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What Were the Concentration Camps in Berlin, Germany?

by | Mar 7, 2024 | Concentration Camp

Want to explore sachsenhausen concentration camp? Come and join us on the Original Berlin Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial Tour.

During World War II, Berlin, the capital of Germany, became a significant location for Nazi concentration camps. These camps served as places of confinement, forced labor, and mass murder. In this blog post, we will explore the concentration camps in Berlin and shed light on this tragic period of history.

1. Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Another concentration camp was Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg, a town directly north of Berlin. It also provided a blueprint of other camps and special emphasis was placed on political prisoners, intellectuals and Jews. The camp functioned between 1936 and 1945 and housed more than 200,000 people; about 30,000 inmates perished.

1.1 Living Conditions

The conducts of living of the prisoners including hygiene standards of the Sachsenhausen camp were appalling. Torture was common, and there were extreme overcrowding, diseases, and very inadequate nutrition. Women in particular were used for vivisection, and men as well as women were forced to work in nearby factories.

1.2 Notable Events

Sachsenhausen took on the function of crippling and killing political rivals; prominent prisoners were Ernests Thänmanns and Helmut Hirsch. It also also contained a hail for “special prisoners” – political prisoners such as former French Prime Minister Léon and Italian Communist Party leader Antonio Gramsci.

2. Female sub-camp of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Ravensbrüch concentration camp was mainly a women’s camp but it housed children as well as men. It operated from 1939 to 1945 and it was accommodated more than 130,000 prisoners of all kinds.

2.1 Women’s Camp

Soft copy Ravensbrück came into existence during the second world war, and it emerged to be the largest women’s concentration camp. It detained women of varied nationality, political leaning and/ or religious beliefs most of whom were political prisoners including those who were battling against regimes they were detained under.

2.2 Medical Experimentation

It is important to familiarise the reader with important general facts about the camp: medical experimentation was conducted in Ravensbrück just as in other concentration camps controlled by the Nazis. It is also important to know that female prisoners were used in cruel experiments such as sterilization, sulfonamide tests, infectious diseases – like tuberculosis.

3. Thus, the Columbiahaus concentration camp.

Columbiahaus Concentration Camp or Columbia-Haus was situated at Tempelhof Schöneberg borough of Berlin. It existed between 1933 and 1936, and acted as a political penitentiary during the initial stage of the existence of Nazism.

3.1 Political Prisoners

Columbia-Haus primarily housed political prisoners; there were communists, social democrats, and trade unionists. Its objective was to fight ANpolitical opponents of the Nazi government and eliminate free speech.

3.2 Infamous Events

One of the most famous linked tae Columbia-Haus is “the Night of Long knives” took place in 1934. During this notorious which was called Crystal Night, the SS moreover detained and shot several of the SA’s leaders as well as some other political foes..

Conclusion

The concentration camps in Berlin Germany provides a wealthy material for extreme narration of the Second World War. Some of the examples of the camps include Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück and Columbiahaus (Columbia-Haus) although due to space constraint there are many confinement camps that mar Berlin’s history.

Those people must not be forgotten, and one has to recall these events in order to prevent the like from happening in the future. As we study the concentration camps it becomes possible to remember the people who went through the suffering and contribute towards the creation a world where the concentration camps will not be tolerated again.

Want to explore sachsenhausen concentration camp? Come and join us on the Original Berlin Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial Tour.

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What Were the Concentration Camps in Berlin, Germany?

Mar 7, 2024