Everyday objects from the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and its satellite camps such as clothing, utensils or handkerchiefs are kept in the Memorial Museum's repository. The collection also includes artistic objects made by prisoners: Miniatures carved from toothbrush handles, handmade jewellery and drawings as well as address books, notebooks and books of songs and recipes. It also holds objects belonging to former SS members and artefacts from the history of the Memorial Museum. The artefacts from the concentration camp period are stored in a climate-controlled room that maintains constant temperature and humidity.
The cornerstone of the collection was established with the creation of the Ravensbrück Memorial in 1958/59. An appeal by the International Ravensbrück Committee led to the creation of a unique collection, which has since been continuously expanded through donations and purchases. The collection has been systematically catalogued since the 1980s.
The Ravensbrück Memorial currently stores 12,000 objects, of which 9,000 have been inventoried, catalogued and digitally recorded. Further cataloguing of the collection and the recording of around 4,000 as yet unregistered objects, including many from the period when the former camp area was in use of the Soviet and later CIS forces, is ongoing.
Today, the repository contains artefacts from the following periods:
- Ravensbrück Concentration Camp (1939-1945)
- Post-war period up to the establishment of the Memorial Museum (1945-1959)
- Ravensbrück National Memorial Museum of the GDR (1959-1993)
- Subsequent use of the site by the Soviet army and CIS forces (1945-1993)
- Ravensbrück Memorial Museum since the establishment of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation in 1993
The digitally recorded holdings can be searched on-site in our database. Please register with us with advance notice for on-site research.
