Field Trip to the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp Memorial, Summer 2026

Intrepid Insider guides took some time out from their busy Summer schedule for a visit to the former women's concentration camp of Ravensbrück, approx. 80 Km north of Berlin.

This Soviet SU-100 Tank Destroyer stands at the road to the memorial commemorating the liberation of the camp in April 1945. 

 

 

This was the largest women's concentration camp within Germany, and the second largest women's camp in the Nazi camp system after Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was built in 1938 by prisoners from the nearby Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

 

The first women prisoners, approx. 900 of them, arrived in May 1939 from the Berlin-Lichtenberg camp. Up to 1945 it was to hold approx. 50.000 prisoners from over 30 countries, although the majority came from Poland, the USSR and Germany. Included were political prisoners - Jews, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah's Witnesses and others persecuted by the Nazis.

 

 

Here a photo of the Commandant's house. There were three commandants at the Ravensbrück camp - Günther Tamaschke, Max Koegel and Fritz Suhren. Daily supervision was carried out by female SS guards. Ravensbrück was also a major training center for female concentration camp guards from 1942.

 

 

Living conditions were severe due to overwork, overcrowding, random punishment, starvation and disease. There were approx. 18 barracks in all, including a infirmary, prison and punishment block. The gas chamber was built in 1945, and approx. 5-6.000 prisoners were murdered there before liberation on 30th April 1945.

Sick and weak prisoners were selected for murder by shooting, lethal injection or gassing. Thousands were sent to the Bernburg and Hartheim killing centers, two sites more associated with the T4 Euthanasia programme. In all, there were approx. 28.000 prisoners murdered in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

 

 

Medical experiments were conducted mostly on yourng Polish women from 1942. These included infecting wounds, bone and muscle as well as amputations and forced sterilisation. Many women died or suffered permanent disabilities.

 

 

Many women were forced into prostitution from 1942 often being promised release for their 'services'. These promises were of course never honoured.

 

 

Women prisoners were used as forced labour in agriculture, textiles and armaments. Siemens ran a sizeable sub-camp nearby producing electrical equipment for the war effort including V-2 rocket components. By 1944 the Ravensbrück compley controlled over 40 subcamps with a combined total of more than 70.000 female workers at any one time. 

 

The memorial now contains many powerful memorial sculptures. Pictured here are representations of main prisoner categories with each figure wearing a coloured triangle. A nail driven through each heart symbolises the suffering and murder inflicted by the Nazi regime. 

The greater camp complex contains many still intact factory buildings where prisoners were forced to work. Scattered throughout are many infoboards with information of the history of individual prisoners. They are a chronicle of suffering, sacrifice, solidarity and survival. They are also a powerful reminder of the exploitation and resilience of Ravensbrück's prisoners.

Visiting Ravensbrueck in Summer gives one access to the many factory buildings and the Siemens sub-camp which are usually closed during the Winter months. It is a camp memorial that has been improving its research and associated exhibitions steadily over the years. It is a full day trip, and a very worthwhile one.

 

 

Insider Educational No. 2 in 2026 – The DDR Depot

This is where the team from the DDR Museum stores approximately 360,000 artefacts from the state once known as the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany.

Above  cross-sections of armoured personnel carriers, repurposed into an art installation reminiscent of those erected by the Mutoid Waste Company and others in no man’s land in the early 1990s.

Scandinavian furniture manufactured in the DDR in the 1970s. 

Petrol pumps preserved for posterity.

Who is the chap in the large frame? Learn all about one of the most important politicians in the DDR, Herr Willi Stoff. 

 

A restored room featuring furniture from the DDR elite, aptly named “Klub der Funktionäre.” Each cabinet contains items from everyday life in the DDR, including replica grenades used in school sports—Granatwerfen!

There were not many cars in the DDR, but plenty of motorbikes and mopeds. Those still in working order enjoy cult status among fans of “Ostalgie.”

Flags, banners, and emblems ranging from trade unions to knitting clubs. 

The waiting time for one of these was approximately three years and it cost around six months’ wages.

Insider guides enjoyed a sneak peek behind the scenes, where both special and everyday items from the former East Germany are carefully preserved for future generations.

Insider's Educational Nr. 1 in 2026 - Teufelsberg, Commonwealth Cemetery and Military History Museum, Gatow Airport

Insider tour guides were treated to a rewarding and educational day out visiting three iconic Berlin sites associated with WWII and the Cold War.

 

First up was the iconic Teufelsberg Listening Station located on a rubble hill, which covers the former Albert Speer designed massive Nazi ‘Wehrtechnische Fakultät (Military Technical College), deep in the Grunewald forest.

 

Starting in 1963 the U.S. NSA built a listening (spy) station there, as part of their Europe-wide ECHELON system. The goal was to garner military and/or economic news of relevance about countries of the Warsaw Pact. At its height 1500 people worked here manually gathering, translating, deciphering and forwarding information.

 

Abandoned and gutted of all technical equipment post German reunification, in the 90s this complex became an illegal rave and graffiti location. Currently it is an event location, and an eerie reminder of dark times past.

Our group was given an enthralling historical account of this site by top Berlin tour guide, Jörg Rupert Schöpfel.

 

Second site visited was the Berlin Commonwealth cemetery. Here, mainly airmen killed over Berlin during WWII are buried.

All Commonwealth graves are adorned with uniform headstones of Portland stone from England. Nationalities buried here are: UK - 2692, Australia - 228, Canada - 527, India - 51, New Zealand - 56, South Africa - 31, Poland - 5, Unidentified - 8.
Some of those who are buried here were P.O.W.s.

   “Their name liveth for evermore” 

 

The third site visited was the absolutely exemplary Military History Museum - Gatow Airport.

There we were treated to an excellent tour of the Luftwaffe during the Nazi era by their top class in-house guide, Stefan Horn.

Above, a retired renowned Starfighter jet (also known as the 'widowmaker') with vertical booster and nuclear payload.
 

 This 'Dakota' is a long way from home.

 Heinkel bomber from WW2.

A large part of our discussion at this location was taken up by the massive human cost suffered by forced labourers and concentration camp inmates in building and maintaining the doomed Nazi air force.

The Military History Museum - Gatow Airport, with its outdoor and indoor exhibition spaces, is a treasure trove of information about the history of the Luftwaffe since its inception in 1884!