“When I look at the years that I have ahead of me and I look back at the past, I feel that I still enjoy life and that the only death that weighs upon me is the death of memories.” -Neus Catala Palleja, Prisoner & Survivor of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
Ravensbruck may have been small by the standards of Nazi concentration camps, but that did not make it any less deadly. While considered a slave labor camp rather than a death camp, this difference in semantics does nothing to make what happened at the camp any less sinister. Of the 140,000 imprisoned at Ravensbruck, an estimated 20,000 – 90,000 never made it out of the camp alive. That number is likely closer to the upper limit than the lower one. The vastness of those numbers is not only overwhelming, but also serves to obscure the experiences of individuals who were imprisoned at the camp. Visiting the camp can help bring the prisoners of Ravensbruck back to life. During my visit, I discovered that the faceless figures enumerated in statistics were also flesh and blood human beings.
Traces of the Vanished – Location of the Prisoners Compound at Ravensbruck
Expectations & Devastations – A Sense of Abandonment
The prison area at Ravensbruck was pretty much what I expected. The structures that were still standing gave an incomplete picture of the camp. This fragmentation came at the expense of the victims. For instance, most of the vast areas where prisoners were housed had been destroyed. This area was bleak and ghostly. Crushed gravel and drizzle can have that effect. A feeling of abandonment pervaded the place. This was in stark contrast to the SS Headquarters and Housing Estate which I first saw upon arrival at the site. They are still in fine shape. Whether it was physical, psychological or historical, the injustice of Ravensbruck continued long after the Nazis fled. It is as though historical happenstance has contrived against the victims.
Reclaiming the lives of those who suffered at Ravensbruck has not been easy. The Nazis destroyed every bit of documentation that they could before vacating the site. Not only were they trying to cover up the crimes they had committed at Ravensbruck, but they were also deleting their victims from the historical record. This final act of injustice attempted to deny the prisoners any sort of afterlife in the archives. If anyone has doubts about the low regard for human life exhibited by the Nazis, they need look no further than how they tried to delete every vestige of their victims. It was not enough to destroy them physically. The Nazis were determined to make it seem like the prisoners had never existed at all. Their hate had terrible consequences. This was one of them.
Act of Remembrance – At Ravensbruck
Taking It Back – The Act of Remembrance
The insidious nature of the Nazi enterprise was such that they were taking away the victim’s lives not once, but twice. During their imprisonment and after their deaths. Fortunately, the work to save Ravensbruck has not only meant preserving what is left of the prison, but also the experiences of the prisoners. And those stories start with the survivors. Despite the horrific conditions, there were many who lived to bear witness to the suffering they and their fellow inmates endured. Bearing witness has meant speaking out, speaking up, telling family or friends what they saw, heard and felt. This is the antidote to historical amnesia that many of the survivors utilized after the war.
The most memorable part of Ravensbruck for me did not come until the very end of the visit.
Ironically, this started as something of an afterthought. By the time I got through visiting what is known as Cell Block where the 78 units were the setting for some of the worst acts of cruelty at the camp, I found the thought of visiting anything else associated with the camp emotionally exhausting. A couple of hours at one of the closest approximations of historical hell to be found anywhere in Europe was quite simply overwhelming. I found myself wondering how anyone could have survived here for more than a few days. Those who made it out of Ravensbruck alive are an incredible expression of the human will to live.
“When I look at the years that I have ahead of me and I look back at the past, I feel that I still enjoy life and that the only death that weighs upon me is the death of memories.” – Neus Catala Palleja
The Faces of Europe – Fear, Faith & Friendship
Ironically, what my travel companion and I came across next served as a hopeful coda to the Ravensbruck story. In the garage complex which served as the camp’s vehicle depot, one of the areas has been converted into a special exhibition space. This houses an exhibit called “Faces of Europe” with black and white photos of Ravensbruck survivors. Each of the women had an intense look in their eyes. It was as though they were staring right into you. All the photos, with only two exceptions, had been taken of these women after the war as they rebuilt their lives. The exceptions were photos of two women taken before the war who later died at Ravensbruck. Strangely, there was no biographical information or other text accompanying any of the photos. That information could be found in free booklets that contained the photos, short biographies, and quotes from the survivors or family and friends.
Later, I read through the “Faces of Europe: Daughters Remember Their Mothers, Prisoners of the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp” booklet and learned that the exhibition was being shown in different places across the continent. One of the most fascinating aspects of the survivor’s stories was how differently each one dealt with the experience. There was Denise Rousseau-Villarde whose daughter said she could never describe the conditions at Rechlin, a sub-camp of Ravensbruck. Only stating, “Rechlin, that was horrific. Rechlin, the tomb of my fellow prisoners.” There was Janinia Ciszewska who returned to Warsaw after the war and found that their home no longer existed. She began to build a new life. Janina’s daughter recalled her saying, “I am living again, rising from the dead, leaving misery behind…sleeping normally, eating bread, drinking water in great gulps and at night I have difficult dreams of Ravensbruck Camp which took my youth away.” There was Odette Metais Marchelidon whose daughter says, “To my mother, Ravensbruck represented hell, but she also met extraordinary women there.”
What I found most heartening about the Face of Europe was how the second and third generations of survivor’s families had dedicated themselves to keeping the memory of Ravensbruck alive. Only a couple of the survivors in the booklet are still alive and they will not be with us much longer, but their stories and the story of Ravensbruck will not die with them. It will live on. Ravensbruck is a story that needs to be retold countless times, just as the Ravensbruck Memorial is a place that everyone in the area should visit. The female experience in concentration camps is not sufficiently well known and maybe it will never be. Then again, I have hope after visiting Ravensbruck and reading the Faces of Europe that the story is getting the attention it deserves. Visiting Ravensbruck is difficult and depressing, but it is also essential. Never more so, then now.
Coming soon: Insidious Beginnings – House of the Wannsee Conference Museum (Northern Poland & Berlin #23)
Europe Between East And West 