Le madri, la guerra, la fame. Esperienze di deprivazione estrema nell’Europa centrale (1915-1920)

Abstract

Based on women’s writings –letters, diaries, memoirs– and on works by contemporary observers, the essay outlines a picture of women’s experiences of extreme deprivation in Austria and Germany, of their survival strategies and protest. It dwells also on the writings of those feminist pacifists who went to Vienna, Berlin and other German cities from 1915 and 1920 to bring aid and a message of peace. From the magnitude of the suffering caused by disease, infant mortality, deprivation and despair of mothers, these women drew new impetus for activism, strengthened their pacifist and feminist beliefs, elaborated a philosophy of aid as an instrument of international peace and reconciliation, and worked out a new economic vision.