On 20 October the Ravensbrück archive was inaugurated at Lund University – a public online portal that makes it possible to search extensive interview material captured in conversations with female prisoners straight after their release from the notorious concentration camp.
Ravensbrück was a concentration camp mainly reserved for women and children. During the war years, just over 130 000 prisoners were transported to Ravensbrück. By 1945, there were only between 15 000 and 30 000 survivors.
In Ravensbrück, medical experiments were conducted on the camp’s prisoners. Some prisoners managed to smuggle out information about the experiments to the world outside, using their own urine as invisible ink. One of the letters is preserved in Lund and was displayed at the inauguration on 20 October. The letter is but one among many examples of the documentation now accessible, illustrating the horrific experiences suffered by women and children during their time at Ravensbrück.
These memories are preserved for posterity in a unique archive at Lund University Library, in Sweden. The archive consists of photographs, notebooks and lists of names from the camp, but above all, it contains 500 detailed interviews conducted with the survivors immediately after their arrival in Sweden on the white buses in spring 1945. The archive has now been digitised and translated to English largely thanks to generous donations from foundations and individuals.
Well-attended inauguration
Just over a hundred curious visitors gathered in the main University building on Friday 20 October to take part in the inauguration events. The guests were offered a special tour of the archive material and attended the inaugural ceremony with speeches by Member of the EU Parliament Anna Maria Corazza Bildt and Martin Łakociński (son of Zygmunt Łakociński, who conducted the original interviews). The introductory speeches were followed by a panel discussion between the journalist and author Sarah Helm and Professor Klas-Göran Karlsson, moderated by Willy Silberstein.
Watch a video about the archive
Read the programme
In the photograph: Martin Łakociński
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