Ravensbrück is a village of Germany located at 80 km in the north of Berlin. Of 1934 with 1945, the mode Nazi establishes there a Concentration camp especially reserved to the women and the children.

The camp was built on the edges of the Lake Schwedtsee, opposite the town of Fürstenberg, in a zone of dunes and marshes of the north of the Brandebourg.

Succeeding in 1939 the camp of Lichtenburg, it quickly became the most important detention center of women of the country: at least 132  000 women and children were off-set there, of which 90  000 were exterminated. Held were to work in the fields of fabric, leather and electric assemblies. The camp provided in female labor the whole of German industries of armament and the salt mines. As from April 1941, men were locked up in an additional camp.

Last assassinations and release of the camp

Gazages women take place until the last moment, in March 1945. The last assassinations occur on April 25th, 1945 when eleven held employed in Krématorium are carried out by poisoning.

When the Soviet armed arrived the April 30th 1945, there remained only 2  000 held not evacuated.

The Memorial

In 1959, the national Memorial of Ravensbrück was created. A museum was arranged in the same cells of internment. It evokes with realism operation and the life of the camp At side, one can see the crematoriums and the corridor of the executions. A memorial was set up on the bank of the lake.

Art with Ravensbrück

Certain forms of art developed in the concentration camp of Ravensbrück, in spite of the circumstances. Let us quote some artists most representative of this camp: Violet Lecoq, France Audoul, Charlotte Delbo, Berika, Félicie Mertens and Aat Breur-Hibma.

External bonds

• the site of the Memorial
• Some drawings of artists of Ravensbrück

References

Random links:

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