The Ravensbrück concentration camp infirmary, known as the Revier, was often simply a way station to death, the place where doctors and nurses carried out terrifying experiments and eventually killed the sick, the weak, and the so-called “idiots”.
From August 1, 1942 to August 16, 1943, seventy-four Polish female prisoners and an unspecified number of women prisoners of other nationalities underwent horrific surgeries without the use of anaesthesia. They were called “Die Kaninchen”(The Rabbits), women prisoners who were used as human guinea pigs for brutal experimental surgeries, performed on the bones, muscles and nerves of the lower limbs, mostly on the shanks, and sometimes on the thighs.
The surgeries were performed by physicians from Hohenlychen Hospital supervised by Professor Karl Franz Gebhardt and Dr Fritz Ernst Fischer and later by others. The camp’s SS doctors, Dr Herta Oberheuser, Dr Rolf Rosenthal, and Dr Gerhard Schiedlausky participated in these gruesome medical experiments.
“I know… I look hideous, but I’m still alive!”Why do they - those sadistic brutes - rob us of the very last human elements that we have and need for our bitter existence? So many thoughts run through my head as I try to focus on my sick friends. Then, I close my eyes and shake my head as if trying to escape from the other thoughts that assail me. But, Katia’s gaze pierces my heart and soul… She is indeed the embodiment of human folly! * * * Night is falling… the infirmary hums with noise and painful cries. All the beds are occupied by ageless human skeletons. Some inmates lift their heads, fragile skulls with abnormally sunken eyes. Yellowish, sagging skin, often covered with abscesses. Others cry out and talk loudly of their hunger, of death… trying vainly to liberate themselves from this nightmare; yet others lie silent, trapped within themselves. These women, beaten by rubber truncheons and assaulted by fierce dogs, were forced to work twelve hours a day. These women now stand shaking and naked, waiting for the “doctor” to attend to their medical needs. They stand silently in one straight row, and if anyone moves even slightly or falls out of line, she is beaten mercilessly. Many of them are forced to lie on the bare floor, as the beds with straw mattresses are already occupied. One straw mattress… for three sick women! The living often find themselves lying beside a dead sister, but they are too weak to get up and inform the “nurses”. The stronger ones push the dead body away, thus claiming more space on the mattress. The body lands on the floor with a loud thud, catching the “nurse’s” attention. The nurse curses angrily, and sets upon the “perpetrator”, beating her mercilessly across the face. For this “misdemeanor”, the woman is deprived of food and water for the entire day. The doors to the so-called Waschraum (lavatory + washing area) stood near our wall. All the bodies were thrown inside, but among them, there were some that were still alive and breathing. However, they lay there, almost lifeless and indifferent to everything and everyone. Their pain and suffering were about to end. By the early morning, the Waschraum was crowded with dead and half-dead women, one body lying on top of the other. During the night, the rats had eaten off one side of their faces… through the half-open door we could see the naked bodies lying in the middle of debris, their arms hanging listlessly in despair. I lift my head and glance through the door… the sweat streams from my forehead… perhaps the fever is finally subsiding. My parched lips long for a drop of water… In the morning, the bodies are removed and taken to the crematorium… but, maybe, in this heap of naked bodies, someone’s heart is still beating?! * * * Suddenly, a group of frightened “nurses” rushes into the room:
“Hurry, hurry, the doctors are on their way to inspect the infirmary!”My two bed mates, Valentyna and Katia rise up slowly and look at me:
“This is the end!” they whisper through trembling lips.We lower our heads; tears roll down our cheeks… silently dropping on the worn, stinking mattress…
Ravensbrück concentration camp was the only major Nazi concentration camp for women and also served as a training base for female SS supervisors. Some 3,500 women underwent training there. They then worked in Ravensbrück or were sent to other camps. The Ravensbrück camp was established in 1938 and liberated on April 29-30, 1945 by the Soviet Army. It is estimated that about 130,000 women were incarcerated at Ravensbrück. About 30,000 to 50,000 women died therein.
Elisabeth Marschall was born on May 24, 1886 and became a nurse in 1909. She rose to the rank of Oberschwester (Head Nurse) in the Revier (hospital) barracks at Ravensbrück, where she brutalized sick prisoners and took part in horrific experiments. She also played an active role in the selection process for the gas chamber; it is estimated that she handpicked over 800 women to be transported to Auschwitz and ultimately to their death.
Between December 5, 1946 and February 3, 1947, sixteen members of the camp staff were arrested and tried on charges of murder and brutality by a military court of British officers and lawyers in Hamburg, the British Zone. All were found guilty on February 3, 1947. Eleven were sentenced to hang, including five women - head nurse Elisabeth Marschall, Aufseherin (overseer) Greta Bösel, Oberaufseherin (senior overseer) Dorothea Binz and kapos Carmen Mory and Vera Salvequart.
41-year-old Carmen Mory cut her wrists during the night of April 9 with a razor blade that she had concealed in her shoe and thus escaped the noose. 27-year-old Dorothea Binz was hanged on May 2, 1947; 60-year-old Elisabeth Marschall and 39-year-old Greta Bösel were hanged on May 3, 1947. Vera Salvequart was executed on June 2, 1947. The executions were carried out in Hamelin Prison, Hamelin, a city in the German state of Lower Saxony.
