Literature scholar and theologian
Publications on the subject, include:
Poetische Zeugnisse. Gedichte aus dem Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück. Stuttgart/Weimar 2000
Europa im Kampf 1939-1944. Internationale Poesie aus dem Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück. Berlin 2009
Ein Schmuggelfund aus dem KZ – Erinnerung, Kunst und Menschenwürde. Berlin 2012