Female Red Army soldiers in concentration camps: Soviet military nurses in Ravensbrück

19. January 2020 - 14:30

29. March 2020 - 17:00

Opening of the special exhibition of the Ravensbrück Memorial and the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst

There are very few "blind spots" left in the historiography of World War II. One of them is the role played by nearly one million female soldiers who fought against the Wehrmacht as members of the Red Army. The fate of the women who were captured as POWs by the Germans is particularly unexplored. These female POWs are the subject of this exhibition.

The sources available to date do not provide a complete picture. However, we can gain insights into their imprisonment, forced labour and the concentration camps to which the Red Army women were usually sent in violation of international law. A relatively large amount is known about the female Soviet military nurses in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, who had an unusually high chance of survival on account of their professional qualifications. They are the focus of this exhibition.

The bilingual (german/russian) exhibition will be on display from 19 January to 29 March 2020. A publication to accompany the exhibition is available on site.

Location: Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Forum

Book presentation, Jenö Kolb: "Faith in Humanity – The Bergen-Belsen Diary", Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library, Hanover

23. January 2020

17:00 - 18:30

Jenö Kolb's Hungarian diary is among the most comprehensive prisoner diaries from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

It is also one of the few diaries that presents the structure, behaviour and future hopes of the prisoner society from a distinctly Zionist perspective. In addition to describing the deteriorating living conditions in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from July to December 1944, it offers striking impressions of the various forms of self-assertion among a group of Hungarian Jewish prisoners who were released to Switzerland in early December 1944.

Dr Thomas Rahe presents the diary and its historical importance and outlines one of the most unusual and successful rescue campaigns in the history of the Holocaust, about which Jenö Kolb's diary provides numerous insights.

Location: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library – Lower Saxony State Library, Waterloostraße 8, 30169 Hanover

Dimensions of complicity: European collaboration with the Third Reich, Synagogue Celle

04. February 2020

19:00 - 20:30

Presentation by Dr Klaus Kellmann (Kiel)

A cooperative event with the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation, Celle

Location: Celle Synagogue, Im Kreise 24, 29221 Celle

Violence, greed and mercy: Camp commandant Adolf Haas and his path to Wewelsburg and Bergen-Belsen

09. February 2020

14:30 - 16:00

Lecture and book presentation by Jakob Saß (Berlin)

Location: Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Film Room