Introduction: National Socialism and Women
Part I — Beginnings
1. The Women’s Camp and the SS
The Early Concentration Camps and Women
The Creation of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp
The SS Administration
Female Overseers
2. Arriving
First Impressions
The Trauma of Processing
Part II — The Women Prisoners
3. Green and Black Triangles: Criminals, Asocials & Gypsies
Categories
Criminals
Asocials
The Youth Camp
Gypsies
4. Lavender Triangles: Jehova’s Witnesses
Intransigence and Persecution
The “Volunteer” Prisoners
5. Yellow Triangles: Jews
German Anti-Semitism
Nazi Anti-Jewish Programs, 1933—39
Jewish Women at Ravensbrück
6. Red Triangles: Politicals
Communists
Foreign Resistance Workers
Russian Army Women and “Special Prisoners”
7. Nationalities
Nationality Conflicts
The Poles
The French
8. The Prisoner Administration
Block and Room Seniors
Other Prisoner Officials
The Haves and Have-Nots
PART III — Living and Working at Ravensbrück
9. The Camp Routine
Roll Calls/ Food
Weekends
Clothing and Possessions
10. Friendships
Camp Families
Intimacy and Homoerotic Relationships
11. Little Pleasures
Mail
Parcels
Getting the News
Bartering
Money
12. The Finer Things in Life: Cultural and Educational Activities
Poetry
Paintings and Drawings
Handicrafts, Singing, and Storytelling
Educational Programs
13. Keeping Clean (and Other Personal Matters)
Lice and Delousings
Menstruation
Dysentery
Rape
14. Two Factories
The SS Textile Factory
The Siemens Factory
15. Work Crews
Administrative and Kitchen Work
Gardens and Farm Work
Internal Work Crews
The “Availables”
Prisoner Prostitutes
16. The Subcamps
Overview of a Mini-Empire
Life and Work in the Subcamps
Neubrandenburg
Dresden and Leipzig
Neustadt-Glewe and Malchow
German Civilians and Ravensbrück Prisoners
17. Crime and Punishment
“Minor” Punishments
The “Idiots’ Rooom”
The Punishment Block
The Bunker
Sabotage/Escapes
Executions
18. Sickness and Health
Sick Call and the Infirmary
Extermination Through Work
Medical Experiments
Typhus and Tuberculosis
19. The Men’s Camp
20. Children
Children in the Camp
The 1944 Christmas Parties
Births in the Camp
The Children’s Transports
PART IV — From Work Camp to Extermination Center
21. The Final Winter
Overcrowding
The Tent
Corpses and Cremations
Uckermark: A Killing Place
The Gas Chamber
Anarchy
22. April 1945
Red Cross Transports
Death Marches
Liberation by the Red Army
23. Conclusion