The Jewish women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp

Ravensbrück was established by the Nazis in 1939 as a concentration camp for female political prisoners. Jews constituted ca. 20% of the ca. 132,000 prisoners who were incarcerated there throughout the six years of its existence, from May 1939 to April 1945. Most of Ravensbrück's Jewish prisoners were either killed or transferred to other camps in 1942; however, from 1943 and especially in 1944, many Jewish women arrived from other camps, including Auschwitz. The study is based largely on interviews granted and/or written information contributed by 58 survivors and their families. After a brief history of the camp, its conditions, etc., focuses on the fate of some of the prisoners before their incarceration, during it, and afterwards, among them Olga Benario Prestes, Käthe Pick Leichter, Gemma LaGuardia Gluck, and Gloria Hollander Lyon. Dwells on the fate of child prisoners in Ravensbrück, the satellite camps (e.g. Malchow, Neustadt-Glewe, and Neubrandenburg), spiritual resistance, death marches, and gendered aspects of the Ravensbrück experience. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)