If you are considering a trip to Berlin, one place that should be on your must-visit list is Sachsenhausen. Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp during the Nazi regime and is now a memorial and museum dedicated to educating visitors about the atrocities that occurred there.
1. History of Sachsenhausen
The Sachsenhausen was opened in 1936 about twenty kilometers from Berlin and was used as a prototype for other such camps. Initially it was a camp for political prisoners but subsequently it also accepted individuals of all other types; Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses etc.
In the course of its existence, more than 200 thousand people were confined in Sachsenhausen and about 30 thousand of them perished. Finally the camp was liberated by the Soviet forces in 1945.
2. Expectation When You Visit
Sachsenhausen when you get there is a large area of main camp, sub camps and memorial sites. I advise you to spend several hours more to be able to study and comprehend the chronological history of the place.
2.1 The Main Camp
First, reconstructed buildings within the main camp of Sachsenhausen make up a part of the remaining camp, of which give an indication of their daily existence as prisoners. You could see the crowded barrack, the kitchen and even the confine where they confined prisoners and even had them beaten.
2.2 The Appellplatz
The appel or roll call square is toward the middle of the camp and this is where the inmates were counted several times a day. It is also a memory of the subjugation that was enforced in the camp more often.
2.3 The Crematorium
A visit to the crematorium is a very thought provoking exercise. This was the area where they burned the bodies of the deceased victims; the ovens used where found here. It has the effect of setting a grim picture of how worse the station was during the times of Sachsenhausen.
3. Learning from the Past
This is among the basic reasons why people go to Sachsenhausen to learn and avoid repetition of such events again in the future. Some of the ways that are used by the memorial site to inform the public about events of the holocaust include the conducting of tours, audio visual tours and informative materials.
It seems that the place is worth visiting to really get insight into what took place during this part of history. All this is a lesson of intolerance, discrimination, unfreedom no matter what the race or color of the person maybe, a lesson of respecting human rights.
4. General Information Regarding the Tour
Here are a few tips to help you plan your visit to Sachsenhausen:
Contact the official website to get the updated information on the times when it is open, as well as the tickets’ prices.
Running shoes should be worn since the sight seeing involves a lot of walking around.
Earlier I have suggested that one might join a guided tour in order to learn more about the history and importance of the place.
It is customary to keep silence and show respect towards the place in which the ceremony will take place.
Make sure to allot sufficient time to allow you to investigate the area comprising of the memorial and the museum well.
Going to Sachsenhausen provides powerful and information filled experience. Despite being an extremely brief account of the story, it acts a strong message of reminding world of human rights and relevance of history. A visit to this memorial can help to help keep alive the memory of the victims and to ensure their experiences stay with all us for generations to come.
Therefore, in case you are planning a tour to Berlin one of the places that you should not miss is Sachsenhausen. It is a place from which one would walk with a dread but would ever be a point of reference as the evils of the 20th century.
