Back in Germany again....
Gail was
asked to escort a tour into Berlin that included a visit outside the city, to
the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
This was a very different tour, and so heart wrenching, it is difficult
to write about it. Everything we have
seen in movies and read about in history books comes to life with the reality
of the atrocities that took place in this location.Sachenhsusen was constructed in 1936 as a model for other
camps. It was builtwith the labour of
prisoners to symbolize their subjugation to the absolute powerof the SS. More than 200,000 people were imprisoned in
Sachenhausen between 1936 and
1945. At first the inmates were mostly
political opponents who were forced into
labour at nearby factories. They were
eventually joined by members of other groups
defined as racially or biologically inferior, including Jews. Tens of thousands of them died of starvation,
disease or were murdered systematically.
Activities such as medical
experiments, creating the most efficient gas chambers and counterfeiting
British money were among the many enterprises that took place in this notorious
camp.The camp was liberated by
Soviet and Polish troops in April 1945, after which it became a special camp
for prisoners of the Soviets, many of them Nazis. By the time the camp was closed in 1950,
60,000 people had been imprisoned there, of whom 12, 000 had died of
malnutrition and disease.
Most of the original
barracks are gone, but the main buildings remain, housing museums full of
relics and photos from the time when the camp was active. There are several memorials to those who died
here. It makes you pray that this kind
of horror will never happen again.
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| Entrance to command headquarters |
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| fencing and only remaining barracks |
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| There are many graphic photos in the museum |
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| One of the many memorials |
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| One of the lookout towers from which people were shot |
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| May we never forget (click to enlarge and read the quote) |
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