History

Ravensbrück concentration camp, built by the SS in 1939, was the largest women’s concentration camp in the German Reich. After its liberation in April 1945, the Soviet Army took over much of the former concentration camp and used it as a barracks. From 1948, former prisoners attempted to establish a place of remembrance. The “Ravensbrück National Memorial” with the first museum at the former camp prison was opened on 12 September 1959. In 1993, after the unification of the two German states, the Memorial became part of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation. When the CIS armed forces left the area in 1995, large parts of the former concentration camp became accessible. Since the autumn 2019, the area of the women's protective custody camp, as extended in 1940, and the men's camp, built in 1941, are open to the public.