When diving into the history of Berlin, it is crucial to confront the dark period of World War II and the Holocaust. During this time, the Nazis established several concentration camps known as “campos de concentración” in Berlin and its surrounding areas. These camps played a significant role in the systematic persecution, imprisonment, and extermination of millions of innocent people.
1. Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Oranienburg Sachsenhausen was one of the first concentration camp constructions of the Nazis which is situated in Oranienburg, closer to the Berlin. Soon it evolved into model camp that was used to train the incoming SS officers and as reference point to other camps. Many thousand prisoner were given forced labor, experimented on, and suffered through involuntary malnutrition and exposure. Now, the Sachsenhausen is a Memorial and Museum where people can learn about the things which occurred during the concentration camp’s existence.
2. This could well be the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for women.
First planned as a prison for women and the political prisoners Ravensbrück developed into one of the largest women’s concentration camps in the Holocaust. It was situated 56 miles north of Berlin and held inmates of all varieties, among them Jews, political criminals, and persons active in resistance movements. Many of the prisoners were submitted to torturing suffering from overcrowding, hard labor and medical experimentation, as well as other dogmatic acts by the Nazis.
3. Auschwitz Subcamps in Berlin
Auschwitz has become a symbol of the holocaust but many subcamps of Auschwitz III were located in Berlin. These subcamps were of various capacities, like supplying the German forces in the war, and doing away with the Jews. The prisoners in those sub camps suffered from more brutalities torture and even death through starvation until the camps were liberated.
4. Camps for Roma People
Rom or gypsies as they are also called were one of the most persecuted groups under the Nazis. Golles concentrated several camps into Berlin and its surroundings to detain and persecute the Roma community. Thus, these camps involved the use of forceful labor, medical experimentation, and genocide on the Roma people. They continue to suffer, and they are persecuted to this day, and the terrible events of holocaust are proved by this.
5. Other Smaller Camps
Apart from these larger camps mentioned above, Nazi built several other camps across Berlin although they were small in size. These were transit camps, the labor camps, and prisons for political prisoners and other ‘subhuman’ persons such as resistance fighters. In these smaller camps the living conditions were normally very poor, and the prisoners even their lives were in danger all the time.
Conclusion
One of the most dreadful parts of the history of mankind was the campos de concentración in Berlin. The concentration camps were employed by the Nazis as means of punishment, hard labor, and extermination. Today it means our mission is to remember those victims and to study their ordeal that was hell on Earth.
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