Why You Should Visit Sachsenhausen, Germany

One of the things on our list of things to do in Berlin was to venture outside the city to a concentration camp. As a history minor who had just directed Anne Frank my friend really wanted to see this camp, and as her costume designer and lover of history I did as well. Sachsenhausen is about a 45 minute train ride north of Berlin. The very last stop on the train took us to a town that looked like a town in Florida except for the snow all over the ground. It was freezing outside, but the bus to the concentration camp doesn't come very often, so we followed the signs from the train station down many blocks to the camp. It wasn't too hard to find, but we did stop and ask for directions once. Thank goodness for our native German friend! Our friend had gone to Sachsenhausen once on a field trip years ago, but that was it. We were prepared for the worst, but we walked through the camp in a sort of trance not feeling much emotion at all. Perhaps the most you can do is to let it sink in and wait for the reactions later.

The entrance to the camp has an enormous sign that says Sachsenhausen. The first building to enter is one that has been turned into an information center and gift shop. Unlike things in America, the camp is free, but you can purchase audio tours if you like. We found the majority of things were labeled in German and English, so we opted to not spend a dime. We left the information center and walked along a big wall following people to the entrance of the camp. We walked by a run down green wooden building right next to some modern apartments. The building was where the S.S. had once lived. We could not imagine wanting to live in apartments right next to such a place, but people in the town lived right next to the camp. Some knew what went on inside, but many did not realize.

The first part of the camp near the headquarters of the camp was set up like a park with many different monuments commemorating the different people who had died in the camp. The real gate to the camp inscribed with "Arbeit Macht Fret" was past that park and the true entrance to the camp. Those words roughly translated into "free to labor here" and many camps had that inscribed on their entrances. A fence with barbed wire surrounded the enormous camp with a "no man's zone" near it, so if people got too close to the wall they were shot. There were small towers along the wall and a large one in the back corner.

Some buildings are still standing today, but mostly just square stones mark where they once stood. There are however two barracks that you can enter to see what things once looked like. You can see the wooden beds where people slept with no mattresses and only one blanket. Since it was snowing on and off when we went we could only imagine how awful that must have felt. We saw holes in the ground for toilets, and then some nicer toilets as well. There were large washbasins that 35 men had to share. Tables, lockers, and one building set up like a museum showed us prisoner's uniforms as well as nazi uniforms.

The most disturbing building was the one with an autopsy table because this particular camp was known for the science experiments performed on its prisoners. While in the section for Russian prisoners we watched a film with old prisoners who pointed out where they had slept, how they were trapped in the building and the only time someone left was if they were sick. If they were sick they were taken to the infirmary. Today you walk on a glass floor a few inches off the ground because of the diseases. My friend fell off of it at one point and we joked that she would get TB now. It is set up like a museum showing different tools used for experiments along with stories and photos of people who survived this place. Down in the basement of the building with the autopsy table was a large room where bodies were once tossed. The eerie room wasn't blocked off at all, so you could walk right in and feel a chill come upon you. When the room was getting filled too quickly they then created the ovens.

The ovens are in another section of the camp with more memorials along side the remains of them. Replicas of two of these ovens can be seen at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., but it was interesting to actually see the originals. I could go on about the track made for people to test shoes where people were forced to run 40 miles a day. I could talk about the death march that thousands from this camp were sent on when they knew the camp would be liberated soon. This place is so full of history that the only way to really understand of comprehend it is to take a trip there yourself. The camp is not located too far from Berlin and is a good day trip to make in between other touristy things you may be doing in Berlin. And though the camp sounds dismal it was not as awful as it may sound or as it could be or might be if it was in the United States. They do not seem to exaggerate things, but rather just show how it was. Sachsenhausen is really a place you should visit if you are interested in World War II, The Holocaust, or just history.