2-611-823 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Crematorium, Natzweiler-Struthof German concentration camp, France, c1941-c1945. Situated in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace, Natzweiler-Struthof was the only concentration camp built by the Nazis in France. Originally built to incarcerate political prisoners and members of resistance movements, the camp housed prisoners from across Nazi-occupied Europe. An estimated 25,000 inmates died at Natzweiler-Struthof from the effects of strenuous hard labour, medical experiments, malnutrition and the brutality of the guards. Among those killed were four female agents of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), Diana Rowden, Vera Leigh, Andrée Borrel and Sonya Olschanezky. It was in operation from 1941 until September 1944, when the SS evacuated the prisoners to Dachau in Bavaria. The camp was captured by the US Army in November 1944.