Logline
The triumphant story of one of the most extraordinary rescues in Nazi concentration camp history, the 63 young women who were saved, and the international group of women prisoners who united to pull it off.
Synopsis
It was February 5, 1945, in Ravensbrück, the largest women’s only concentration camp in the Third Reich. The inmates – Catholic, Protestant, Jewish women – were starving, sick, and struggling to survive day-to-day in the camp known as “Hitler’s Hell for Women.” Many had lost husbands, children, and other beloved family and friends; all had lost their countries. Yet these women, from over 20 different nations, still found a way to come together and risk their lives to save 63 young Catholic Polish inmates, many of whom were high school and college students, who had been horribly maimed by Nazi experimental surgeries on their legs and slated for execution. Not only did this international group of women pull off one of the most amazing large-scale concentration camp rescues of the war, but ensured that the young Polish students, known as the “Rabbits,” survived to testify at the Nuremberg Trials against their Nazi doctors. It took the courage and cooperation of thousands of women, of varying countries, religions, and political beliefs, but in the end – and against all odds – they saved the Rabbits of Ravensbrück.
Stacey Fitzgerald
Stacey Fitzgerald is the producer and director of Saving the Rabbits of Ravensbrück. She is a seasoned independent filmmaker with an Emmy award-winning program A Southern Celtic Christmas, currently in national rotation on PBS. She also produced and directed Delivery Boy Chronicles, a feature-length comedy starring Grammy nominee, Shawn Mullins. The film has screened internationally at film festivals including: Newport Beach Film Festival, California Independent Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and Filmstock International Film Festival (UK). It was released globally through Mill Creek Entertainment and Breakthrough Distribution. Stacey Fitzgerald has also produced and directed television commercials for nonprofit clients including the Georgia Special Olympics and the Georgia Ovarian Cancer Alliance.