Ravensbrück, Germany: Constructed in 1939 under the direction of Himmler, Ravensbrück was a women’s concentration camp located near Berlin. The camp housed women from several different countries and included Jews, political prisoners, prostitutes, and Roma. Thousands of children who accompanied their mothers were killed immediately after arrival. Numerous medical experimentations and forced sterilization were conducted in the laboratories of Ravensbrück. Selections were conducted on a regular basis, with those too weak to work being shot or gassed on site or sent to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Ravensbrück also sent women to work in brothels of other camps. The Ravensbrück National Memorial Museum was established in 1959 with the goal of providing visitors with a realistic sense of camp life. Since 2001, a new foundation has begun to administer the memorial site, and has reconstructed several portions of the camp. A mass grave is marked with flowers.
