Ravensbrück Concentration Camp

Ravensbrück Concentration Camp was a Nazi concentration camp established exclusively for women. Located near the village of Ravensbrück in northern Germany, about 90 kilometers north of Berlin, it was opened in May 1939 by the SS under Heinrich Himmler’s orders. It became the largest women’s camp in the German Reich.

Initially designed to hold about 3,000 prisoners, Ravensbrück grew massively over time. More than 130,000 women and children, as well as around 20,000 men (mainly from a later-established adjacent camp), passed through it between 1939 and 1945. Prisoners came from over 30 countries, with many being political prisoners, resistance fighters, Jews, Romani people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others deemed 'undesirable' by the Nazi regime.

The conditions were brutal—overcrowding, forced labor, starvation, disease, and violence were rampant. The camp was also the site of medical experiments, particularly on Polish female prisoners, involving surgical procedures without anesthesia, infections, and bone transplants.

Ravensbrück had a crematorium installed in 1943 and later a gas chamber in early 1945, used to murder thousands of prisoners as the Nazi regime intensified its genocidal campaign.

The camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in late April 1945. Estimates suggest that at least 50,000 prisoners died there due to execution, malnutrition, medical abuse, and harsh conditions.

Today, Ravensbrück serves as a memorial and museum, preserving the memory of those who suffered and died there, and educating future generations about the horrors of the Holocaust and totalitarian rule.

Address
Straße der Nationen 1, Fürstenberg, Germany

Established
1939