During court cases after the war, the camp doctor, Dr. Percy Treite, the camp commandant Johann Schwarzhuber and a Gestapo official confirmed killings of prisoners in gas chambers at the Ravensbrück camp. The use of poison gas had been „more efficient“ than shootings. (Source: DÖW/Ravensbrück archive)

Extermination camps

In January 1945, the concentration camp turned into an extermination camp. The large-scale murder of prisoners was prepared. A gas chamber was built. The SS selected sick, old and „unfit to work“ women, and moved them to the Uckermark camp, where they were left to die of starvation or freeze to death, or were killed by poison injections. 6,000 women were gassed between January and April 1945.