Perhaps there is no better place to look at how women experienced concentration camp imprisonment than by looking at the lives of the prisoners of Ravensbrück. The Ravensbrück concentration camp was an all-female world of terror, located north of Berlin in a remote region of Germany known as the Mecklenburg lake district. Natural beauty surrounded the camp, which was the intent of its planner Heinrich Himmler who "believed that the cleansing of German blood should begin close to nature." The women imprisoned at Ravensbrück during World War II came from more than thirty different countries and were there for political, religious, and racial reasons. As Hitler implemented the Final Solution and the Third Reich spread its reign of terror across Europe, the women at Ravensbrück felt its grip tighten on their lives. Those who survived portray in their memoirs and letters the strong will and determination necessary to bear the horrors inflicted upon them. These women's stories enrich the Holocaust master narrative, which has been told mainly from a male perspective until recently. Women used their unique qualities as women to survive life at Ravensbrück; they relied on their social instincts, resourcefulness, and nurturing skills to protect their humanity which gave them the strength to persevere.