In the darkest period of history, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp played a significant role during the Nazi regime. So, what led to the opening of this notorious camp? Let’s explore the beginnings of Sachsenhausen and how it became one of the symbols of human suffering and resilience during World War II.
The Origins of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was initiated by SS in 1936, near Oranienburg a town in northern Berlin, Germany. In the beginning, it was a model camp and then after transformed into a training camp for the SS personnel, who would work in various concentration camps. Gangya went on to increase its capacities by the subsequent years, imprisoning thousands of diversely profiled inmates – the political dissenters, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Jews, other persecuted populations etc.
Life Inside the Camp
The living conditions of prisoners in Sachsenhausen had to be one of the worst that any prisoners could imagine. Some of the prisoners lived vastly crowded living conditions, no access to clean and hygiene facilities, and being subjected to physical and psychological violence. Most objectives of Sachsenhausen, like in other concentration camps, were aimed at humiliating, persecuting, and annihilating those persons whom the NS regime regarded as subhuman or unsuitable for existence.
The prisoners were also put to forced labor; some worked in factories around the prison most within the industrial zone. Some were overworked until the point they got extremely weak starved and sick due to worst working conditions poor diet and little or no medical treatment.
The Infamous “Death Strip”
Among the many horrors of Sachsenhausen the “Death Strip” was one of the most terrifying. It was an enclosed area right round the camp’s perimeter and provided a zero contact zone between the prisoners and communities outside the camp. It included electric barriers surrounding it, towers which also housed guards and the periodic securities. To attempt to cross the Death Strip was a sure death call.
Medical experiences as tasting and medical cruelty
Unfortunately, Sachsenhausen was also one of the camp where different types of medical experiments were carried out in the prisoners. These unethical experiments were set in their bid to prop up Nazi agenda and add to their war progress. Their research involved vaccine, surgery, other procedures, and other frank inhuman scientific exploitation and killing of unfortunate souls captured in their different experiments.
The camp’s guards and officers treated the prisoners with inhumanity in the worst sense of the term. Tortures, summary killings, and other forms of torture were the norm of prison life. This dehumanization and the constant threat of death followed the people who had the chance to survive in Sachsenhausen for the rest of their lives.
The Liberation: A Step in the Liberation and Memorialization
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was liberated only with the onset of the Allied forces in April of 1945. Camp survivors in the aftermath had the ticklish problem of reconstructing their lives this experience accompanied by memories of the bestiality of their brethren.
Sachsenhausen is now a place of historic memorial and museum so that the horrors experienced throughout the holocaust will remain a thing of the past. It remains a constant grim protest against the capacity of mankind for inhumanity and, therefore, for the protection of a human being and his or her rights.
Visiting Sachsenhausen Today
Visiting the memorial known as Sachsenhausen one should remember about the importance of respect and serious attitude to the place. The guided tours include the general history and setting of the camp, the fate of the people and the history of the holocaust.
Do not forget that it is physically and emotionally stressful to visit sites like these so that we can learn and shape the future to embrace everyone.
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