Starred Review. In this study of Ravensbruck, the only Nazi concentration camp specifically for women, located in northern Germany, Helm (A Life in Secrets) delivers a detailed analysis of the institution's history, the geographic and administrative origins of its staff, and profiles of many of the camp's prisoners. The book is particularly strong in providing descriptions of the texture of daily camp life; indeed, the reader can almost feel inmates' backbreaking labor as well as the causal sadism of the guards and medical staff. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Helm's investigation is that in the midst of Nazi brutality, the captives were beset by extreme factionalism. For example, one German communist repatriated by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to Nazi Germany after the Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939), was accused of being a Trotskyite and blackballed by the other communists for criticizing Stalin. VERDICT Helm begins with the dubious assertion that the story of Ravensbruck is largely unknown, despite the existence of more than a dozen monographs and memoirs about the facility. Despite this, her work, which is based on extensive archival research and oral histories, will likely become the standard account. Highly recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, 5/19/14.]-Frederic Krome, Univ. of Cincinnati Clermont Coll. (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

THIEVES OF STATE: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, by Sarah Chayes. (Norton, $16.95.) Greed, cutting across businesses, governments and military organizations, has been a consistent obstacle to establishing stable democracies in a number of countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the former Soviet Union. The author, a former journalist in Afghanistan and later an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also outlines how corrupt governments can create conditions primed for violent extremism. MAKING NICE, by Matt Sumell. (Picador, $16.) Over the course of this darkly funny debut collection, readers see Alby, an uncouth but tenderhearted antihero, turn to self-destruction to grieve his mother's death: He picks fights (especially with his own family), drinks too much and dips into his mother's stash of pain pills. But these stories show that the way out of grief is through connection with others. PUBLISHING: A Writer's Memoir, by Gail Godwin. (Bloomsbury, $16.) Godwin, the author of 14 novels, reflects on nearly five decades as a writer, and "the practices and preoccupations" that go along with the trade. Appearances by John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut and other literary stars lend a nostalgic tone to the memoir, but the book's driving force is Godwin's hunger to be published. THE JAGUAR'S CHILDREN, by John Vaillant. (Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $14.95.) After trying to cross the border into the United States, Héctor is trapped inside a broken-down tanker truck with other migrants, abandoned by the smugglers tasked with delivering them. As hope and resources wane, Héctor sends a series of text messages to a contact he's never met, describing his journey from Oaxaca to the border, and trying to ensure his story is heard. These attempts form the framework for Vaillant's first novel. RAVENSBRÜCK: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women, by Sarah Helm. (Anchor, $20.) Fifty miles north of Berlin, a concentration camp built for female prisoners was the site of executions, horrific medical experiments and beatings. Only a small number of prisoners were Jewish; others included prostitutes, Communists and aristocrats (Fiorello La Guardia's sister was imprisoned there for a time). THE DIVER'S CLOTHES LIE EMPTY, by Vendela Vida. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $14.99.) On a trip to Morocco, an unnamed narrator loses her passport and wallet, and is granted the opportunity to step into a new identity. As Fernanda Eberstadt wrote here, the novel "portrays with cool wit and suspense the explosive emancipation of a woman" poised "to grab some warmth, drama, magic for herself." MICHELLE OBAMA: A Life, by Peter Slevin. (Vintage, $17.) Slevin's thoughtful biography details the first lady's academic and professional accomplishments, and shows the farreaching effects of her childhood and loving, supportive parents; without their influence, "there might not now be a black first family in the White House," Amy Chozick said here.

Former journalist Helm (A Life in Secrets) seamlessly combines oral and written accounts of prisoners and female guards in this well-researched, chronological narrative of the "only Nazi concentration camp built for women." Heinrich Himmler had chosen the forested, lakeside site north of Berlin for its "natural beauty," and it came to house a variety of female prisoners-only about 10% were Jewish-including Polish countesses, British spies, Gypsies, resistance fighters, and common criminals. Liberated by the Soviets in 1945, Ravensbrück's location in the new East Germany meant that, for the West at least, it essentially "disappeared from view." Helm rectifies this historical void, immersing readers in the stories of individuals and groups to capture not only horrific and graphic depictions of torture and murder, but also the humanity of the women and their desire to survive in the midst of dehumanization, factional fighting, and starvation. While some-like the communists-were honored in East Germany, Helms also describes acts of courage from the "asocials and criminals," now-nameless prostitutes, and Jehovah's Witnesses. This book deserves significant attention, both for Helm's notable interviews of aging witnesses and as a beautifully written history of events that offers additional insight into Nazism and those caught in its path. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Just when you thought you knew all about the Holocaust camps, Helm (A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII, 2006) chronicles the history of this much-ignored site for women.It was little different from other camps, its primary purpose removing those who would sully the German gene pool and using them as slave labor. In the Nazis' obsessive record-keeping, each inmate had a file and was identified by a colored patch dividing them into political prisoners, asocials (lesbians, prostitutes), Jehovah's Witnesses and Jews. Prussian efficiency required paperwork and approvals for every action or move. Even punitive beatings (as opposed to the everyday cruelties) required the signature of Heinrich Himmler himself. However, this is not really the story of the deaths by gas, firing squad, lethal injection, poison and neglect (starvation); the author smartly focuses on the incredible ways that a wide variety of women fought to survive. Those who were sent to factories, like Siemens, purposely sabotaged the arms they worked on. The imprisoned Jehovah's Witnesses and Red Army medics succeeded in refusing to work on armaments. Poles who had been used in medical experiments found a way to smuggle their stories out written in their own urine. Not all had the strength to withstand the barbaric conditions, and 40,000 to 50,000 of the 123,000 prisoners died. Only a Swedish mission miraculously saved 17,000 lives toward the end of the war. This camp isn't well-known for a number of reasons: The staff destroyed all records, it was in the Russian zone, victims wouldn't discuss it, Russian prisoners were actually punished for being caught, the camp was on a smaller scale, and the contention was that "they were only women." Not just another tale of concentration camp terrors, Helm delivers a gripping story of the women who outlasted them and had the strength to share with the author and us 60 years later. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.