Frauen im Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück – “Women in the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.” Harsh testimonies, collected at the end of the war, of women who personally experienced the horrors of the Ravensbrück women’s camp, edited by Helmut Franz. Published by Provinzialverwaltung Sachsen, Abteilung: Presse und Propaganda. Halle (Saale) – (Germany) 1946. First edition. In German. Rare.
“Precisely in relation to the women and girls in the concentration camps, the true attitude of the Nazis toward women in general is most clearly evident. A tone of corruption, sadism, and arbitrary cruelty characterizes all the ‘leaders’ of the ‘Third Reich’… What these women went through cannot possibly be expressed in words, all the more so considering that women are far more sensitive than men and react to impressions that men simply pass by…” (From the foreword by Helmut Franz).
A series of harsh testimonies of women who personally experienced the horrors of the Ravensbrück camp in Germany. The booklet opens with the story of Elli Pasibilla, who provided detailed information on the cruelty and crimes of the Nazis in the camp. Pasibilla was arrested in February 1939 in Dresden by the Gestapo on charges of “preparation for high treason and aiding high treason.” After almost two years of detention in a local prison and failed attempts to recruit her for their espionage service, she was placed in solitary confinement for another year, at the end of which she was transferred to Ravensbrück together with another 200 women. During the first four months in the camp she endured severe torture, which she describes, and afterwards remained in the camp for about two more years, managing to survive with her last remaining strength.
Further on, the testimony of Mrs. P. is presented, describing the severe punishments she endured in the “punishment block” of the camp, the torture inflicted on prisoners in the “torture cellar, ” the deliberate starvation of the inmates, women forced to sleep on the floor in the freezing cold, the rampant typhus epidemic, and the appalling hygienic conditions that led to an average death rate of ten women per day, and more. P. testifies that prisoners’ uniforms were almost never replaced – at best, uniforms were exchanged only three times in a year and a half, and some inmates were forced to wear the same clothes for their entire imprisonment. She also describes punishments repeated daily, in which dogs were set upon the inmates, attacking them until they bled and died (“I myself witnessed a similar incident in which one of these dogs attacked a young girl, tore her clothes, and, accompanied by terrible screams, assaulted the genitals of the unfortunate girl so severely that she died shortly afterward from massive blood loss. These incidents, which can be said to be among the most dreadful methods used by the SS men, were repeated several times a day at times, ” she testifies).
One of the most harrowing chapters is the one dealing with medical experiments, in which the bodies of the inmates were used for this purpose. Extremely severe operations were performed without anesthesia. Former prisoners document horrific acts committed against the women’s bodies in a manner almost beyond imagination, hardly conceivable that such grave deeds could be carried out.
Likewise, a special chapter is devoted to the Jewish women in the camp, most of whom had been transferred there from the region of Czechoslovakia. The Jewish women were housed in isolated barracks under the worst hygienic conditions in the camp; inmates suffering from frostbite or burns caused by the exhausting labor were never given medical treatment. Many of the Jewish prisoners were officially designated as “Night and Fog prisoners, ” a term meaning that they were to be sent to their deaths within a short time.
At the end of the booklet are the words of Charlotte Hafferkorn, a survivor of the camp, calling for the pursuit of a new era of resilience and hope that will follow the dark period of Nazism, and on the importance of telling the horrors to future generations. She addresses the camp survivors, urging them to write, to come forward with their stories, and to provide every shred of information and documentation about the difficult years they endured in the camp, even though it is extremely difficult from a psychological perspective, so that future generations will know what the Nazis inflicted upon these helpless women who had committed no crime.
The booklet is accompanied throughout by illustrations depicting harrowing scenes experienced by the women in the Ravensbrück camp.
The Ravensbrück women’s camp, established in 1939 in northern Germany, was a central concentration camp for women during the Nazi regime. More than 130,000 women and girls from many countries were imprisoned there, alongside a small number of men and children. The inmates suffered from severe hunger, exhausting forced labor, torture, and physical and sexual abuse. Cruel medical experiments were conducted in the camp, including experiments on infections, bone transplants, and trials of medicines. Many were murdered by shooting, beatings, starvation, or were killed by gas in the “death barracks” established toward the end of the war. The mortality rate was enormous, and the camp remains one of the most notorious symbols of Nazi cruelty toward women.
31 [1] pages. Minor wear to the cover. Spine reinforced with adhesive tape, as well as restored tears to the lower part of the cover. Good condition.
