For a considerable amount of time, World War II scholars encountered the appellation Ravensbrück, but had no knowledge on what transpired in the German concentration camp.
Before the war finished, all information concerning Ravensbrück, a camp for women, was destroyed. After the war, the region was part of the Soviet Union. Thanks to researchers who have located survivors and visited the site, we are now aware that the camp was built in 1939 and housed individuals considered to be prostitutes, criminals, minorities, or those who opposed Hitler.
One of the survivors noted in her recollection that the female inmates were "the cream of Europe’s women."
Subsequently, she added, “The comprised General de Gaulle’s niece (depicted above), an ex-British women’s golf victor, and a plethora of Polish countesses.”
Ravensbrück is notorious for its medical experiments conducted on the female prisoners, many of whom were Poland-affiliated.
One medical objective was to assess sulfonamide drugs. This was done by injuring a inmate and introducing bacterial viruses into their wound. Ultimately, it mostly led to death or everlasting harm.
They sought to investigate if muscles and bones could regenerate or be put into a different body. Consequently, they broke, dissected and implanted the bones of the prisoners, causing intense torture.
In order to test the performance of the drugs examined, some women were used as subjects with no analgesic: one group had their wounds filled with wooden particles, the other had glass pieces implanted, and the last one had a merge of the two.
At the 1943 medical conference in Berlin, Nazi doctors reported on the outcomes of their experiments. None of the civilian German physicians was willing to challenge the experiments on the basis of their mercilessness.