JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. KONZENTRATIONSLAGER RAVENSBRÜCK/GERMANY
Wednesday, Av 6, 5776. August 10, 2016.
Shalom! World.
The KZ Ravensbrück Women's Concentration Camp (1939-1945)
The women's concentration camp was continually expanded until 1945. The SS had more and more huts erected to house prisoners, and in the autumm of 1944, a large tent was added. Within the camp's perimeter wall, an industrial complex comprising several production facilities was established, where female prisioners were forced to carry out tasks traditionally considered women's work such as sewing, weaving or knotting. The company Siemens & Halske had 20 worlkshops constructed outside the camp's perimeter, where prisoners were forced to work from the late summer of 1942. As the war progressed, over 40 satellite camps in which Ravensbrück prisoners were forced into slave labour were set up all over the German Reich. 
Around 132,000 women and children, 20,000 men and 1,000 adolescent girls and young women (imprisoned in the Uckermark "juvenile protective custody camp") were registred as Ravensbrück prisoners between 1939 and 1945. These prisoners came over 40 nations and included Jewish, sinti and Roma people. Tens of thousands of them were murdered, died of hunger and disease or were killed in medical experiments. In the course of "Operation 14 f 13", prisoners considered infirm or unfit for work were selected and murdered. Along with the vistims of "14 f 13", a number of Jewish prisoners were taken to the Bernburg "sanatorium and nursing home" and were murdered in the facility's gas chamber. In late 1944, the SS set up a provisional gas chamber at Ravensbrück in a hut next to the crematorium, where between 5,000 and 6,000 prisoners were gassed between late January and April 1945.
Shortly before the end of the war, the International, Danish and Swedish Red Cross evacuated around 7,500 prisoners to Sweden, Switzerland and France. Following an evacuation order from Himmler, Ravensbrück's commandant Fritz Suhren had the remaining 20,000 prisoners marched towards the north-west in several columns. On 30 April 1945, the Red Army liberated the camp and aaround 2,000 sick prisoners who had been left behind.
Jewish Women at Ravensbrück
The history of the Jewish women of Ravensbrück can be divided into three main periods. In the first stage, from the opening of the camp to early 1942, Jewish women were handled much the same as others prisoners, and almost all the Jews at Ravensbrück were from the Reich (roughly, German-speaking Central Europe). The German conquest of Poland in the fall of 1939 had brought three million more Jews under German control, but they were not sent to camps in Germany at that time. Rather, they were crammed into the bewly created ghetto system, vastly overpopulated holding pens. The inavsion of Russia in 1941 added perhaps another three million, some of whom were killed on the spot by the most notorious of SS groups, the Einsatzgruppen.
Judenrein (cleansed of Jews). From this point, there were transports of Jews to killing centers or to ghettos and camps in Poland. In 1941-1942, the directors of the Adult Euthanasiaa Program, known simply as T4 (on account of their address, Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin), were involved in a killing operation known cryptically as Special Handling 14f13. The operation was aimed primarily at handicapped adults, but in fact the major criterion for selection was a prisioner's ability to perform physical labor. Handicapped and work-incapable Jews were particulary liable. In May 1942, Rosa Menzer, an elderly Jewish woman who had been brought to Ravensbrück in early 1940, was seleccted for a transport, then sent to a euthanasia center at Bernburg and killed, very likely by gasssing.
The second stage of Jewish history at Ravensbrück began in 1942 when Himmler enacted measures designed to make Germany
By the end of 1940, there were four euthanasia centers operating in Germany, and the regime's preferred method of killing - gas chambers designed as shower rooms - had proven its effectiveness. In the case of the 14f13 operation mentioned above, T4 physicians visited Ravensbrück and made decisions based on infirmary records and physical exaaminations, including analysis of "poor behavior". (Bad behavior was considered an indication of genetic disease.) Recently, Henry Friedlander has demonstrated how fully the Final Solution envolved out ot the euthanasia program: "The success of the euthanasia policy convinced the Nazi leadership that mass murder was technically feasible, that ordinary men and women willing to kill large numbers of innocent human beings, and that the bureaucracy woulld cooperate in such an unprecedented enterprise," The resilts was that by late 1941-early 1942, the system was committing itself to large-scale extermination of Jews and other "undesirables,"and the bureaoucratic machinery created by the SS had its own dynamic and momentum for carrying this out.
In August 1942, a transport of six hundreds Jews was sent from Ravensbrück to Auschwitz. These transports continued until 21 June 1943, when according to Nazi plans, the last Jews were removed from Ravenbrück. In pratice, however, Ravensbrück never became Judenfrei. As the supposedly "last Jews" were being taken out, others were being brought in. However, only a few Jwish women remained at Ravensbrück between early 1943 and mid-1944.
In the late summer of 1944, as the third and final stage commeenced, the trend was reversed. Work-capable Jews from camps and ghettos in the east were dispatched to camps in the west, in advance of approaching Soviet armies. In the winter of 1944-1945, Ravensbrück took on the character of a human distribution center as thousands of newcomers were brought into a camp already overcrowded beyond belief. Many of these newcomers were whisked as quickly as possible to subcamps, and their experience at Ravensbrück was limited to a stay of only a few days. In fact, some Jewish women thought that Ravensbrück was only a trsnsient camp, that nobody stayed there permanently. In retrospect, those women whose residency at Ravensbrück in the winter of 1944-1945 was limited to a fortnight or less were the lucky ones. Those who stayed longer, probably domiciled in "the tent," had a greatlydiminished chance of surviving.
Many of the German_jewish women were from the middle class, often from small, tightly knitcommuniites. The whole process of separating them form their families, shaving their heads, parading them naked inn front strangers, and placing them in noisy and overcrowded barracks was a particulary traumatizing experience. The SS seemed to delight in exacerbating their condition by assigning bourgeois Jewish women to work that was physically very demanding, such as the road building crew, then ridiculing and punishing them if they proved unable to perform these manual tasks. Not surprisingly, some Jewish women who were classified as Politicals took special precautions to prevent having their Jewishness discvered. One such inmate went so far as to avoid all contact with other Jews.
There was a widespread belif among non-Jewish prisoners that the SS's treatment of Jewish women was more discriminatory and more brutal tha their treatment of other inmates, although not all Jewish prisoners shared this opinion. Some of the SS personnel who were thought to be relatively decent in their conduct toward most prisoners were frequently quite unsympathetic and harsh in their dealing with Jews. Some SS personnel absolutely refused to work in close proximity, such as in the same office, with Jews. Certain SS doctors had a reputation for being so prejudiced against Jews that other staff members avoided sending Jews to them, Al of this was reflected in the reality that Jews were rarely given desirable work assignments, they were alost never appointed to positions as prisoner officials, and their barracks were the first to became overcrowded. They were, in short, prevented from becoming part of the camp's power structure, and as such, they lacked the wherewithal to trade favors and "scratchbacks" which might have improved their status.
In contrast to the blatant anti-Semitism displayed by so many of the SS, however, there is astonishingly little evidence of anti-Semitic attitudes or behavior among the female prisoners. The recurrent expressions of anti-Gypsy sentiment by women inmates are not paralleled by anti-Jewish biases. On the contrary, many women felt sympathy for the Jews. Many prisoners felt particular sympathy toward the Jews from their own countries. Dagmar Hajkova became frustrated because Czech Jews were kept isolated from the rest of the Czechs, and therefore it was difficult to help them. In 1942, however, when the entire Jewish Block was punished by receiving food rations only every fourth day, the Czechs were sucessful in organizing an effort to gather food and smuggle it into the Jewish Block every other day.
In discussing the Jewish society of Ravensbrück and the daily life of Jewish women i the camp, it is necessary to make a distinction between the two periods during which there was a significant Jewish presence there: 1939-1942, and late 1944-April 1945. In treating the earlier period, we are considerably disadvantaged by the almost complete lack of firsthand accounts or oral histories. Many of the Jewish women who were in the camp then were transported to points east in 1942 and 1943, and presumably were killed. But from other sources, it is posible to piece together some of the key ingredients.
Until their expulsions in 1942-1943, Jews had their own block, always presided over by a non-Jewish women block senior. It was one of the first blocks to experience significant overcrowding. As the number of Jewish women in the camp rose to over four hundred in 1941, and over six hundred in 1942, the inhabitants of the one Jewish block had to make room for the newcomers, however uncomfortably. In those years, Jews were mostly assigned to outside work, hard physical labor. The road-building crew, which pushed the monster concrete rollers, was almost exclusively Jewish, as was the crew that loaded stones and gravel for construction.
The history of the Jewish women of Ravensbrück can be divided into three main periods. In the first stage, from the opening of the camp to early 1942, Jewish women were handled much the same as others prisoners, and almost all the Jews at Ravensbrück were from the Reich (roughly, German-speaking Central Europe). The German conquest of Poland in the fall of 1939 had brought three million more Jews under German control, but they were not sent to camps in Germany at that time. Rather, they were crammed into the bewly created ghetto system, vastly overpopulated holding pens. The inavsion of Russia in 1941 added perhaps another three million, some of whom were killed on the spot by the most notorious of SS groups, the Einsatzgruppen.
Judenrein (cleansed of Jews). From this point, there were transports of Jews to killing centers or to ghettos and camps in Poland. In 1941-1942, the directors of the Adult Euthanasiaa Program, known simply as T4 (on account of their address, Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin), were involved in a killing operation known cryptically as Special Handling 14f13. The operation was aimed primarily at handicapped adults, but in fact the major criterion for selection was a prisioner's ability to perform physical labor. Handicapped and work-incapable Jews were particulary liable. In May 1942, Rosa Menzer, an elderly Jewish woman who had been brought to Ravensbrück in early 1940, was seleccted for a transport, then sent to a euthanasia center at Bernburg and killed, very likely by gasssing.
The second stage of Jewish history at Ravensbrück began in 1942 when Himmler enacted measures designed to make Germany
By the end of 1940, there were four euthanasia centers operating in Germany, and the regime's preferred method of killing - gas chambers designed as shower rooms - had proven its effectiveness. In the case of the 14f13 operation mentioned above, T4 physicians visited Ravensbrück and made decisions based on infirmary records and physical exaaminations, including analysis of "poor behavior". (Bad behavior was considered an indication of genetic disease.) Recently, Henry Friedlander has demonstrated how fully the Final Solution envolved out ot the euthanasia program: "The success of the euthanasia policy convinced the Nazi leadership that mass murder was technically feasible, that ordinary men and women willing to kill large numbers of innocent human beings, and that the bureaucracy woulld cooperate in such an unprecedented enterprise," The resilts was that by late 1941-early 1942, the system was committing itself to large-scale extermination of Jews and other "undesirables,"and the bureaoucratic machinery created by the SS had its own dynamic and momentum for carrying this out.
In August 1942, a transport of six hundreds Jews was sent from Ravensbrück to Auschwitz. These transports continued until 21 June 1943, when according to Nazi plans, the last Jews were removed from Ravenbrück. In pratice, however, Ravensbrück never became Judenfrei. As the supposedly "last Jews" were being taken out, others were being brought in. However, only a few Jwish women remained at Ravensbrück between early 1943 and mid-1944.
In the late summer of 1944, as the third and final stage commeenced, the trend was reversed. Work-capable Jews from camps and ghettos in the east were dispatched to camps in the west, in advance of approaching Soviet armies. In the winter of 1944-1945, Ravensbrück took on the character of a human distribution center as thousands of newcomers were brought into a camp already overcrowded beyond belief. Many of these newcomers were whisked as quickly as possible to subcamps, and their experience at Ravensbrück was limited to a stay of only a few days. In fact, some Jewish women thought that Ravensbrück was only a trsnsient camp, that nobody stayed there permanently. In retrospect, those women whose residency at Ravensbrück in the winter of 1944-1945 was limited to a fortnight or less were the lucky ones. Those who stayed longer, probably domiciled in "the tent," had a greatlydiminished chance of surviving.
Many of the German_jewish women were from the middle class, often from small, tightly knitcommuniites. The whole process of separating them form their families, shaving their heads, parading them naked inn front strangers, and placing them in noisy and overcrowded barracks was a particulary traumatizing experience. The SS seemed to delight in exacerbating their condition by assigning bourgeois Jewish women to work that was physically very demanding, such as the road building crew, then ridiculing and punishing them if they proved unable to perform these manual tasks. Not surprisingly, some Jewish women who were classified as Politicals took special precautions to prevent having their Jewishness discvered. One such inmate went so far as to avoid all contact with other Jews.
There was a widespread belif among non-Jewish prisoners that the SS's treatment of Jewish women was more discriminatory and more brutal tha their treatment of other inmates, although not all Jewish prisoners shared this opinion. Some of the SS personnel who were thought to be relatively decent in their conduct toward most prisoners were frequently quite unsympathetic and harsh in their dealing with Jews. Some SS personnel absolutely refused to work in close proximity, such as in the same office, with Jews. Certain SS doctors had a reputation for being so prejudiced against Jews that other staff members avoided sending Jews to them, Al of this was reflected in the reality that Jews were rarely given desirable work assignments, they were alost never appointed to positions as prisoner officials, and their barracks were the first to became overcrowded. They were, in short, prevented from becoming part of the camp's power structure, and as such, they lacked the wherewithal to trade favors and "scratchbacks" which might have improved their status.In contrast to the blatant anti-Semitism displayed by so many of the SS, however, there is astonishingly little evidence of anti-Semitic attitudes or behavior among the female prisoners. The recurrent expressions of anti-Gypsy sentiment by women inmates are not paralleled by anti-Jewish biases. On the contrary, many women felt sympathy for the Jews. Many prisoners felt particular sympathy toward the Jews from their own countries. Dagmar Hajkova became frustrated because Czech Jews were kept isolated from the rest of the Czechs, and therefore it was difficult to help them. In 1942, however, when the entire Jewish Block was punished by receiving food rations only every fourth day, the Czechs were sucessful in organizing an effort to gather food and smuggle it into the Jewish Block every other day.
In discussing the Jewish society of Ravensbrück and the daily life of Jewish women i the camp, it is necessary to make a distinction between the two periods during which there was a significant Jewish presence there: 1939-1942, and late 1944-April 1945. In treating the earlier period, we are considerably disadvantaged by the almost complete lack of firsthand accounts or oral histories. Many of the Jewish women who were in the camp then were transported to points east in 1942 and 1943, and presumably were killed. But from other sources, it is posible to piece together some of the key ingredients. Until their expulsions in 1942-1943, Jews had their own block, always presided over by a non-Jewish women block senior. It was one of the first blocks to experience significant overcrowding. As the number of Jewish women in the camp rose to over four hundred in 1941, and over six hundred in 1942, the inhabitants of the one Jewish block had to make room for the newcomers, however uncomfortably. In those years, Jews were mostly assigned to outside work, hard physical labor. The road-building crew, which pushed the monster concrete rollers, was almost exclusively Jewish, as was the crew that loaded stones and gravel for construction.
However disadvantaged Jewish women werein the early stage (1939-1942) of their stay at ravensbrück, their conditions were clearly worse inn the later stage, from mid-1944. Now there was no Jewish barracks, but only a tent and some makeshift sheds. Those who were put in the tent for any length of time werevirtually condenned. Most of Jewish women who were sent to ravensbrück in the winter of 1944-1945 spent only a short time there before being sent elsewhere, generally to one of the subcamps. Under these conditions, it was extremely difficult to create any kind of social organization. Rosi Mauskopf, who arrived in the late 1944 as a sixteen-years-old, remembered the circunstances with no hint of nostalgia: "It was chaos in the block. They beat each other for a piece of bread. In this hell it was impossible to remain human. I experienced neither friendship nor solidarity with fellow prisoners."
Jewish prisoners who were sent to a regular block at this time, rather than being sent to a subcamp, were not given work assignments. This was because there were simply not enough jobs for all the new arrivals, but it did cause animosity between them and the other prisoners who had to work every day. Even among the Jews, there was some contentiousness, as Alexandra Gorko, recently arrived from Auschwitz , remembered:
Mostly the girls I was in the barracks with spoke Jewish (Yiddish). I didn't, so i couldn't communicate. I understood them, but i couldn't speak to them. I answered them in Polish, and they didn't like it. They said, "Oh, this is one of those intelligentsia." Even the Jews were ridicluling each other: "You don't know how to speak Jewish, what?" And it was very unpleasant.
The Ravensbrück National Memorial (1959-1990)
Jewish prisoners who were sent to a regular block at this time, rather than being sent to a subcamp, were not given work assignments. This was because there were simply not enough jobs for all the new arrivals, but it did cause animosity between them and the other prisoners who had to work every day. Even among the Jews, there was some contentiousness, as Alexandra Gorko, recently arrived from Auschwitz , remembered:
Mostly the girls I was in the barracks with spoke Jewish (Yiddish). I didn't, so i couldn't communicate. I understood them, but i couldn't speak to them. I answered them in Polish, and they didn't like it. They said, "Oh, this is one of those intelligentsia." Even the Jews were ridicluling each other: "You don't know how to speak Jewish, what?" And it was very unpleasant.
The Ravensbrück National Memorial (1959-1990)
The "Ravensbrück National Memorial" was opened on 12 September 1959 and was one of the GDR's three national memorials. In their design, the architects, members of the so-called Buchenwald colletive, included parts of the former concentration camp buildings such as the crematorium and the camp prison (cell building) located outside the four metre high camp wall, as well as a section of the wall itself. In 1959, a mass grave was established outside the camp wall's western secction, where the remains of prisoners from various burial sites were reburied. The bronzee sculpture "Burdened Woman" ("Tragende") by Will Lammert is at the heart of the memorial's design and is still considered the memorial's symbol.
From May 1945 until january 1994, the grounds of the former concentration camp except for the memorial area on the banks of Lake Schwedt were used for military purposes by the Soviet and later the CIS forces.
In 1959/1960, the first mmuseum was established at the former camp prison. Survivors from various countries In Europe donated their keepsakes, drawings and documents from the time of their imprisomment. In the early 1980's, the National Memorial's management drew up a concept for the "Exhibition of Nations" at the cell building, which allowed organisations or representatives from the individual countries to design their own exhibitions. 17 such national memorial rooms were designed on the building's first floor.
From 1984, the former SS headquaters, which had been used by the Soviet troops until 1977, housed the Memorial's main permanent exhibition and was referred to as the "Museum of Anti-Fascist Resistance".
The Ravensbrück Memorial (since 1993)
After the reunification of Germany, the Memorial became part of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation (Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten), a foudation under public law funded by the State of Brandenburg Memorials Foundation are the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum , the "Death March Museum" in Belower Wald near Wittstock, and the Brandenburg/Havel Documentation Centre at the Brandenburg prison.
The "Museum of Anti-Fascist Resistance" at the former SS headquarters was replaced by two new permanent exhibitions in the course of the Memorial's redesign in the early 1990s, and three new memorial roomswere added at the cell building: one for the prisoners incarcerated at Ravensbrück following the 20 July 1944 attempt on Hitler's life (1991), one dedicated to the camp's Jewish prisoners (1992) and one for the Sinti and Roma imprisoned at Ravensbrück (1995). A new exhibition on the history of the cell building was opened in 2006. One of the former houses for female guards at the SS housing estate was restored according to the guidelines for the restoration of historic monuments. Since 2004, this building has contained an exhibition on the female SS guards deployed at Ravensbrück concentration camp.
Shalom! Aleichem.
Cultural Support: Jacob Jr B.A.C.E., avec L'Integration d'Association avec Israel et dans le Monde/Cz.
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