Prisoners' work at the SS straw clog weaving enterprise
(1940/41, SS propaganda shot, photo: collections of the Ravensbrück Memorial)

With the expansion of the war, concentration camp prisoners were employed in the war industries more and more. From 1943, Ravensbrück subsidiary camps were built across Germany next to armament factories. In 1942, Siemens built a production site for highly sensitive arms directly at Ravensbrück. 2,500 prisoners, amongst them children, had to do forced labour in twelve hour day and night shifts, guarded by female SS guards.