Author: Academia.edu

Abstract: »This chapter examines violence against women imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück, the only camp specifically designed for women. Between 1939 and 1945, over 130,000 women of twenty-seven nationalities passed through its gates, with the majority perishing. Drawing on survivor memoirs, archival documents and postwar testimonies, the chapter explores the everyday experiences of female prisoners subjected to forced labour, medical and pseudo-medical experiments, sexual violence, starvation and systematic humiliation. It analyses the camp’s structure, prisoner composition and the roles of both SS personnel and prisoner functionaries in perpetuating terror. Special attention is given to reproductive violence, including sterilizations, abortions and infanticide, alongside the broader mechanisms of control, punishment and extermination. Despite extreme brutality, the chapter highlights strategies of survival, resistance and solidarity among women. Ravensbrück emerges as a case study of gendered violence under Nazism, where cruelty was institutionalized and women’s bodies became primary sites of oppression and experimentation. The postwar trials of Ravensbrück staff underscore both the magnitude of these crimes and the lasting trauma endured by survivors.« (Source: Springer Nature Link)

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Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Germany / Nazi Germany | Internment: Nazi concentration camps / Ravensbrück concentration camp | Sex and the law: Sexual violence / Sexual violence during the Holocaust