The archive of the Ravensbrück Memorial Museum contains a wide range of documents. Many documents from the period of the concentration camp have been destroyed or have disappeared. However, fragments of the registry and administrative files of the Ravensbrück Camp Complex have been preserved and can be viewed in the original or copy on site.
The systematic development of the archive began in 1981 at the Ravensbrück National Memorial with the cataloguing and indexing of documents. Since the early 1990s, extensive collections from archives and institutions in Germany and abroad have been brought to Ravensbrück as copies through research and exhibition projects. Personal bequests were added to the collection over the following years.
The archival holdings include:
- Fragments of the original concentration camp administrative documents
- Documents from the post-war period in the original or as copies, including holdings of the "Lagergemeinschaft Ravensbrück/Komitee der antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer der DDR" and the collection of Ravensbrück survivor Erika Buchmann
- Bequests and personal funds of former prisoners
- Research documents from exhibitions and research projects
- Copies of documents from external archives
Personal and inventory databases are available to users on-site for research purposes. The relevant data protection regulations and any contractual restrictions apply.
For research on individual prisoners of the Ravensbrück camp complex or on SS personnel and female guards, please refer to the separate information!
