The Sachsenhausen concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp located in Oranienburg, about 35 kilometers north of Berlin, Germany. It was one of the first built by the Nazis and served as a model for many other concentration camps that followed. In this blog post, we will explore the history and significance of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as a historical site in Berlin.

1. History of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Sachsenhausen concentration camp was founded by the SS in1936 as a penitentiary and work camp. It was at first employed with political prisoners but it evolved to encompass other categories such as Jews, homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The camp was created to break the spirit, reduce the victims to subhuman status and kill off anyone unwelcome in the eyes of the Nazis.

The Sachsenhausen concentration camp has passed through several stages in its lifetime. During the first years of its existence, the camp trained personnel for the SS and tested the tools and methods of people’s extermination. Tunnelling began during the war under the Japanese which used the camp as a base of forced labor for prisoners to build structures such as buildings, factories and violent structures like the dreaded ‘Tower of Death’.

2. Life in Sachsenhausen

The nature of life in this camp was one of difficult and brutal living conditions. The prisoners were humiliated, starved, beaten, and experimented on and forced to labor by the SS soldiers. Some of them died from these conditions, or from diseases or were killed as part of extermination policies of the camp.

Jews wore the red triangle on their prison garb Red, green or blue triangles indicated prisoners with different criminal background. These categories were political prisoners, Jews, criminals, homosexuals and so on.

The camp had various ways of punishing the prisoners which consisted of sheer brutality which included flogging, confinement and carceral archipelago and public execution meant to terrify the prisoners.

3. These significant concept transformations incorporated into this study include: Liberation and Memorialization.

Sachsenhausen Concentration camp was freed by the Soviet army in April 1945. After liberation the camp was operated by the Soviet Authorities as internment camp until end of 1950. Sections of this camp were converted to a memorial and an open air museum by the GDR in 1961.

Today it is once again a place that breathes the history of the Holocaust and the Nazis. There is a number of museum exhibits, constructed copies of buildings, as well as infromational boards telling about the history of the camp and the lives of people there.

3.1 2011 Visiting Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

If you are planning to visit Sachsenhausen concentration camp, here are a few tips:

Organize your visit in advance, especially in a case of high season because there are high chances of bookings and lining up.

Take a guided tour. The trained guide will give useful information besides helping in the exploration of the large stretch of the memorial.

It was an emotionally demanding task and should be expected by anyone going through it. The exhibitions and issues presented in stories can be painful.

Under no circumstances it is allowed to endanger the lives of individuals and value the memorial and its surroundings. It must be place of remembrance and reflections, so let not fail to do our best to adjust the light to match this paramount role.

Seeing the Sachsenhausen concentration camp is always a great opportunity to pay tribute to the victims and prevent genocides and holocausts in future. They present a chance to think about why things happened, and agree to work on changing the society into a more tolerant place.