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When a new prisoner arrived at Ravensbrück they were required to wear a color-coded triangle a Winkel that identified them by category with a letter sewn within the triangle that indicated the prisoner's nationality. Polish women wore red triangle, red denoting a political prisoner, with a letter "P". By 1942, Polish women became largest national component at the camp. Jewish women wore yellow triangles, but sometimes, unlike the other prisoners, they wore second triangle for the other categories or for "race defilement". Between 1942 and 1943 almost all Jewish women from the Ravensbrück camp where sent to Auschwitz in several transports following Nazis policy to make Germany "Judenrein" (cleansed of Jews). Common criminals wore green triangles, Soviet prisoners of war, GermanThe word German can mean: From or related to Germany or its predecessor states see also the German language Germanic tribes Holy Roman Empire ( 843- 1806) German Confederation ( 1815- 1866) North German Confederation ( 1867 1871) German Empire ( 1871- 191 and Austrian Communists had red triangles and members of the Jehovah's WitnessesJehovah's Witnesses JW are members of a worldwide religion who actively share with others their beliefs about God. They are widely known for their: : Use of the Hebrew name of God, commonly rendered Jehovah in English : Neutral stand in all political affa were labeled with lavender triangles. Classified separately with black triangles were, prostitutes, and Gypsies. The pink triangles for homosexuals played no role in the Ravensbrück women camp.
Based on the Nazis incomplete transport list "Zugangsliste" consisting 25,028 names of women sent by Nazis to the camp, it is estimated that inmates of Ravensbrück ethnic structure was the following: PolesThe Poles are a western Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with Poland and the Polish language. There are around 38 million Poles in Poland as well as autochthonous Polish minorities in the surrounding countries such as Germany, Ukraine, Romania, et 24.9%, GermansThe Germans ( German: die Deutschen are people of German descent i. ones associating themselves with the heritage of German culture. The concept of who is a German has varied. Until the 19th century, it denoted the speakers of German, and was a much more 19.9%, Jews 15.1%, RussiansRussians Russkie are an ethnic group of East Slavic people, which live primarily in Russia and neighboring countries. Note: often the term Russian is used to refer to any citizen of Russia. In the Russian language there also exists additional recently rev 15.0%, FrenchThe French are a Latin/ Celtic/ Germanic ethnic group primarily associated with France and the French language. There are around 60 million autochthonous French people in France. There are around 1. 38 million french speakers in Switzerland, as well as so 7.3%, Gypsies 5.4%, other 12.4%. Gestapo categorized the inmates as follows: political 83,54%, anti-social 12,35%, criminal 2,02%, Jehovah Witnesses 1.11%, racial defilement 0,78%, other 0.20%. The list is one of the most important documents, preserved, in the last moments of the camp operation, by courageous members of the Polish underground girl guides unit "Mury" (Walls). The rest of the camp documents were burned down by escaping SS overseers.
One of the forms of the resistance were underground education programs organized by prisoners for the fellow inmates. All national groups had some form of such programs with most extensive among Polish women where various high school level classes were taught by experienced teachers.
Inmates at Ravensbrück suffered greatly. Living in subhuman conditions, thousands were shot, strangled, gassed, buried alive, or worked to death. A special method of torture were medical experiments conducted on 86 women; 74 of them were Polish inmates. There were two types of the experiments done on Polish political prisoners. The first one aimed at testing the efficiency of sulphonamide drugs. The criminal experiments involved the deliberate cutting out and infection of bones and muscles of the legs with virulent bacteria, the cutting out of nerves, the introducing into the tissues of virulent substances like pieces of wood or glass and the causing of artificial bone fractures. The second one aimed at studying the processes of regeneration of bones, muscles and nerves, and also the possibilities of transplanting bones from one person to another. All the experiments were done against the will and despite the open protest of all the victims. Five of the polish victims died as the result of the experiments. Six others were executed in the camp. The rest of the "rabbits" or Kaninchen as they were called survived thanks to help of other inmates in the camp.
Between 120 and 140 Gypsy women were sterilized in the camp in January 1945. All of them, unaware of the consequences, signed the consent form after being told by the camp overseers that the German authorities release them if they agree to sterilization.
All inmates were required to do heavy labor. The women were forced to work at many kinds of slave labor, from heavy outdoor jobs to building the V-2 rocket parts for the giant German company, Siemens AG.
Ravensbrück had a gas chamber and crematorium, and at the end of 1944 the place became a death camp. With the Soviet Army's rapid approach in the Spring of 1945, the SS decided to exterminate as many prisoners as they could in order to avoid anyone being left to testify as to what had happened in the camp. With the Russians only hours away, at the end of April, the SS ordered the women still physically well enough to walk to leave the camp. Less than 2,000 malnourished and sickly women and 300 men remained in the camp when it was liberated by the Red Army on April 30, 1945. The survivors of the Death March were liberated in the following hours by a Russian scout unit. By the time liberation came, tens of thousands (estimates are about 30.000 to 40.000) women and children had perished there.
Amongst the thousands executed by the Germans at Ravensbrück were four female members of the SOE: Denise Bloch, Cecily Lefort, Lilian Rolfe, and Violette Szabo as well as the Roman Catholic nun, Elise Rivet, Elisabeth de Rothschild, the 25-year-old French Princess Anne de Bauffremont-Courtenay , and Olga Benário , wife of the brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. The largest group of executed women at the Ravensbrück camp, 200 in total, was the Polish group of young patriots, members of Polish Home Army.
The name of the camp appeared in numerous trials held against Nazis after WWII. One of those trials Doctors' Trial was held by Military Tribunal from October 1946 till February 1948 in Nuremberg, Germany. The following Nazi doctors participating in the medical experiments in Ravensbrück were found guilty and sentenced by the Tribunal: Victor Brack, Rudolf Brandt, Karl Brant , Dr.Fritz Fischer, Karl Gebhardt, Karl Genzken , Siegfried Handloser , Joachim Mrugowsky , Herta Oberheuser, Adolf Pokorny , Helmut Poppendick , Paul Rostock , Gerhard Schiedlausky , Percy Treite who conducted or participated in various experiments such as sulphanilamide , bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration and bone transplantation, and sterilization experiments.
Renewed attention and interest in the camp came about following the Düsseldorf War Crimes Trials begun in 1976. Among the most notorious of those placed on trial was a guard supervisor at Ravensbrück, Hermine Braunsteiner, who had been tracked down by the famous Nazi-hunter, Simon Wiesenthal. Numerous witnesses from Ravensbrück identified her as the pale, blue-eyed, six-foot tall blonde, called "The Stomping Mare" because of her penchant for killing children by trampling them, often in front of their mothers. In 1981, the then 61-year-old woman was sentenced to life imprisonment for numerous child murders and other brutal crimes.