Ravensbrück
Concentration camp, 1939–1945. Today Fürstenberg/Havel (Ravensbrück), Germany.
Ravensbrück was the largest concentration camp for women on German territory. From November 1938 the SS had it built near the village of Ravensbrück, about 90 kilometres north of Berlin; the first prisoners, about 1,000 women from the Lichtenburg concentration camp, arrived in May 1939. Between 1939 and 1945 close to 132,000 women and children were registered there, together with about 1,000 girls in the nearby "Uckermark youth protective custody camp"; a men's camp added in April 1941 held about 20,000 prisoners. The women came from across occupied Europe and included many Jewish women.
Prisoners were forced to work in SS-run workshops, in agriculture and, hired out by the SS, for armaments companies, many of them in satellite camps. In spring 1942 about 1,600 women and 300 men from Ravensbrück were sent to their deaths at the Bernburg killing centre; about half of them were Jewish. At the beginning of 1945 the SS built a gas chamber next to the crematorium, in which it murdered between 5,000 and 6,000 prisoners (USHMM). An estimated 28,000 women and men died in the camp, its satellite camps and on the death marches of April 1945. At the end of April 1945 the Red Army liberated about 3,000 sick prisoners who had been left behind in the camp.
From Berlin
Ravensbrück was not a destination of the large deportation trains from Berlin, but it received some of the last Berlin deportees. In late 1944 and early 1945, with the Red Army advancing, the final small "Osttransporte" were sent to camps near Berlin. According to the Arolsen Archives, the 60th and 61st transports (December 1944 and January 1945) went to Sachsenhausen, from where the women were sent on to Ravensbrück; the Statistik des Holocaust list gives "Ravensbrück/Sachsenhausen" as the destination of the 59th to 62nd transports (24 November 1944 – 2 February 1945), which carried between 15 and 28 people each. A further group, listed by the Gestapo for Sachsenhausen (11 people) and Ravensbrück (13), was instead deported to Theresienstadt on 27 March 1945.
1 transport from Berlin brought 28 people here; at least 4 of them are known to have survived.
Transports from Berlin to Ravensbrück
| Date | Designation | From | People | Known survivors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24.11.1944 | 59. Osttransport | Not documented | 28 | 4 |
The memorial today
The Ravensbrück Memorial was inaugurated in 1959 as a national memorial of the GDR; today it presents the camp's history in permanent exhibitions and memorial rooms, one of them devoted to the camp's Jewish prisoners, and runs an international youth centre.
Sources
- Memorialmuseums.org: Ravensbrück Memorial Largest women's concentration camp on German territory; built from November 1938, 90 km north of Berlin; first prisoners from Lichtenburg; 132,000 women and children, Uckermark camp, men's camp from April 1941 (~20,000); forced labour; gas chamber early 1945; estimated 28,000 deaths; Red Army liberated about 3,000 sick prisoners at end of April 1945; memorial inaugurated 1959; exhibitions, memorial room on Jewish prisoners, youth centre; location Fürstenberg/Havel
- USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia: Ravensbrück First prisoners May 1939; spring 1942 killings at Bernburg (1,600 women, 300 men, about half Jewish); gas chamber early 1945 with 5,000–6,000 victims; liberation April 1945
- Arolsen Archives: Deportations from Berlin (1.2.1.1, VCC 155 I) 60th and 61st Osttransporte to Sachsenhausen, women sent on to Ravensbrück; 59th uncertain
- Statistik des Holocaust: Deportationslisten Berlin 59th–62nd Osttransporte to 'Ravensbrück/Sachsenhausen' with 28, 15, 20 and 25 people; group listed for Sachsenhausen (11) and Ravensbrück (13) sent to Theresienstadt on 27 March 1945
- Wikipedia (de): KZ Ravensbrück coordinates
