Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

 When I was in Berlin, my friend Colleen and I took a tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I knew this place was going to be pretty influential and I was correct. Although this was not a death camp, there were still many horrific, sad stories of deaths that occurred here. There were prisoners ranging from communists, jews, homosexuals, jehovah's witnesses, polish, ext. I felt it necessary to take these pictures and write this blog entry because I wanted to share with my friends and family the history that I was fortunate enough to experience that day.

 This is a plaque in memory of all of the Jews that perished on "The Death March", which was when the Nazi's took thousands of prisoners from German concentration camps near the war front to camps inside Germany.

 This is a picture of the Nazi housing developments. They lived right outside of the camps in houses that are marked with pointed roofs.

 A sign in town pointing towards the camp. Everyone that lived in Oranienburg, Germany (the town the camp is located in) worked in the camp, so the camp was not hidden. The town still to this day is still run down place.

 Right outside of the camp.

 One of the guard towers outside of the camp.

 Inside the main reception area.

This is a layout of the entire camp. 

 This was the building that the Nazi's used for games and entertainment. They would force girls to dance for them, would have the Jehovah's Witness prisoners serve them because they would never fight or talk back. The building is undergoing renovation.

 This is the main entrance of the camp. This is where all of the prisoners were brought and stood while they were inspected and classified.

 I just couldn't believe I was standing at the gate that so many people would stare at each day, longing to see the other side, but never did.

The front gate that reads, "Work will set you free"

 The main common area where they made the prisoners come stand every morning for role call. They had thousands of names to read off each morning and if one person came out of the bunk late they would completely start from the beginning. They sometimes would have to stand on this field for over 10 hours without moving, or they would make them squat for hours then force them to jump up quickly, beating them if they fell. 

The inside view of the front entrance. 

These were the bunks that the various prisoners lived.

 This is one of the light posts and guard towers.

 This was the "neutral zone". If you crosses over these stones you were immediately shot by one of the guards in the towers. If you actually made it to the fence you were electrocuted. The very common way of killing yourself was running into this fence with hopes you would either be shot or shocked.

 One way of torturous death was to make the prisoners try on a new type of boot and making them run this track that runs around the main court yard and has many different surfaces. They would make them wear an extremely heavy weight on their back and the main outcome was people dropping dead from exhaustion and lack of food.

 Outside one of the bunkers, clearly re renovated.

The fountain where hundreds of them had to wash themselves in each morning. They all had 45 minutes to get washed up and outside for roll call and they only had one, maybe two of these.

 The story of one of the homosexual prisoners.

 A food bin with pleas for freedom scratched onto them.

Each different type of prisoner was given a triangle on their pajama top depicting what type of prisoner they were. 

 The toilets that hundreds of them had to share.

Inside one of the bunkers.

 They had to sleep in these beds, usually three to a bed. They would have to sleep on their sides in order for everyone to fit.

 They would tie prisoners hands behind their back, then hang them on these poles from the ties so their shoulders would snap and they would die. You could tell how long someone had been hanging there depending on how bent back their arms were.

 This is the foundation for one of the solitary confinement bunks. If you were known to be mouthy or rebellious they would put you in here and give you specific tasks and special types of torture and then make you stay in a cell completely alone with no one else around you.

 The inside of one of the solitary confinement rooms.

 The hall way of the same building.

 Those two holes are where the gallows used to stand and there is a memorial placed there now.

 One of the famous artists that was brought into the camp, referred to as the Walt Disney of the area, was considered higher up so they let him work in the cellar and wash vegetables and decorate the cellar. He decided to put hidden meanings in his work so this one is parsnips inspecting carrots and being degrading although they look just like the carrots. This obviously is a metaphor for what was happening.

 One day this artist was washing potatoes and the person he was washing them with said, "Man, I wish these potatoes would just wash themselves". This is his work representing if that were to happen.

A pair of striped pajamas.

I found the top quote very hard to read, "There is nothing that injures human feelings so deeply as being forced to watch a fellow human being executed." The bottom one reads, "We had to walk past the corpse, past the hanged man, with our caps off and we had the greatest respect for these victims."

 This is the monument that the Communists put up when they took this camp over and used it for their own imprisonment after the Holocaust.

 This is the site where over 12,000 bodies were found buried in the ground. It was thought to be from when the Communists had control of this camp.

 The Communist's prisoners bunk areas.

 The square closest to the camera is the remains of the gas chamber.

 They would lead them through the doorway in the top center and the guard would stand on the other side of the door on the left and watch to see how effective this type of gas was.

 The tiny room on the left is where a guard with a gun would sit and then they would lead prisoners into the room at the top of the picture and tell them they were going to "get measured". They would make them stand against the wall where the guard was standing on the other side of and when they stood against the measuring tool the guard would shoot them in the back of the neck.

 What remains of the crematory.

 This is inside the medical room. This room was used for various medical experiments. Probably the creepiest room of the whole tour.

This experience was very eye opening. There isn't much else to say about it, just how sad it left me yet beneficial because I now feel like I have a new found understanding for what happened after being there.