Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp, for female prisoners only, was located 50 miles north of Berlin. Opened in 1939, it had at least 30 subcamps. [1] Its womens' camp was only surpassed in population by that of Auschwitz.[2]
Its population increased substantially in 1944, when the Polish camps were evacuated due to Soviet approaches.
Numerous Nazi medical experiments were conducted here, including bone transplantation, sterilization and sulfanilamide in deliberately infected wounds.
The camp was economically important. Existing companies who used slave labor from it, and are starting to pay reparations include Siemens, AEG and Daimler-Benz.
British occupation forces conducted war crimes trials. Executed were female guards including Dorothea Binz and Irma Griese.