The idea of Himmler trying to improve the health of his prisoners seems on the face of things absurd. At Auschwitz new crematoria with extra gas chambers had been opened at Birkenau, the camp’s extermination plant. By the end of April, the new Ravensbrück crematorium was in use; the sight of the chimney rising over the camp’s south wall was clear evidence that an increase in killing was about to start.
