The Rabbits of Ravensbruck

I just finished a book called Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly.  It's a Holocaust book like no other I have read.  It is based on fact, and many of the main characters are real.  It was a story I had not heard before, and one I will never forget.  It's about the Ravensbruck concentration camp, the only camp for women only, and the lives of the women who were held there.  Here's a little more information on Ravensbruck concentration camp.

Ravensbruck was a German concentration camp built for women in 1938, by Heinrich Himmler.  130,000 to 132,000 female prisoners passed through the Ravensbruck camp system.  40,000 were Polish and 26,000 were Jewish from many countries including Germany:  Russian, French and Dutch.  About 50,000 of these women perished from disease, starvation, overwork and despair.  Others were killed in the gas chambers.  Only 15,000 of the total survived until liberation.

Starting in the summer of 1942, medical experiments were conducted without consent on the86 women.  74 of them were Polish inmates.  Political prisoners were experimented on by testing the efficacy of sulfonamide drugs.  These experiments involved deliberate cutting into and infecting of leg bones and muscles with bacteria.  The second set of experiments studied bone, muscle and nerve regenerations.  Many of the women experimented upon died.  Those with unhealed would were executed.  Also many women were sterilized.  They had been deceived into signing consent forms, being told they would be released if they complied.

At the Neurenberg trials, many of the accused were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death.  The one female doctor who was found guilty, was sentenced to 20 in prison.  However, she was released in only five years by the Americans, in a secret deal.  She returned to Germany where she practiced medicine for many years.  It was not until Caroline Farraday, a main character in the book, found out she was out of prison and practicing medicine, that something was done.  Caroline encouraged one of the Rabbits to go to the clinic where the Nazi doctor was working and positively identify her.  She did, and the German doctor finally lost her medical license, but never returned to prison.

This is a horrific chapter in history, but one that is told beautifully in Lilac Girls.  Such brave women.  It was almost impossible for the women to resist what was being done to them, but one form of resistance they were able to establish was the secret education programs organized by prisoners for their fellow inmates.  The most extensive were among Polish women, wherin various high school levil classes were taught by experienced teachers. The Rabbits of Ravensbruck were truly remarkable women.