Bearing Witness: Prison Stories from a Woman's Fight Against Fascism

Mercedes Nez Targa was born in Barcelona in 1911. She served as secretary of the poet Pablo Neruda and fought in the Civil War with the Catalan socialists. Following the collapse of the Spanish Republic, she was imprisoned under the Franco dictatorship in Madrid. Unexpectedly released in 1942, she fled to France under a false identity and joined the French Resistance. In 1944 she was arrested by the Gestapo, subjected to a brutal interrogation, and transported to Ravensbrk, the Nazis' infamous all-female concentration camp. In April 1945, American soldiers liberated the camp just days before her execution in the gas chambers. Bearing Witness is her moving and illuminating account of two totalitarian regimes and the brave women resisting them.

The book opens in Ventas prison in 1940, as Mercedes Nez Targa begins a 12-year sentence for "aiding the rebellion." Made up of a series of brief vignettes that vividly depict the prisoners' lives, Nez Targa highlights the contrast between the horrific conditions in the prison and the prisoners' incredible spirit and endurance.

The book's second part - Destined for the Crematorium - consists of more detailed chapters. She describes the violence of the SS guards and their pitiful conditions, but as before, shows how their appalling treatment only unites the women further.