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What can I discover about the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp on a day trip from Berlin?

by | Mar 7, 2024 | Concentration Camp

Want to explore sachsenhausen concentration camp? Come and join us on the Original Berlin Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial Tour.

If you’re visiting Berlin and have an interest in learning about the dark history of the city, a day trip to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial is a must. Located just outside of Berlin, Sachsenhausen was one of the first concentration camps established by the Nazis. This blog post will guide you through the essentials of visiting Sachsenhausen, ensuring you understand the significance of this historical site.

Understanding the History of Sachsenhausen

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was erected in 1936 having the capacity for mass extermination that inspired the much larger II World War concentration camps for extermination. In the beginning, concentration camp was meant to detain political leaders who were opposing the Nazi government, intellectuals and any other person whom the Nazi government considered to be useless. It was later enlarged and became an addition medical experimentation center, concentration camp for slave labor, and extermination camp.

Journey to Sachsenhausen from Berlin

Sachsenhausen is very easy to reach from Berlin and you can either take a S-bahn train in Ostbahnhof going to Oranienburg or you can go to the hauptbahnhof and take a regional train to Oranienburg. The trip should take between 30 and 40 minutes, but many trains run during the day. In Oranienburg it can be easily reached by foot or by a bus The area of the memorial is easily accessible.

What to Expect on Your Visit

When you get into Sachsenhausen, one thing that will capture your attention is the vastness of this camp and many structures within. A visitation hub offers background information which will include an orienting tour, accompanied or self-guided. They recommend taking a tour guide because they’re experts who give out relevant information so that you’ll not miss important features.

Important Sites to Explore

The Appellplatz, or Roll call area,

On the Appellplatz, the prisoners were paraded and counted with many forced to endure unfavourable weather as well as suffer different kinds of cruelty from the guards. Now they only serve as a symbol of oppression of the camp’s residents, and no more.

Barracks

The camp consists of several buildings where prisoners were accommodated and the exhibition house is even within one of these barrack. Some have been preserved where tourists can really see the living conditions of those individuals trapped in the house.

Station Z

In accordance so the theoretical framework, the implementation site in Sachsenhausen is the Station Z. It means, that there will be the gas chambers and crematoriums where thousands of people were killed unscrupulously. This area is symbolic of the atrocities committed to these victims during the war.

Memorial Sites

In the course of the tour there are many special memorials dedicated to certain countries, genocides, religious groups, etc. These are just as people sit down to recall and honor someone.

A guide to visiting Sachsenhausen

Make sure you wear comfortable shoes because you will be walking a good deal.

Take water and snacks because no food is sold within the compound at the memorial site.

Tread the establishment with quiet and courtesy since the building houses remains of the deceased and their families.

Remember to listen to your tour guide and ensure that you askopic questions if there is any that you would want to be answered.

Spend the time to let the history sink in and think about all the people who died in Sachsenhausen.

Conclusion

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial is easier for visitors to get to from Berlin but it is also a very moving learning experience. This one lets you meet the horror in the first person as well as learn more about the hatred the Nazi regime cultivated. That trip is a perfect chance to pay homage to the victims and give people’s word that such things should never happen again.

Want to explore sachsenhausen concentration camp? Come and join us on the Original Berlin Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial Tour.

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What can I discover about the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp on a day trip from Berlin?

Mar 7, 2024