BHS / ENG
In 1939, the SS had the largest women’s concentration camp in the Greman Reich built in the village Ravensbrück, close to the small town of Fürstenberg/Havel (50 km North of Berlin). Between 1939 and 1945, 132,000 women, 20,000 men and 1,000 young women from the ”Youth Protection Camp Uckermark” were registered as prisoners. The 150.000 prisoners came from over 40 countries and were often used for forced labor; tens of thousands were murdered or died from hunger, illness or medical experimentation. After the Red Army liberated the camp on April 30th, 1945, the land was used by them for military purposes until 1994; outside of the historical camp walls a Memorial was opened in 1959, which was one of the GDR’s three national Memorials. After the German reunification, the site became a part of the Brandenburg Memorial Foundation, and the Ravensbrück Memorial Site was expanded to include extensive parts of the historical concentration camp complex. Nowadays, the Memorial combines remembrance, research and historical-political educational work, related for example to gender-questions, the topic of SS-perpetrators, the evolution of the Memorial site and of victim-narratives from the GDR to today. The Ravensbrück International Youth Exchange Site with an affiliated youth hostel was opened in 2002, at the former houses of the female SS-guards.
Pictures of the visit:
Monument in Ravensbrück Memorial
Memorial Room for Prisoners from Yugoslavia
Former Houses of SS-guards
Guided Tour Campsite Ravensbrück
Monument in Ravensbrück Memorial
Individual exploration of the Memorial Site
More info:
Website of the Ravensbrück Memorial
http://www.ravensbrueck.de/mgr/index.html
Background information of the memorial
http://www.orte-der-erinnerung.de/en/institutions/institutions_liste/ravensbrueck_memorial_site/