Ravensbrueck2012: 2012

The Miscellaneous Ones

A larger, legible version of this is viewable here

close-up of the sign in the above photo

The SS Headquarters in the distance, with the south wall of the garage on the right

Memorial erected by the Soviets in 1959

A sculpture near the Visitor Centre

The Execution Passage

Execution Passage | 1959

The passage between the garage complex’s rear wall and the camp wall has become known as the “execution passage”. There is, however, no historical evidence to prove that it was actually used for executions. The passage was temporarily bricked up. It was assumed that this gap between the two structures formed a “death” or “execution passage” because survivors had remembered hearing shots in the area near the crematorium, and therefore the commemorative stone was set up there in 1959.

- Historical Overview and Map. Memorial Ravensbrueck pdf

The "Execution Passage" is behind the Prisoner Compound wall, and between the

rear wall of the garages, pictured here with the guttering, although they look like

part of the same wall in this photo, there is a three foot gap between them.

The garages are pictured here on the left, behind the red van, on the right is the

SS Headquaters, due to the building work going on, this is the closest I could get.

The SS: Female Guards' Housing

There are eight buildings at Ravensbrueck which were designed and built to house the female SS guards who worked at the camp. After the Soviets captured the camp, and turned it into a Soviet concentration camp, these building housed Soviet guards who worked at the camp, up-until 1994.

The buildings have all been restored, and are now used to house children and young people on extended brainwashing trips to the Ravensbrueck Memorial, trips which are subsidised by the German tax payer.

The SS Officers' Houses

SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Koegel, the former commandant of Ravensbrueck, lived in the beautiful Alpine-type villa below, from its completion in 1939 until 1942. Once the Soviets "liberated" the camp (in actuality, they merely took over the running the concentration camp) this house was occupied by Soviet army officers and their families—up-until 1993.

This is one of four senior officer's houses at Ravensbrueck, there are also 10 houses for mid-level officers (designed to house two families in each) but the former commandant's house is the only one which has been restored and turned into a museum exhibit. For the photos of some of the other houses see bottom of this post.