Ravens Derechen Research Paper

Hitler in full power created laws, one of his laws was on how Jewish people citizenship and prohibiting marriage or sexual relations with people of "German or related blood”. Thus, started the concentration camp movement, Jews, Communists, Gypsies, homosexuals and others were sent to the camps. Hitler was known as a “monster” for his masterplan to eliminating the Jews. He ended over 11 million lives for no reason what so ever, just for what he believed. With such twisted morals, Hitler and his Nazis persecuted based off religions, cultures and beliefs. The holocaust was an insight for him as the “Final Solution” for his own benefit on what he believed in and his hatred towards Jews and others.

Since the Nazi soldiers were male, they treated men and women prisoners in their camps with a significant amount of difference. Prisoners were forced to do pointless yet challenging labour for an indefinite time before they were sentenced to death. Upon arrival at the camps, Jews were divided into two different groups; one would group would live and the other would be sent to the gas chambers immediately. The labour intensive tasks proved to be quite brutal for women since they were not accustomed to such duties. Even pregnant women were not spared and many women miscarried because the hard labour had killed their unborn child. Those babies who were born were almost inevitably taken immediately and killed. There was no privacy in these camps and the women were continually being eyed by the lonely, watching soldiers. Some women were beaten or sexually harassed while in the camps and could do nothing to stop the horror. Their husbands, brothers and fathers were either dead or in a different part of the

“‘Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions’” (Quotes About Holocaust, 1). The Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz was the brutal murder site of millions of innocent Jews and other perceived enemies of Germany. Here, death and suffering was the norm and there was no escape from the wicked acts of the Nazis until the prisoners’ long awaited liberation. However, Auschwitz changed the victims’ lives forever.

They left them to starve with little food, to work in all terrible,deplorable, uncouth conditions all for them to feel and to be treated like vile animals. Prisoners even acted like animals fighting for food,water and clothing - anything to get them to live one more day. A lack of compassion for others can not change what they saw in the concentration camp ”bela katz- son of a big tradesman from our town-had arrived at Birkenau with the first transport, a week before us. When heard of our arrival, he managed to get word to us that, having been chosen for his strength, he had himself put his father’s own body into the crematoria oven “ (Wiesel 33) Having to put his own father into his own death bed is a harrowing experience and not being able to protest at the fear of his own death is an irrefutable memory that will never be forgotten. The nazis and their unvarnished mistreatment,ciless hostility that showed no compassion for the prisoners “ then came the march past the victims two men were no longer alive .their tongues were hanging out swollen and bluish . but the third rope was still moving; the child too light was still breathing ….. And so he remained for more than half an hour lingering between life and death,writhing before our eyes.and we were forced to look at him at close range he was still alive when i passed him .his tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished”(Wiesel 65) . death

The majority of the people were killed in concentration camps. Over 2,000,000 people were killed at the camp called Auschwitz. Over 1,380,000 people were killed in the camp Majdanek, and over 800,000 people were killed in the camp called Treblinka. Treblinka only had a staff of 150 people. The camp Belzec had 600,000 deaths. Some camps that had a smaller death toll were, Chelmno which had 340,000 deaths. Sobibor had 250,000 deaths. Camps that had “small” death numbers were Mauthausen who had less than 95,000 deaths, Ravensbruck had less than 90,000 deaths, and Bergen- Belsen had 70,000 deaths. Bergen-Belsen was the camp that Anne Frank died at- two weeks after her death, her camp was liberated by British troops. The German concentration camps were first set up in 1933, and the original purpose of them was to keep anyone who was “undesired” or was a political enemy to Nazi Germany. The main purpose of these camps was not to kill people, but many times people would die because of the living conditions, malnutrition, or because they were treated cruelly. Many camps did medical experiments on the detainees, and few of the victims survived these medical experiments. These gruesome experiments would be performed in an unclean room and would be performed without anesthesia. Many times it was common for the victim to die later because of unclean living quarters. Most people think that Germany wouldn’t have been a major threat in

Ravensbruck was specifically made for women. Ravensbruck wasn't made as just another camp for the Jewish it was used for much more. Ravensbruck opened in 1939, and housed 90,000 women when the camp was liberated. Most of the women were Polish, German, and from the Soviet Union. Therefor, there were many different prisoners.

During World War II, Hitler created many different death camps and transit camps. One transit camp in particular is Theresienstadt. It is located near Prague, Czechoslovakia and its alternate name is Terezin. Theresienstadt was a transit camp that was supposed to be a “model” camp to do away with the accusations of murder of the Jewish people. Theresienstadt had a movie made about it even though its conditions were terrible, it had its own form of “government”, and it was a camp where children left their art and poems before their death.

Ravensbruck was a concentration camp during the Holocaust that still stands today. It was mostly used to hold Jewish women but also many others. But, it was not one of the most well-known camps of the Holocaust. Although it was located near many cities that had camps that we know of today, its existence was kept from the public. I am writing this to tell you about the people, location, and the reasons why Ravensbruck is not one of the well-known concentration camps of the Holocaust.

Most of the “camps and certain areas within concentration camps were designated specifically for female prisoners” (www.ushmm.org). Men during the holocausts who had businesses and rights were striped of all they had and were forced to hard labor. The men were forced to work until death, starvation was one leading cause of death in labor camps were men worked. Also diseases and disabilities also affected most men and how they live during the holocaust. Jewish men that were brought back form the infirmary were shown in pictures and a skeleton and looked as if the man had not eaten in a year and S.S soldiers considered them as fit to work. German citizens that helped Jews were also taken as prisoners and sent to camps until death. Anyone who survived through that living nightmare is a brave and strong person with having to see your family perish before your eyes and never seeing them again is a very tough thing to when you stay strong and never giving up until freedom. Most Jewish people that survived either had runaway and kept their identity secret for the German not to find out or survived by betraying their families to help the Germans. The Holocaust was a horrifying event that none would feel comfortable to talk about but by this topic we learn what happened to the life of Jewish men, women, and children and what their life was during the holocaust.

Ravensbrück was located in a swamp 50 miles north of Berlin and was the only Nazi camp built for women. It served as a training base for 3, 500 females that would later be recruited into the Nazi paramilitary corps. First, it was

Ravensbruck was a German concentration camp which was in use from May, 1939-April, 1945. Much like all other concentration camps, it was used to imprison many different types of people who the Germans did not consider part of the “Perfect race”. Ravensbrück was second in size only to the women's camp in Auschwitz. However, the one thing that singled out this concentration camp is that it was for women only. Only women were imprisoned in this concentration camp, and many starved to death, or were executed by German soldiers. In 1938, five hundred prisoners were transferred to Ravensbruck to construct the facilities. The camp was opened on May, 15 1939. Within the first week of the camp being open, it had over 800 women prisoners. All prisoners were forced to wear special triangles on their uniforms that would represent their race.

I went to this memorial site by myself on the Sunday to compare and contrast the differences between this concentration camp and Ravensbrück. Through the exportation of this site, I noticed many individuals with “selfie” sticks and using them in order to take “selfies” throughout the site. I noticed people even taking these types of pictures in the memorial part of the camp. This was by far the most disgusting and disturbing area that I found people taking “selfies” in because it is where the SS guards had the crematoriums, the gas chamber and where the guards would shoot the prisoners. This thoroughly disgusted me the fact that people thought this was a socially acceptable practice to take “selfies” in the a place of such destruction of human

Over one million people lost their lives in this one area (“Auschwitz” 2). The high amount of executions are chilling and alarming. A disrobing site, a gas chamber, and a crematorium were created in the death camp (Holocaust Encyclopedia 1). These three aspects assisted into making the massacre occur. After the victims were dead, Nazis proceeded in burning the bodies into ashes. Moreover, several people faced severe torture before even being exterminated. Schutzstaffel specialists, otherwise known as the heinous SS, conducted pseudo-scientific research and experimentation on numerous people. Humans of all ages, from young children to adults, suffered under these circumstances. SS specialists performed painful and traumatic medical experiments on dwarfs, twins, and young children (Holocaust Encyclopedia 2). All of the listed people, were tortured and belittled for simply being the way they were. It was as if these people were puppets and the Schutzstaffel enjoyed tugging on their strings. As for grown men and women, adults were forced to undertake sterilizations and castrations in order to cooperate with the fake research (Holocaust Encyclopedia 2). The

Ravensbruck the concentration camp that was mostly filled with womens it is located in northern Germany, 56 miles north of Berlin. The SS started building the Ravensbruck concentration camp in 1939, after the closure of Lichtenburg concentration camp in 1935, the Ravensbruck concentration camp was the only main concentration camp, opposed to subcamps. In November, 1939 the SS authorities transferred about 500 male prisoners from sachsenhausen concentration camp and 900 women prisoners from the Lichtenburg concentration camp to construct Ravensbruck concentration camp. And also, Ravensbruck camp is about only 56 minutes away from sachsenhausen concentration camp. The Ravensbruck concentration camp was the largest concentration cap for women

The Schutzstaffel men holding Queenie keep her in check with threats of being sent to one of two concentration camps: Ravensbrück or Natzweiler-Struhof. She writes, "She tells me that if I am lucky I will be sent to a place called Ravensbrück when they are finished with me here. It is a concentration camp solely for women, a labor camp and prison." (113). Ravensbrück was indeed a camp for women - specifically, political prisoners like Queenie, Jewish women, and lesbians. Queenie continues, "If I am not lucky I will be sent to a place called Natzweiler-Struhof. This is a smaller and more specialized concentration camp, the vanishing point for Nacht und Nebel prisoners, who are mostly men. Occasionally women are sent there as live specimens..."