Women prisoners at the expansion of the camp
(1940/41, SS propaganda shot, photo: collections of the Ravensbrück Memorial)

For the SS, any work the prisoners were forced to do, had as its goal not only their exploitation as a workforce, but also torture. The women were meant to be destroyed physically and emotionally by it. Work commandos were deployed within and outside the camp. Under hardest conditions, in shifts up to eleven hours, the women had to e.g. perform levelling and road construction work, or sew uniforms for the Waffen-SS at the camp tailor's shop.