Ravensbruck & Sachsenhausen (July 7)

Not so far from Berlin are two former concentration camps, Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen.  While neither camp is as well known as Auschwitz (where, in reality, we will be tomorrow, July 12th) or Bergen Belsen (where we were last Friday), both were horrific.  Ravensbruck was set up for female political prisoners, and Sachsenhausen was set up for male political prisoners.  By the end of the war, However, the make up of both camps had changed.

There are a few (more than a few, really) very disturbing things about these camps.  Being so close to Berlin, the heart of the Nazis, Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen were the "training ground" for the SS.  The female guards at Ravensbruck were particularly brutal, and unspeakable medical experiments were conducted.  In addition, the local populations are a mere stone's throw away.  So close they could hear and smell what was happening inside the camp.

By contrast the countryside is lovely.  Ravensbruck is at the edge of a lake.  A lake used as a dumping grounds for the ashes from the cremetorium.  (Ravensbruck had no gas chamber, but many - too many - died, and the bodies were burned.) There were kayakers on the lake, and none of us knew how to deal with people enjoying this wet grave.