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Afterword Ravensbriick Now Today a Soviet tank stands by the entrance to Ravensbriick, a staunch reminder of the liberation of the camp by the Red Army on April 30, 1945. Just beyond the tank, on the left, stand several homes, pleasant in mien though now in disrepair, which once housed Nazi officers and their families. An exception to the general tumbledown look of these buildings is one undergoing significant renovation to become an accommodation for former prisoners revisiting the site of their suffering and memories. These are primarily members of the Lagergemeinschaft (Camp Organization), an association of survivors of Ravensbriick that holds regular meetings here at the camp memorial. On the right spreads out the lake, its present-day tranquillity belying the purpose it served from 1943 to 1945 as a repository for ashes from the crematorium. Startlingly close, across the lake, one sees the spire of the Protestant church in Fiirstenberg, the outline of stores and homes. Could the residents of the town have been oblivious to the plight of the prisoners and the stench of the ovens? Schwedt See, the lake that figures prominently in so many Ravensbriick memoirs, is today dominated by a statue high on a pedestal, which was created by sculptor Will Lammers and dedicated on September 12,1959. The former commandant's headquarters and home, a large and impressive building just to the left of the road, comes next into view. This building now serves as the museum and offices of the camp, although it has done so only since the 1980s when the Soviet army turned it over to the camp administration for that purpose. Extensive, thoughtful, and compelling exhibits in this building detail, among other things, the lives of twenty-six specific prisoners: their country of origin, the "offense" that resulted in their imprisonment, and their life after surviving the camp. Also available is information regarding the daily lives of inmates, their 249 Afterword work, their resistance, their small gifts to one another. Several black binders of articles and bibliographies provide yet more information. An informal English-language guide to the camp, prepared by Professor Jack Morrison of Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania, is also available. For a period of time nearthe end ofherimprisonment, Herbermann worked in this building. Another one of the few surviving original buildings is the infamous cell blockwhere special punishments were meted out; Herbermann was once imprisoned here. This structure, which served as the camp museum from 1959 to 1984, is a two-level building in which the second floor, upon which one enters, has been sliced open through the middle from one end to the other; such a cut allowed the guard to view both levels of cells at once. Still firmly implanted in the floor are the metal rings to which the omnipresent SS guard dogs were chained. Today, the cell block contains the bookstore, which provides brochures, posters, videos, and books in several languages about Ravensbriick. Downstairs, three cells have been set up to show the three types of punishment meted out here: 1. Three-day punishment—the inmate was provided with a bed, toilet, stool, heat, and window. 2. Forty-two-day punishment—the inmate was provided with a bed, stool, toilet, but no window so the cell was in darkness. 3. "Standing punishment"—the prisoner was provided no furnishing , no window, and no time limitation; most prisoners died under these circumstances. A nearby cell contains the "beating block," a slatted wooden frame over which women were strapped to be beaten; a leather truncheon hangs on the wall. The upstairs cells have been transformed into memorial rooms for countries from which prisoners were deported to Ravensbriick. Each country was given the opportunity to create its own memorial; some are information oriented, with documents, photographs, and the names ofthewomen; others are more artistic and symbolic, with sculptures and other works of art. Just outside the entrance is "the shooting passage," a narrow space between two walls where executions were carried out. Between the cell block and the lake stand the crematorium, a memorial rose garden, and a sculpture on the site of the former gas chambers (which were used late in the war). When the Red Army arrived at the camp in April 1945, approximately three thousand women had been left behind, too sick to march out of the camp or flee. Many of these women subsequently died, despite the efforts of care providers, and were buried in a mass grave, over which a rose garden has...

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