Ravensbrück (German pronunciation: [ʁaːvənsˈbʁʏk]) was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km (56 mi) north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel).
Construction of the camp began in November 1938 by SS leader Heinrich Himmler and was unusual in that it was a camp primarily for women. The camp opened in May 1939. In the spring of 1941, the SS authoriti...
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Ravensbrück (German pronunciation: [ʁaːvənsˈbʁʏk]) was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km (56 mi) north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel).
Construction of the camp began in November 1938 by SS leader Heinrich Himmler and was unusual in that it was a camp primarily for women. The camp opened in May 1939. In the spring of 1941, the SS authorities established a small men's camp adjacent to the main camp.
Between 1939 and 1945, over 130,000 female prisoners passed through the Ravensbrück camp system, around 40,000 were Polish and 26,000 were Jewish. Between 15,000 and 32,000 of the total survived. Although the inmates came from every country in German-occupied Europe, the largest single national group incarcerated in the camp consisted of Polish women.
The first prisoners at Ravensbrück were approximately 1000 women. The SS had transferred these prisoners from the Lichtenburg women's...
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