Thank you for joining our blog dedicated to the attempt to explore the history of the Death March Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp tragedy. In this article we shall provide information on the history, course and effects of this horrifying part of human history. Let’s begin!

The Origins of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was developed by the Nazis in 1936, twenty kilometres north of Berlin near the town of Oranienburg. Originally built as a prison camp for political prisoners, Sachsenhausen developed into a training facility for the SS’ officers and orderlies, as well as an example of what other camps should become.

Year after year, different prisoners of Jewish, political dissidents, homosexuals, and disabled prisoners had been subjected to inhuman treatment, exploitative labor, and lethal medical experimentation inside the concentration camp.

The Death Marches

Because Allied forces were moving closer in the last months of the second world war, and the Nazis were forced to abandon Sachsenhausen, tens of thousand of prisoners were subjected to death marches under very inhuman conditions. These forced marches happened between January and April 1945.

The meant purpose of the death marches was to remove prisoners and stop them from being liberated by the Allies. They proceeded through severe winter with inadequate clothing and food, inadequate shelter, diseases, exhaustion, hunger, and frequent and arbitrary executions.

The marches for such distances were conducted, prisoners had to march barefoot, in cold weather, without adequate clothing, shelter or food. Most of them died on their way there; the survivors witnessed indescribable suffering along their way.

Routes and Liberation

Different paths were followed when conducting the death marches. Sachsenhausen was one of the camps through which prisoners were marched on a route that excluded them on the Baltic Sea coast in Lübeck to leave them onto a ship to take them to Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Thankfully, it is with the progression of the war to its conclusion, the forces of the allied nations moved quickly enough to free the remaining imprisoned people. In the last days of April 1945 British and Soviet troops returned to the camp Sachsenhausen to see what has been done there.

In this paper, these two types of strategies will be discussed: The Legacy and Remembering the Victims.

Without any doubt, the Death March Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is one of the bleakest stays in the history of mankind. This is a preserve of the holocaust and should be an indication of why there should always be a reminder and passing of the information down.

Presently, only the site of Sachsenhausen is a memorial and a museum where people can get acquainted with the history of the concentration camp, where victims’ memory is honored, and the need for human rights protection and international tolerance is discussed.

Sachsenhausen Memorial – A Guide for Visitors

One should plan his or her visit before getting to the site in order to allow enough time to tour the place.

It recommended that one dresses well especially due to cold weather that is experienced when on a winter visit.

One can cash in on used guided tour or an audio-visual guide to fully understand historical aspects of the camp.

When visiting the memorial site, please act courteous and refrain from pulling funny faces.

It’s important to bring some extra cash to leave a donation for the site’s maintenance and to fund the visitors’ center’s education programs.

Conclusion

The Death March Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is a painful archeology of many people’s suffering under the oppressive NSDAP regime. We must learn and accept such incidents in order to avoid repetitions of the similar type of acts in the future. As a result, it is possible to try to turn history into a story about victorious love, respect, and compassion and freedom.

Through reading this article, we would like to encourage you to learn more on the death marches from Sachsenhausen and/or pay a visit to the memorial.