When exploring the rich history of Berlin, it’s important to distinguish between misconceptions and reality. Berlin, as the capital of Germany, played a significant role during World War II and the Holocaust. However, there is not a concentration camp located within the city limits. The closest concentration camp that existed near Berlin was Sachsenhausen, situated in the town of Oranienburg, approximately 22 miles north of downtown Berlin.
The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was put up in 1936, when the Nazi regime was at its initial stage. It existed until the Second World War was over. The chief aim of the camp was to detain political undesirables, mainly communists and social democrats, dissenting clergy, homosexuals, and other outcast categories. It also set a venue for future concentration camps to be built by the Nazis.
It followed that Sachsenhausen established itself as one of the first large scale camps also served of as a training ground for the SS officers who later administered other larger, death camps. It was also a notorious testing ground for diseases and a killing field and since many thousands were killed there, the number of victims may have exceeded 40,000.
A Tour to the Concentration Camp: Sachsenhausen
Today the Sachsenhausen has been preserved as the memorial-museum which tells the people about the suffering of the Holocaust victims who served in the camp. Some important relics, such as reconstructed barracks, watchtowers, and especially the “Station Z” prove that this place was a scene of genocide.
While touring Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp one has to be very sensitive to such an area and its surroundings. Here are a few tips to make the most of your visit:
1. Guided Tours
It may be more helpful to sign up for a guided tour to be able to learn more on the history of the camp and it’s importance. There will always be tour guides with extensive knowledge about the activities and you can have them answer any questions you might want to ask them.
2. The construction of a new, sustainable, state of the art Visitor Center and related structural exhibition spaces.
Begin your visit at the visitor center where you get an insight into the history of the camp alongside it being a storey, photograph, and account of the prisoners. These exhibitions serve an important background to understand how gigantic these events were.
3. Walking the Grounds
It is recommended to spend several minutes and observe the Camp’s territory and recall the history of the tragedy. However, when wandering through the former human area of the camp, where the prisoners lived, the former prison of the people punished for attempting to escape, it is possible to picture the conditions the people had to live in.
4. Memorial Sites
Learning the hard way, take time and visit the different part of the camp that is marked as a memorial to the victims. Some of the monuments include; the international monument, the Jewish memorial and other national memorials educating people on the backgrounds of the suffering souls.
5. Personal Reflection
Find a small area of the camp where it’s more calm and meditate for some time in honor of the people that perished. Visit the mass graves and think for yourselves how such a large scale of suffering could be possible.
Remembering the Past
Though today there is no concentration camp in Berlin itself, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is located near the city and acts as a certain symbol. By visiting this site it becomes possible to pay tribute to the victims and study the tragic history of the Holocaust as well as to strengthen the ideas of intolerance and hatred.
In particular from every tragedy we can learn the lessons as history must be studied and understood in order that such actions should not be taken again in future.
