Europe 2019 - Day 20 (Part 1)

26 May 2019, Sunday

Since we had already finished exploring the important sites in Berlin, we decided to venture out of Berlin today. I would say that most of the sights in Berlin had to do with Nazis and the Wall. So as my friend observed, in a weird way they have Hitler to thank for tourism in Berlin today; otherwise there will be nothing to see here.

We first went to a concentration camp in Sachsenhausen. This is situated quite far away and we had to take several trains and a bus to reach our destination. The camp was also like an open air museum, and was the actual site of the concentration camp which was in operation from 1936 to about 1945 with some remnants of the old camp still there, including an old oven for cooking in the infirmary, and a cold room with meat hooks in the kitchen for storing meat. 

It was built in the summer of 1936 by prison labour after the appointment of Heinrich Himmler as Chief of the German Police in July 1936. More than 200,000 people were imprisoned here between 1936-1945, first consisting of political opponents and prisoners of war (POWs) from Russia, Czech, the Netherlands etc. Soon they were joined in ever-increasing numbers by members of groups defined by the National Socialist ideology as racially and biologically inferior such as Jews, gypsies and homosexuals. Many died of starvation, disease, forced labour, maltreatment or outright murder. Others died on death marches after the evacuation of the camp. About 3,000 sick prisoners were left behind in the camp and were liberated by Soviet and Polish troops in April 1945. 

From the entrance we walked along Camp Street. This is the street where prisoners had to walk to enter the camp; it separates the Concentration Camp Command Headquarters and the Prisoners’ Camp from the grounds of the SS Troop Camp. The latter included military barracks, where camp guards were trained and housed. Then the entrance to Command HQ and the Prisoners’ Camp. “Abandon hope, all ye who enters here” is a phrase that came to mind.

Then the Command HQ which used to contain offices, accommodation and a casino for about 100-250 SS command staff. Then the Commandant’s House where mass murder operations were discussed and planned (sickening). Then the entrance to the Prisoners’ Camp or Tower A or the Protective Custody Camp. It was built in 1936 by the prisoners of the camp itself. Here the personnel had direct power over the prisoners and were systematically abused, tortured and some even murdered. From here you can see the roll call area, where sometimes the prisoners were made to stand for hours in the cold until some died and some suffered frostbite. 

Then the shoe testing track which had a variety of surfaces; the prisoners in the punishment squad had to march round it endlessly to test leather substitutes for the German shoe industry. Then Barracks 38 and 39 which were solely for Jewish prisoners, and the prisoners camp for other prisoners. Then the prison within the concentration camp for infringements of camp discipline, a place of secrecy, torment and murder. The Site of the Gallows is a place where prisoners were executed in front of their comrades assembled in the roll call area, as a deterrent. At Christmas, the SS had a Christmas tree put up there.

Then the infirmary barracks, which was not only a hospital for the sick, but also a place which carried out medical horrors on the prisoners such as forced sterilisation or castration, and all sorts of chemical testing such as mustard gas poisoning. 

Then there was the prisoners’ laundry room, kitchen, an obelisk (about 40 meters high) as a symbol of the Sachsenhausen National Memorial (opened in 1961), the execution trench where resistance fighters and people sentenced by the Nazi Special Courts were executed, a burial ground (trenches) with ashes of the victims of the concentration camp, a site for the commemoration of the victims of the concentration camp, industrial yard where the prisoners were forced to work, and the crematorium where the victims who died were cremated. The latter was also known as Station Z (the last alphabet and therefore the last ‘station’ of your life). Apart from 4 fixed cremation ovens, there were also a gas chamber and a firing squad execution area. 

Lastly the T-building that between 1938 and 1945, housed the administrative headquarters of the entire concentration camp system. The men who sat behind desks in these offices determined the conditions of imprisonment, coordinated forced labour and organised mass murder. You should see their photographs. They look normal. But I cannot imagine how any normal person could carry out such horrendous acts of brutality. And it’s difficult not to feel hatred towards them knowing what they had done.