When in 1938 the prisons for women in Germany were full, Hitler wanted to have a “re-education camp” for women. Himmler selected Ravensbrück (pronounced /Rah-fans-Bryuk/), a beautiful site near the village of Fürstenberg across from Lake Schwedt in the nature reserve of the Mecklenburg Lake District. It was only about 50 miles north of Berlin and well connected by train. The camp started out nicely enough; there were flower beds, an aviary, and wholesome, fresh food for the inmates.

SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler (/Hayn-rreegk Heem-lar/) was a distorted, weak hypocrite. He and his wife Margarete were united in their hatred of Jews and their idolatry of the Aryan image as a “wholesome” race living in pastoral bliss. Despite having a mistress and two illegitimate children, Himmler adored his daughter Gudrun and wrote hundreds of letters to his wife who used to have a homeopathic clinic in Berlin. He wrote to her of family, flowers, nature, and how proud he was that Germany was the first European country with nature reserves. He opposed genetically modified food, pioneered organic food, and scolded his physician, Dr. Kersten, for hunting with the words, “Nature is tremendously beautiful.”

Although the surroundings are beautiful, the prisoners did not see any of it; the walls were so high that the only natural thing they could see was the sky. When SS-Obersturmführer Schwartzhuber came from Auschwitz, he brought the fittings to build an oven since across the lake, Fürstenberg’s crematorium could not keep up… Inmates remember “snow,” the ashes of their fellow-prisoners, raining down on them when they had to stand for hours on the main square to be counted.