Sarah Helm wins the Longman-History Today Book Prize

Sarah Helm has won the Longman-History Today Book Prize for her book If This Is a Woman - Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women. Published by Little, Brown in 2015, the judges described If This Is a Woman as 'an outstanding piece of scholarship and historical retrieval.' Sarah won £2,000 at the event at the Law Society yesterday (12th January)

IF THIS IS A WOMAN

For decades the story of Ravensbruck was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and it remains little known. Using tesimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War and interviews with survivors who have never spoken before, Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved. 

Far more than a catalogue of atrocity, however, If This Is a Woman is also a compelling account of what one survivor called 'the heroism, super-human tenacity and exceptional willpower to survive. Chilling, inspiring and deeply unsettling If This Is a Woman is a groundbreaking work of historical investigation.