During World War II, there were more than 3,000 uniformed SS women guards in the German concentration camp system. While some of these women were volunteers, most of them had been drafted by the government as laborers, and involuntarily assigned to concentration camps or death camps to guard and supervise the rapidly-expanding numbers of female inmates.
Ravensbrueck concentration camp for women, where Silvia was held, employed 550 female SS officers. It became a training facility where SS women were taught to be harsh and merciless toward the prisoners in their care. Some of the most infamous female guards at Auschwitz and the other camps received their training there.
Female officers in the SS were themselves discriminated against and mistreated. They received less compensation than the men, and they were limited in rank and authority. They were also consistently harassed by male officers. Yet they had little choice but to keep working, and by most accounts they were as brutal as their male counterparts in the SS.
