Article about: KL-Ravensbrück - Männerlager Ravensbrück, infamous for its place in history as one of the major concentration camps in Nazi Germany and the only major camp primarily established to hold fema
Ravensbrück, infamous for its place in history as one of the major concentration camps in Nazi Germany and the only major camp primarily established to hold female prisoners, was also the site of a men's camp. In the spring of 1941, under the command of Kommandant Max Koegel, some two and a half years after the establishment of the women's camp began, the SS authorities set up the Männerlager (Men's Camp), a relatively small camp located adjacent to the Industrial Estate and positioned at the eastern end of the camp complex proper. The reason for the introduction of the men's camp, and the male inmates to be housed there, was to provide the SS with the slave labour required to expand the existing camp and its increasing number of satellite camps, which eventually totalled more than forty. From its establishment in April 1941 til the end of the camp some four years later, the Männerlager held around 20,000 prisoners and came under the authority of the women's camp command. Today, very little remains of the former camp, save for what remnants are visible in the image attached below. Also added is a plan of the former Männerlager and a section of a letter written by a male inmate in autumn 1941 - note the postal control stamp marking reads "KL-Ravensbrück" = Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück (Concentration Camp Ravensbrück) and not "f.KL-Ravensbrück" = Frauen Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück (Women's Concentration Camp Ravensbrück)
At the moment of liberation, hundreds of the cca 2,000 people left behind due to their weakened condition were from the Männerlager. Of these, around 400 were French. Of those, only 150 were able to return home, the rest, too weakened by their ordeal at the hands of the SS and without even water for several days leading to the eventual liberation, failed to survive, despite the nursing of people such as Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, a member of the French resistance who had been incarcerated at Auschwitz and Ravensbrück, where she kept records in the infirmary.
Tomorrow, 30th April 2019, marks the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Ravensbrück. As Hitler committed suicide just 50 odd miles to the south, thousands of sick and weakened prisoners of the infamous camp at Ravensbrück finally tasted freedom, when the Red Army arrived a day after the SS fled the camp.
Ravensbrück Männerlager - Ravensbrück Men's Camp
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