Sachenhausen Concentration Camp, located near Oranienburg, Germany, was one of the first Nazi concentration camps established during Adolf Hitler’s regime. It was operational from 1936 to 1945 and played a significant role during World War II. This blog post aims to provide a comprehensive guide for beginners to understand the history, purpose, and impact of Sachenhausen Concentration Camp.
1. The Establishment and Original Purpose of Sachenhausen
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was established on July 12 in 1936 and was intended for the inmates that were political prisoners who were against the Nazi regime. The camp mainly contained communists, social democrats, trade unionists, and anyone else who the Fuhrer deemed an opposition. It was to negate voice of the innocent masses, spread terror and deter, sweep away all forms of resistance to assert dominance of the Nazi party.
2. Accommodation Status and Lifestyle in the Camp
Living conditions in the Sachenhausen were brutal and substandard, and the prisoner was dehumanized in every way possible. Barracks over crowded, lack of proper sanitation, lack of proper and adequate foods, health and medical attention, tortuous treatment by the camp personnel. Slavery was also a fundamental element since prisoners were made to work in factories or brick kilns or any other project that required plenty of effort.
2.I Prisoner Classification and Identification
People detained in Sachenhausen were graded into different classes, and each group was marked by a triangular stamp of a particular color. The political opponents were labeled by a red triangle and the homosexuals were labeled with pink triangle. Jews wore a badge being a yellow triangle, and so on.
2.SS 2 Two Stigmatization Medical Experiments
Unfortunately, Sachenhausen was also a place of some of the most hideous medical atrocities. These experiments were primarily designed to help enhance knowledge about human body and to invent new ways of torturing people. Condemned prisoners could be forced to endure such temperatures, or even deadly diseases, for example.
3. Facilitating their understanding is the role that Sachenhausen played during world war II.
Sachenhausen changed its goals with the continuous advancement of the war. It developed into training depot for SS officers and concentration camp guards who were then transferred to other camp in territories administered by Nazis. Sachenhausen also became an example for the other concentration camps in reference to structure, construction and punishment system.
4. Setting people free and commemorating their stories
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 22 April 1945. As of today, the camp is a kind of a Holocaust museum for tourists, educating them on the terrible things done in the camp. Every step of the concrete structure sends a message of suffering, death and loss and shows how history should not be erased so that such tragedy is not repeated in the future.
4.1 A visit to the Sachenhausen Memorial Site
While at the memorial there is potential to walk through the reconstructed camp buildings, the museum part and the memorial statue which stands for resistance to oppressors. To learn even more about the camp, guided tours as well as audio guide services are available.
4.2 Honoring the Victims
Now mourn for the millions of people that died in the holocaust is an important thing. Visit the memorial, join one of the events or organizations dedicated to the memory of this event, or make a donation.
In Conclusion
Sachenhausen concentration camp is among the few historical sites that give a about the kinds of experiences that Jews underwent during the Second World War holocaust. This paper provides the reader with an account of the history of concentration camp to enable him or her to appreciate the extend of the suffering of humans and the reason why human rights should be supported. It only becomes possible to aim at creating a society with no discriminations, persecution based on color in equal in future.
