Ravensbruck Cookbook
Object numberM1996/035
TitleRavensbruck Cookbook
DescriptionRecipe book handmade by Edith Peer (nee Salzberger/Gombosh/Feher) in Ravensbrück concentration camp, with brown cardboard cover, illustrated with two mushrooms, painted red and white. At the bottom the words "Ravensbrück 1945" have been carefully written. Inside: 56 numbered pages; handwritten 'fantasy' recipes in pencil, different scripts reflecting different women's recipes. The recipes were written in Hungarian and German. Edith's 'camp sister' Judith Taube is one of the contributors.
Preparing clandestine cookbooks was an act of resistance. In Edith's words: "We were desperately hungry and the little time left on a rest day was spent to talk about food. By talking about food and sumptuous meals we swallowed saliva, and after a gourmet fantasy meal we somehow felt a little relieved. Relieved not only by imaginary fulfilment, but sitting around – like around a dining room table – and re-enacting a family circle as we talked about our pre-war life, and gave wind to our anxiety whether we will see our beloved again, and under what circumstances will our life continue... provided we survive."
Ravensbrück was the notorious women's concentration camp located in Germany, some 88 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück. The camp opened in May 1939, originally intended as a work camp for dissident women. Between 1939 and 1945, over 132,000 female prisoners passed through the camp; around 40,000 were Polish and some 26,000 were Jewish - 20% of the prisoners. It is estimated that between 100,000 - 117,000 did not survive.
Edith Peer (nee Salzberger) was born in 1914 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. She grew up in Budapest. She married her first husband, Hungarian born Ferenc Gombos, at age 18 in 1932; divorced two years later (after the war she searched for him but he had been murdered). Edith was deported to Auschwitz in June 1944 to August 1944. She was transferred to Ravensbruck in November 1944 to April 1945. She worked as a secretary to the Chief Engineer of Siemens (which is where she managed to secure paper for the book). After liberation, she immigrated to Sydney with her second husband, arriving 6 January 1951 on the SS Toscana. In 1963 she qualified as a Chartered Accountant, studying by correspondence. Edith died in 2003.
Preparing clandestine cookbooks was an act of resistance. In Edith's words: "We were desperately hungry and the little time left on a rest day was spent to talk about food. By talking about food and sumptuous meals we swallowed saliva, and after a gourmet fantasy meal we somehow felt a little relieved. Relieved not only by imaginary fulfilment, but sitting around – like around a dining room table – and re-enacting a family circle as we talked about our pre-war life, and gave wind to our anxiety whether we will see our beloved again, and under what circumstances will our life continue... provided we survive."
Ravensbrück was the notorious women's concentration camp located in Germany, some 88 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück. The camp opened in May 1939, originally intended as a work camp for dissident women. Between 1939 and 1945, over 132,000 female prisoners passed through the camp; around 40,000 were Polish and some 26,000 were Jewish - 20% of the prisoners. It is estimated that between 100,000 - 117,000 did not survive.
Edith Peer (nee Salzberger) was born in 1914 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. She grew up in Budapest. She married her first husband, Hungarian born Ferenc Gombos, at age 18 in 1932; divorced two years later (after the war she searched for him but he had been murdered). Edith was deported to Auschwitz in June 1944 to August 1944. She was transferred to Ravensbruck in November 1944 to April 1945. She worked as a secretary to the Chief Engineer of Siemens (which is where she managed to secure paper for the book). After liberation, she immigrated to Sydney with her second husband, arriving 6 January 1951 on the SS Toscana. In 1963 she qualified as a Chartered Accountant, studying by correspondence. Edith died in 2003.
Production date 1945
Subjectfood and eating, cooking, concentration camps, recipes, starvation
Object namebooks
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- cover width: 228.00 mm
cover height: 150.00 mm
pages width: 215.00 mm
pages height: 150.00 mm
Language
- Hungarian English translation in the reproduction book titled 'Fantasy Cooking Behind Barbed Wire' recipes collected by Edith Peer
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Ms. Edith Peer