Born in 1921, Yvonne Hostert grew up in Differdange. At the age of 16, she joined the Luxembourg Communist Party (PCL). She was the youngest speaker at the protest meeting during the referendum campaign against the "muzzle law" held on 30 May 1937 in Esch-sur-Alzette.
In 1940, Yvonne Hostert married Arthur Useldinger, the future mayor of Esch-sur-Alzette (from 1946 to 1949 and from 1970 to 1978) and one of the emblematic figures of the Luxembourg communist movement.
In 1943, Yvonne, her parents and her brother were arrested by the Gestapo. Yvonne was taken to a prison in Trier where she gave birth to her daughter Fernande. A few months later, Yvonne is deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her mother is released and can take care of her granddaughter. Eighteen months after her arrival, Yvonne begins to write a diary that documents the last six months in the concentration camp. The idea for the diary came to her at the beginning of December 1944, when Yvonne was transferred to the camp of the Siemens armaments company. She explains her decision in an interview: "This diary was created because these changes, ...were very big and because we had to deal with all our problems in this small prison. And then there was also the story of Uckermark, where prisoners were brought down past our camp [...] and then they were gassed and burned. We saw all that, everything. I had to hold on to that somehow".
The diary is published by Kathrin Meß under the name "...als fiele ein Sonnenschein in meine einsame Zelle".
Yvonne Hostert survived the ordeal and was liberated by the Swedish Red Cross at the end of April 1945.
Yvonne Useldinger was also co-founder and president of the Union des Femmes Luxembourgeoises (UFL), a representative of the Conseil National des Femmes du Luxembourg, and a member of the International Committee of former Ravensbrück prisoners.
She passed away on 11 February 2009.
Source:
● Tageblatt 11 February 2009.