July 1, 2014
After we finished our tour of Berlin’s 1936 Olympic Village, site of Hitler’s greatest triumph, we drove for about an hour to the town of Orienienburg, site of one of Hitler’s most infamous crimes, the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Ironically, Sachsenhausen was also founded in 1936, and was the first camp to be built after Heinrich Himmler took over as Chief of the German Police. Its triangular design was conceived by SS architects as the perfect concentration camp layout and it was used as a model for subsequent camps.
More than 200,000 people were imprisoned at Sachsenhausen during its Nazi lifespan (from 1936-1945). Unlike some of the other more famous concentration camps (such as Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz), Sachsenhausen began its life as primarily a camp for political prisoners rather than ethnic or social minorities (although eventually many thousands of “biologically inferior” individuals were imprisoned here as well). Many people were also brought here from occupied European countries such as Poland. Tens of thousands died here from disease, starvation, abuse, or extermination; thousands more died during the death march of April 1945, when sick and weakened prisoners were evacuated from the camp.
After the war, this part of Germany became Soviet terrain, and as with other Nazi War Machine structures (such as the 1936 Olympic Village which went from being a Nazi military hospital to a Soviet military hospital), it was conveniently turned into a Soviet Concentration Camp (“Soviet Special Camp #7”). From 1945-1950, approximately 60,000 people, including Nazi functionaries, political prisoners and other “undesirables,” were imprisoned by the Soviets here, and about 12,000 died of malnutrition and disease.
I didn’t know much (okay, anything) about Sachsenhausen before arriving here at around 2 p.m. and I had naively assumed we’d have plenty of time to tour the camp. I also didn’t know if my friends would be that interested in it (not being Morbid Sightseers), so I didn’t want to subject them to a long day at the camp. As it turned out, they were every bit as fascinated as I was, and we all left feeling sad that we didn’t allocate more time for the trip because three hours wasn’t nearly long enough.
The stench of disease, filth, and death are long gone now, but those entrusted in the preservation of the camp and the memories of its victims have done a great job over the years at renovating it to approximate its original Nazi-era appearance, with some original structures and some replicas. The camp is very large, requires a great deal of walking (and I had terrible blisters on my feet so that wasn’t very fun), and has so many exhibits of memorabilia accompanied by first person accounts that it would take you a full day (maybe even longer) to appropriately see and read everything. In addition, they supply you with a headset to hear first-person accounts of the horrors of life and death in the camp. I started out listening to all of the accounts but realized I would never have time to get through the entire camp that way, and put the headset down at a certain point. However, when I go back (and yes, I will return someday), I will be sure to allocate an entire day so I can have a more thorough experience.
Nevertheless, even my short visit was absolutely compelling, and I left feeling numb and emotionally drained… if a little disappointed that we returned after the gift shop was already closed. (Yes, yes, I will return!) Here, then, is a photo tour of Sachsenhausen through my eyes.
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- The gift shop and visitor’s center at Sachsenhausen. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- The visitor’s center and gift shop is located in this old armory building constructed in 1939/40. It was first used as a workshop for the maintenance of weapons but later used as a slaughterhouse (of animals, not people, for a change). It was then used a food storage building by the Soviets. We were in a rush to get going and we came back after the gift shop was closed already (sniffle) so I didn’t get a chance to explore this building at all. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- To get to the camp, you have to walk around a corner and down the “Camp Street” (1000 meters long). Along the wall bordering the camp are brutal images like this telling the story of the death march which began on the evening of April 21, 1945 as Soviet forces drew near. The prisoners were marched 20-40km per day towards the Baltic Sea. Those who could not keep up were shot at the roadside by the SS guards. Many thousands of prisoners failed to survive. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- On the 22nd and 23rd of April, 1945 Soviet and Polish troops reached the main camp at Sachsenhausen. There they found around 3,400 prisoners, most of them ill. At least 300 of these had suffered so badly from their imprisonment that even intensive medical care could not save their lives. Most of the 33,000 inmates who had been taken on the “death march” were liberated by Allied forces in the first few days of May. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- This is the command headquarters area of the camp, where the SS officers lived, just outside the main gates. These are the people who committed the horrific murders just a few hundred feet away… while living surrounded by pleasant gardens and picket fences. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- Outside the camp, near the SS barracks, is an area that is filled with memorials to the victims inside. This was my favorite one. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- This is the main gate into the prison camp – known as “Tower A”. The SS Administration offices were held inside this building as well. This was also used by the Soviets to house their secret service. Over 100,000 people passed through these gates and never left. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- The infamous German slogan “Work Makes You Free” on the gate of Tower A, intended to encourage labor from the prisoners. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- Infrared shot of the infamous gate. Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted to Infrared
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- Tower A administrataive offices, shown from inside the prison. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- This is the security system along the inside walls. (It was reconstructed when the camp became a memorial in 1961.) An electric fence, barbed wire, and a ‘Dead Zone’ in which guards would shoot any prisoners who entered. Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted to Infrared
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- Of course, many prisoners decided death was preferable to continuing to endure the conditions of the camp and ran into the dead zone to throw themselves on the electric fence or be shot. I would have. Wouldn’t you? Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- This sign warns prisoners that if they step into the “Neutral Zone” they will be immediately shot without warning. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- The (rebuilt in 1961) electric fence. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- Infrared shot of the wall along the front of the camp. Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted to Infrared
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- In 1940, the “shoe-testing track” was built. The prisoners were part of a penal work detail and were forced to run up to 40 kilometers a day around the 700-meter track, at a brisk pace, regardless of the weather. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- I accidentally took this selfie of my hand and the sky while I was walking along the shoe testing track. I thought it summed up my forlorn mood pretty well. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- The purpose of the track was to test shoes to try to improve German soldiers’ footwear. Of course, painful blisters and crippling pain often accompanied this process. And since I had several enormous blisters on my own feet, I could sympathize with the plight of the prisoners as I walked along the path. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- Anyone who couldn’t keep up the pace while walking along the shoe testing track was hit by SS guards. Few managed to survive the torture more than a couple of weeks. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- Infrared shot of the shoe testing track. Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted to Infrared
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- Barrack 38 and 39 were originally built as part of the “Small Camp” (an expansion outside of the original camp grounds) in 1938. Among the first groups of people imprisoned here were Sinti and Roma. For a while after the “Kristallnacht” in November 1938, the Small Camp was almost completely occupied by over 6,000 Jewish internees. Up to 400 people were crammed into barracks that had been planned for 150. One group of prisoners here were known as the Standing Unit. They were forced to stand motionless all day. In October 1942, Heinrich Himmler ordered all of the camps to begin deporting their Jewish prisoners to Auschwitz. After that, the SS mainly used barrack 38 and 39 to accommodate prisoners from Poland and the occupied parts of Western Europe. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- The washroom inside Barrack 39. “This is where in the morning prisoners would wash themselves. At times up to 400 prisoners would be squeezed into a barracks like this and they only had 30 minutes for rations and bathing. Consequently, 8 to 10 men would be standing at a time at these basins with only cold water running. SS men were known to have drowned prisoners in the basins for washing feet on the right.” Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- The foot washing basins where prisoners were drowned by SS guards. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- Prisoners were only allowed to use the toilets twice a day and in the rush, older, sick, and weakened prisoners would be trampled and lay on the floor covered in excrement. Prisoners who were unable to work had to stand, without moving a muscle, all day long in this unaired space. SS guards were known to have drowned prisoners in the toilets. Incidentally, I was appalled to see a young couple posing smiling for photographs in front of these toilets. What. The. Fuck! Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- The barracks were filled with three-tiered wooden bunks arranged in narrow rows. Prisoners slept on straw palliases, or some on the bare wood floor. Survivors have reported that the palliases and blankets were teeming with bugs. After mass deliveries of prisoners, up to three prisoners would have to share one bedspace. (I must confess, the one thing that makes me think, ‘I’d throw myself on the electric fence,’ faster than anything else is lice. I suppose that means my priorities are all messed up, but so be it!) Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- The barracks contain many authentic items from prisoners who were held here. This uniform is for a Jewish political prisoner. The red triangle indicates a political enemy and the yellow triangle underneath forming a Star of David indicates a Jewish ethnicity. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- This is one of the original prison cells, where “special” prisoners were kept, tortured, and murdered. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- A few of the cells had photographs of victims who had died there. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- The creepy hallway of the prison building. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- A flower was placed on the desk in remembrance of those who had died in this cell. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- Although there are only a handful of the original barracks still standing, the foundations of the missing barracks are exposed so that the scope of the camp is fully revealed. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- It was a beautiful day in a place of desolate memories. Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted to Infrared
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- Infrared shot of the outer boundary of the camp. Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted to Infrared
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- I can’t imagine being able to escape such a place… Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted to Infrared
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- SS Guards would survey the camp from these towers, ready to shoot any prisoners who tried to escape. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- The largest memorial on the site is this one, dedicated to the many political prisoners who died here. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- Possibly the most unnerving area in the prison camp is actually behind the original walls. Here, you find the execution trench and crematorium: the most explicit representations of the mass execution machinery. This is the execution pit. Originally, it was a simple sandpit, but in 1940 this more elaborate structure, complete with its own morgue, was constructed. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- Looking down into the execution trench. The SS used the trench mainly – but not exclusively – to kill prisoners who had been sentenced to death by National Socialist courts. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- Ominous doors that led down to the mortuary from the firing trench. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- The area where the executions by firing squad would occur. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- Later, they also had a gallows here that they used to hang three people at the same time. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- In the spring of 1942, the SS forced the prisoners to construct a huge new building containing a crematorium, four ovens, a mortuary and a firing range. This building was known as “Station Z” – the last stop on your trip at Sachsenhausen. (As opposed to Tower A, through whose gates you entered.) Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- In 1943, the building was installed with a gas chamber to murder prisoners. Tens of thousands of people met their demise here and their ashes were uncovered nearby. A teenage girl sat weeping near us. It actually felt comforting to know that young people can still feel the impact of the Nazi atrocities after all these years. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- This building was blown up by the GDR police in 1952/53. The remains of the building were uncovered during archaeological excavations and a roof was placed over the ruins to protect them. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- A statue depicting prisoners being forced to take the dead to the crematorium. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- Some of the faces of the victims of the execution area. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- One of the rooms in the pathology building, which was built in 1941 to carry out post-mortem examinations on prisoners. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- The morgue beneath the pathology building. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- I can’t even imagine what this place was like when it was filled with bodies. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- The autopsy table in the pathology building. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- Of course, autopsies weren’t performed on the regular prisoners, only the ones that the SS doctors had a special interest in – such as the medical experiment victims. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- There was a huge museum filled with information about the medical section of the prison. Unfortunately, I was running out of time and could only make a quick pass through. Must go back! Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- These trousers belonged to political prisoner Henry Michel. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- I know it’s wrong to say this but… I love the design of this bottle. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- Hereditary Health Court records. Yes, they had a hereditary court to determine who could procreate and who could not. If you were deemed inferior (mentally ill, a “wrong” ethnic group, a genetic disease, homosexual, etc.) you would be involuntarily sterilized. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- Mood lighting in another pat of the medical building. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- An old sink in the medical building. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4
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- As I walked back towards Tower A, I passed this rather goth looking warning sign alongside the Neutral Zone. Camera: Canon Rebel T3i
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- Before I left, I took one last shot of the ominous looking concrete light post, realizing that it was probably close to here that the gallows existed where they would hang unruly prisoners in front of the other prisoners during the morning roll call. Sachsenhausen, I’ll be back to explore you in more detail soon. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4