Concentration camps were a dark part of history during World War II, and one of the most infamous locations was in Berlin, Germany. In this blog post, we will explore the purpose and significance of concentration camps in Berlin and shed light on the atrocities that occurred within them.
1. The Purpose of Concentration Camps
The first and major function of concentration camps was to systematically oppress and annihilate people with whom Nazi Germany disliked. At first, those that were detained and sent to camps were political prisoners: communists, socialists, and other adversaries of the regime; however, in time, other groups of people were classified as enemies, and sent to the camps, including Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the handicapped, and other ’undesirables.’
The Nazis wanted to eliminate these people from within the society, disinfecting society from these individuals. Concentration camp aimed at depriving prisoners of all their human dignity, and subjugating them to starvation, hard labor, beatings, sulfocation in gas chambers, and other dreadful methods of killing in extermination camps.
1.1 Categories of Concentration Camps
There were several types of concentration camps, each serving a distinct purpose:
Prison Camps: These were commonly employed to detain opponents of the Nazis, any dissenters or anyone who was against Nazi’s policies or laws.
Work/Forced Labor Camps: Inmates in these camps where imprisoned and they were forced to work for cheap labor for the German’s war production or for other industries.
Death Camps: More broadly categorised as extermination camps, these were purely created for the purpose of killing asylum seekers by use of gassings among other methods.
2. Concentration Camps in Berlin
As the capital of the so called ‘‘third Reich’’ Germany, Berlin had closely situated concentration camps. These camps also were instrumental with Hitler policies of extermination on innocent people.
2.1 Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen is situated near Oranienburg, east of Berlin and was one of the oldest and some of the most important concentration camps of the Nazis. It was at first conceived as an exemplary camp, put under the authority of a Turkish captain, Beco, and was subsequently used for training of SS officers and for coordinating the management of the other camps.
Any prisoner kept in Saschenhausen was subjected to unbearable living conditions in addition to hard labor, human experimentation, and genital disease experimentation. It was also an example of the next stage in the development of objectives in carrying out the genocide when establishing concentration camps.
2.After 2 Ravensbrück Concentration Camp
Ravensbrück is located to north from Berlin and it was the largest women concentration camp which was created. It confined female prisoners of all sorts, political prisoners, Jehovah’s witnesses, and Jewish women.
The conditions which were prevailing in Ravensbrück were pathetic, including living high population density, starvation, and violent beating. Other inhuman treatments that occurred in this camp included; The medical experiment, sterilization, and forced labor.
3. Significance and Legacy
The concentration camps in Berlin are still standing, thus people are able to get a firsthand real touch of the holocaust and the acts of cruelty that people subjected their fellow beings to. They represent holocaust and persecution of millions of harmless individuals’ lives.
The testimonies or stories given by the survivors in these camps coupled with other archaeological evidence have helped not only the present but the future generations to develop horrified feelings and urged them not to practice such inhumanity by telling us about what really happened in holocaust.
Seeing with own eyes those concentration camps that now are museums, for example, the Sachsenhausen, help people to realize the scale of criminal activities and commemorate the victims.
3.1 Remembering the Victims
One cannot reduce a conflict to sales and numbers, however; there is a need to respect their memory and never forget victims. Berlin’s monument for the murderers’ Jews of Europe is one of the places focusing people’s attention to the fact that people were killed and no one should be discriminated against or hated.
3.2 Learning from History
It is a way of learning the cost of discriminating against one group and denying civil liberties to another. This way, humanity will attempt at transforming its social narrative from the negative side of human existence and strive to become a better society.
Conclusion
Forced detention camps in Berlin- -Germany were an influential factor towards the achievement of the Nazis’ goal of exterminating millions of people they considered to be substandard. It is important to understand their role and importance in the context to pay tribute to the victims and ensure that such atrocities will never be committed again. As students, we understand the hard lessons from this dark chapter in history to try to fashion a world where differences are embraced and human beings are accepted and welcomed in the societies they belong.
