If you are interested in visiting a concentration camp near Berlin, you have come to the right place. Learning about the history of these camps can be a deeply impactful experience and a solemn reminder of the atrocities committed during World War II. In this article, we will explore the closest concentration camp to Berlin and provide you with some important information to help you plan your visit.
1. Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp stands for the camp nearest to Berlin and in fact is situated 35 driving kilometers north from the capital of Germany. This camp was set up in 1936 and it acted as a recipe for other concentration camps in future. Sachsenhausen had a part during the holocaust for the main use was political prisoners, intellectuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
At present, the visitor can see the remains of the camp in the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum. The public can visit this site by private car or by a bus with a guide or without a guide. The memorial offers informative tours and several and informative shows; Besides, there are preserved buildings with some of the originally built barracks; The notorious Tower becomes a control tower for the camp.
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Ravensbrück was a concentration camp in occupied East Germany where women prisoners of the Third Reich started to be shipped in, in largest numbers when Hitler came into power in 1933.
Another concentration camp near Berlin is Ravensbrück located almost 90 km north of the capital of Germany. Ravensbrück is best known as the largest concentration camp for women in the German Reich, located since April 1939.
Ravensbrück was a concentration camp that brought tremendous sorrow to many, it also embodied executions of medical experiments and forced labors and mass killings. Today, there is Ravensbrück Memorial for the victims of the camp.Moreover, the Memorial is a commemoration to the victims of the camp. It includes scenario recreations of the remaining camp buildings and exhibitions in the memorial hall and a visitor center with professional-level information about the concentration camp and the suffering of the prisoners.
3. Belsen the Concentration Camp
Although Bergen-Belsen is not as proximate to Berlin as Sachsenhausen or Ravensbrück, it should be mentioned as well, for historical purposes. This camp is situated about 280 kilometers northwest of Berlin and was initially built as a prisoner camp for the World War but the later became a concentration camp.
Primo Levi’s book “The Drowned and the Saved” or Sofia,EKs stories as well as the diary of Anne Frank imprisoned here with her sister Margot. The camp was liberated in 1945, night horrors were in front of the Allies: thousands of dead bodies left for days on the area. Nowadays, the Bergen-Belyn Memorial works as the object of memory and education as well as tributary to the victims’ memories.
Planning Your Visit
If you plan to pay a visit to any of those concentration camps I have listed, I will encourage you to plan your visit there. Here are a few tips:
Research and Prepare
Before you visit the camp consider the Camp history, importance and rules for visitors. You must get used to more and more the time of the only visits, the price of the ticket and possible prohibitions. One should also enquire whether there are one arranged in that place and whether one has to make a reservation beforehand.
Allow Sufficient Time
As students, seeing the concentration camps and their conditions at firsthand can be very moving and thought provoking. Sufficient time has to be devoted to visit and understand the aim and purpose of the memorial sites/exhibition left behind. Doing so might lessen the imprint and the chance to grab the importance of history within a certain firm.
Show Respect
The remains found in these sites are sacred and should be preserved. Basically, one needs to dress properly, conduct him or herself in a quiet manner, and follow any operational policies that will be in force. As such it is important that one remembers that it is a place of remembrance and reflection.
Take advantage of hiking guided tours
It is particularly possible to consider joining a guided tour. It is recommended that persons specialized in the content of the statement to be used be consulted for further explanation to the text. It can also provide a richer learning experience that includes the actual narratives of the victims in the camp.
Reflect and Educate
Remember that coming of the concentration camp is not only to offer respects but also to learn and to let others learn. It is now important to spend some time reviewing what has been seen and what has been learnt, and to pass the information on. That is why when dealing with historical material students are trying to graspPossible persuasive essay topicthe past as effectively as it is possible, in order to know more and to move towards a better future.
A trip to the concentration camp near Berlin is one of the serious yet thought-provoking sightseeing that teach a person about history’s most tragic pages. Through learning about the past we try our best to build a future where there is no hatred or discrimination.
