Sachsenhausen, located in Oranienburg near Berlin, Germany, was a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. It served as a labor and extermination camp, where over 200,000 prisoners were held captive between 1936 and 1945. Sachsenhausen was one of the first camps established by the Nazis and its main purpose was to terrorize and suppress political opponents, intellectuals, and other marginalized groups.
The Purpose of Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen concentration camp was designed to accommodate slave laborers, political prisoners as well as anyone who would pose a menace to the Third Reich. Thus, it is to be stressed that the camp was not only the death camp like Auschwitz, but also the complex establishment with the concentration and destruction parts. Imprisonment was combined with torture, hunger, nudity and exposing to the infectious diseases, and, finally, prisoners were used as the object of the experiments.
Layout and Structure
Sachsenhausen concentration camp was equipped with different features in order to create suffering of prisoners. Incorporated into several parts of the camp, there was the reception, barracks, the gallows and beating area, and offices. The principal gate: the wrought-iron gate with the slogan ‘Arbeit macht frei,’ Work shall make thee free, said hello to the prisoners.
Sachsenhausen Living Standard
The conditions under which prisoners dwelled were were extremely bad. The prisoners were housed in overcrowded barrack blocks, had very few amenities for washing and had no adequate accommodation for washing and disinfecting their clothes, were crying from malnutrition and from diseases of every description. Hygiene standards were alarming low and this contributed to ease and speed through which diseases would spread.
Punishment and Executions
They usually had several forms – physical punishment in the form of beatings, or checked work, or being put into shut dark spaces or small cells. There was also a district in the camp, which was called the “Bunker” for some reason, and inmates received severe beatings there. Death penalty was shot in the shooting trench, hung in the gallows or gassed in the chamber.
Memorials and Remembrance
Sachsenhausen still exists today and is a memorial, a historic site museum dedicated to the victims of and to provide visitors with information about Nazi Germany. It becomes possible to get acquainted with the grim history of compromises through preserved structures and reconstructed barracks and via controversies represented by informative exhibitions.
Visiting Sachsenhausen
If you plan to visit Sachsenhausen, here are a few useful tips:
It also physically occupies a lot of space, so enough time should be spent to view all the parts of the site.
Bring your walking shoes with you, for there will be some amount of normal walking in between sessions.
It is advised that one should take a guided tour to be able to understand much more about this camp and its importance.
It is considered a sign of disrespect if you take pictures of areas that you are not allowed to or act so silly when people are being buried.
Educational Supply Center most especially informative materials and exhibits should be considered by the visitors as means to gather information about this bleak part of history.
Reflecting on the Past
As one can see, punishment of convicts in Sachsenhausen can be rather mentally painful but this is a chance to pay tributes to the victims, know one’s history and guarantee that such sins will not occur in the future. Such information can be the key component to building empathy and respect in the members of modern society and making people respect human rights.
Conclusion
Sachsenhausen today is a great lesson of human evil and teaches us about the need to protect the dignity of man and freely. With the help of studying it in detail and its importance, it is possible to make sure that the victims will not remain unnoticed and begin to work on bringing more favorable future for people.
Table of Contents
0 Comments