Thursday 15th August 2013 Burgwall Trip by car to Ravensbrück.

Sunny and warm. Decided not to move due to WSA strike action. After lunch we all went out in the car as we needed to get a few more odds and ends from a supermarket and as we were going to Fürstenberg we said we’d take the neighbours to see Ravensbrück. We went on to see the women’s concentration camp at Ravensbrück. It had changed a lot since we’d last been there in 2005, a new information centre by the car park and the whole site had been tidied up and organised into exhibitions. Stood by the lake for a while, this was where in the latter years of the war the Nazis had disposed of the ashes from the crematorium. We went to see the crematorium, which was still the same as when we visited last time. On into the prison cells, most of which were now National memorials to the victims of thirty or more different countries. There were many interactive exhibitions and much more information than before that was all beautifully arranged. Mike and I went to see the main area inside the walls that was now covered with a layer of black clinkers and lots of boards indicating what used to be on the site. It started off with wooden huts to house 3,000 women and children but expanded as the numbers grew (all now gone). Women were made to work, first for local farmers who needed helpers during sowing and harvesting, this enabled some to smuggle in extra food. Others worked in factories set up by the Nazis, including making telecommunications items for Siemens. We waited for the others and when there was no sign of them we walked out of the gates and along the back of the SS offices. The building on the right, along the wall, used to contain art exhibitions but now housed offices, no doubt for researchers. Saw Anne back by the lake, she said it was so overwhelming she had to come out of the cells. Oll was still inside reading all the English translations that were fascinating and dreadful at the same time. The main exhibition was held in the former SS. There were more stories of daily life by surviving inmates (recorded for posterity, narrated by others) that could be heard in English or German and masses of documents and items in glass cases. Time was running out and we had lots to do, so we headed back into Fürstenberg to Edeka supermarket for a few groceries and beer. Later we all went to have another meal in the pub. It was much quieter, most of the hireboats had gone, there was just one Free Camper and a couple of cruisers plus the 14m DB had come back. Oll decided he wanted to try a starter called Soljanka and we all wanted to try some, it was a soup, so the waitress bought us four spoons and four pieces of bread! It was delicious – we want the recipe. Mike and I had peppered rump steaks, Oll had pork with liver and fried cubed potatoes and Anne had the Hamburger with egg. It was a very good meal, nothing left but our cucumber and some bits of steak fat Mike had saved for Woody. Tomorrow we go in different directions as the Polish trip is now definitely off.