Ravensbruck was a camp for women near Furstenberg (about 56 miles north of Berlin).Out of 132,000 who passed through the camp, about 92,000 died. The original intent of the Nazis was to rent the female labor supply to the industrial farms located in the area. The camp women worked primarily on the production of SS uniforms. Ultimately, the camp furnished cheap labor throughout a large part of Germany. Once a price was agreed upon, a business would receive 500 to 1,000 women along with wardwomen equipped with dogs and clubs. Dead or dying workers were replaced with fresh ones at no additional cost to the client. More than 20 barracks were assigned to the work command at the nearby Siemens factory. The camp was notorious for its medical experiments on women. In April, 1941, a camp for men was established near the Ravensbruck camp, but officially it was a satellite of the Sachsenhausen camp. In late March, 1945, the camp was ordered to evacuate and 24,500 prisoners were put on the road to Mecklenburg. At the end of April, 1945, the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
Erik Lordahl, German Concentration Camps 1933-1945, History and Inmate Mail (2000). Referred to as
Lordahl.
Feig, Hitlers Death Camps (1979)
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Copyright © 2002 Edward Victor