Ravensbrueck was a concentration camp established about 50 miles north of Berlin, Germany. It was built in 1939 as a camp for women, mostly criminals, prisoners of war, Jews, Gypsies, and members of the underground. It is estimated that 92,000 of these inmates died from harsh living conditions, exhaustion, mistreatment by guards, or execution. Most of Ravensbrueck’s prisoners were used for slave labor, and many were used for medical experiments in 1942 and 1943. Silvia was imprisoned at Ravensbrueck from October 1943 until she and 700 other women were evacuated by the Red Cross in January 1945. On April 15, 1945, with Soviet Army units approaching the camp, Ravensbrueck's remaining 17,000 women prisoners were forced on a death march to Sachsenhausen.
