Commemorative Stone for Women

Dedicated in April 2003, a commemorative stone at the site of former block 5 honours the memory of more than 27,000 women and girls from over 30 nations at the women's subcamp in Buchenwald. 329 women as well as seven infants and small children died there. More than 600 women, girls, and children were sent to death at Auschwitz.

Memorial stone covered with small stones with engraved inscription: "Nobody said goodbye. No one erected a cross or a stone. But you will live as long as people remember you. To the more than 27,000 women and girls from over 30 countries who were forced into slave labor as prisoners in 27 subcamps of Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944 and 1945, victims of Nazi violence and the death marches. Non Omnis Moriar." Under the lettering a single red flower — Memorial stone for the women of the concentration camp, 2012. Photo: Claus Bach.

©Buchenwald Memorial

Although the main camp of Buchenwald was exclusively for men, its administration was put in charge of the women's subcamp at Ravensbrück in September 1944. Women and girls performed forced labour on a daily basis for the German weapons industry in 27 subcamps. This work was coordinated in block 5, which housed the inmate detachment for labour administration.

The text inscribed on the stone was written by the Polish Buchenwald survivor Danuta Brzosko-Medryk, who was deported to a Buchenwald subcamp in Leipzig in 1944. The text reads: "No one said good-bye / No one set up a cross or a stone / But you live / As long as people remember you / NON OMNIS MORIAR (Latin for: "I shall not wholly die")