by Noémie Wilmes
Background story
Yvonne Useldinger, maiden name Hostert was born on the 6th November 1921 in Steinfort and died on the 11th February 2009 in Esch/Alzette. She was a Luxembourgish politician and resistance fighter. Due to her political commitment and resistance she was arrested twice by the GESTAPO during WWII. She was first arrested in 1941 but was released after due to a lack of evidence. In 1942 Yvonne Useldinger as well as her parents and brother were arrested again. During her second arrest she was pregnant. She gave birth to her child, Fernande in the monastery of the jail in Trier, Germany. Yonne Useldinger’s mother was released and took care of Fernande in the following years.[1]
The deportation to the concentration camp Ravensbrück
Yvonne Useldinger herself was deported to the concentration camp Ravensbrück in late June 1943.[2] The Ravensbrück concentration camp was exclusively for women active from 1939 to 1945. In December 1944 she was transferred to the camp unit Siemenslager. It was a labor camp mainly for winding coils and building relays for telephones.[3]
Yvonne Useldinger received some letters and a package while she was in the concentration camp, sent from her mother. She received a picture of her daughter, that she occasionally was allowed to see for an hour at a time. A camp mate sketched a portrait of this picture, which Useldinger always kept with her. Useldinger left the Ravensbrück concentration camp after its liberation by the Red Army. With other Luxembourgish women she was evacuated and transported to Sweden by the International Swedish Red Cross. The evacuation was undertaken by the Swedish Red Cross and the Danish government to rescue concentration camp inmates in areas under Nazi control an transport them to Sweden, a neutral country. The operation was called “White Buses”. Within a few days around 7000 female prisoners were evacuated from Ravensbrück to Denmark and then to Sweden.[4]
The card ‘Ravensbrück’
The above featured picture shows a card which can be divided into three main sections. On the left side we can see a small translucent envelope with a bundle of hair. The caption says: “Kindes Haare im Paket. Y.U”, which means child’s hair in package, signed with the initials of Yvonne Useldinger. After her deportation to Ravensbrück concentration camp she wasn’t able to see her daughter Fernande which in the meantime was raised by her grandmother. This hair was probably sent to her in a package Yvonne received from her mother. Apart from a picture this was the only thing that gave her an emotional connection to her daughter. On the top left side we can see a safety pin holding an orange and red flower as well as a small white dog. Both items are made out of a toothbrush. The caption says: “Zahnbürste” which means toothbrush. Yvonne Useldinger loved art and tried to make art out of everything she possibly could. The deep signification behind these two details is unknown. They might be related to her personal memories such as her favorite flower or a dog she once owned. On the left bottom side we can see another safety pin holding a golden bracelet. The caption says: “Von einer Oesterreicherin die erschossen wurde”. This bracelet belonged to an Austrian camp mate which got shot. It can be assumed that Useldinger got along well with her and therefore she kept it. All three parts have a strong symbolic meaning. The card titled “Ravensbrück” shows three elements which were assumed to be of a high value for Useldinger. The analysis of the object shows that this card has a high symbolic value. The card contains the hair of her be missed daughter, a souvenir and relict of a shot friend and two self-craved figures that represent her passion for art. It is unknown if she made this card during her stay at Ravensbrück or if she made it during her time in Sweden.
Her manuscript and research
Before she was liberated from the concentration camp in April 1945, Yvonne Useldinger kept a diary in which she recorded her thoughts and outlined her life in the camp.[5] The nineteen-page manuscript was first published in 2006 in an annotated edition by Kathrin Meß[6], staff member of the Ravensbrück memorial. Her diary is one of the few objects that survived Ravensbrück.[7]
Following the director of the Musée National de la Résistance Frank Schroeder, this card as well as more material and some art was donated in the 1950’s shortly after the opening of the museum by Yvonne Useldinger herself.
[1] Land: Meß, Kathrin: … als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle, „Heute lebst du noch“, URL: http://www.land.lu/page/article/427/1427/FRE/index.html
[2] Autorenlexikon, Yvonne Useldinger,
URL: https://www.autorenlexikon.lu/page/author/386/3862/DEU/index.html
[3] Forum 259, Yvonne Useldinger – Eine Luxemburgerin im Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück, p.49-52
URL: https://www.forum.lu/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/5844_259_Meß.pdf
[4] Land: Meß, Kathrin: … als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle, „Heute lebst du noch“, URL: http://www.land.lu/page/article/427/1427/FRE/index.html
[5] Forum 259, Yvonne Useldinger – Eine Luxemburgerin im Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück, p.52
URL: https://www.forum.lu/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/5844_259_Meß.pdf
[6] Kathrin Meß: … als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle. Das Tagebuch der Luxemburgerin Yvonne Useldinger aus dem Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2008.
[7] Land: Meß, Kathrin: … als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle, „Heute lebst du noch“, URL: http://www.land.lu/page/article/427/1427/FRE/index.html
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Guido Lessing (June 25, 2020). Card of an Imprisoned Mother. Intersections of Luxembourgish-Russian History. Retrieved April 29, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ul9t
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