Along with Sachsenburg, it was among the first to be built by the Nazis, and was operated by the SS from 1933 to 1939.[1] It held as many as 2000 male prisoners from 1933 to 1937 and from 1937 to 1939 held female prisoners.[2] It was closed in May 1939, when the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women was opened, which replaced Lichtenburg as the main camp for female prisoners.[3]