December 2014 - Berlin - Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and the Holocaust Memorial

I think I put off this blog for so long because I didn't want to write this post. I could have just skipped it, but that seemed... unjust? I don't know. Visiting a concentration camp was one of the most emotionally draining, gut-wrenching things I've ever done. On the other hand, people need to know that this is what can happen when good people don't stand up for what's right. So, I've been torn. In the end, I decided to post it. Just know it's not going to be an easy read. 

Sachsenhausen was a Nazi concentration camp just outside Berlin in Oranienburg, Germany. It was used to house political prisoners from 1936 until the fall of the Third Reich in May 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, it was used as an NKVD special camp.  

When you first enter, they have a really interesting display: 

This message-in-a-bottle was found hidden in a wall, by a construction worker during renovations almost 60 years after the liberation of the camp.  It was written by two of the camp's prisoners: Anton Engermann and Tadeuzs Witkowski. The message had been left by the two men when they were constructing the wall.  

Engermann was a member of the Anti-Nazi underground resistance movement. He was arrested in 1934, and became one of the first inmates at Sachsenhausen in 1937. He stayed there until his liberation in 1945. He passed away in Cologne, Germany in the early '80s. 

Witkowski was arrested in 1940, for illegally teaching Polish children in their native tongue, instead of in German. In 1945, when the Russian Army was approaching Sachsenhausen, thousands of the prisoners were marched to different camps. Witkowski was one of the few survivors of these "death marches." He was liberated while on the march by the US Army. He changed his name and is suspected to have moved to the US or Canada.

Their note says:  

"I want to return home again. Since 9 March 1937 in K.Z.S. [Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen]. Today is 19 April 1944.  When will I see my love in Frechen, Cologne once more? But my spirit is unbroken. Things must get better soon. Anton Engermann, born 06.10.02." 

"This work is done on 19.4.1944. Arrived in camp on 10 July 1940, today as I write it is already 19.4.1944. Witkowski, Tadeuzs." 

I think Engermann's message of hope, of his unbroken spirit, shows such impressive bravery and resilience despite the bleakness of the world around him. Beautiful. 

We walked around one of the camp's administrative buildings and toward a little wooded area where they had headstones and monuments for the victims. 

After seeing the monuments, we entered Sachsenhausen through the same gate the prisoners would have, which bears an ominous message: "Work makes you free." 

Upon arrival, the prisoners would be taken to the inner courtyard where a selection would take place. If you were well educated, like a doctor or dentist, you would likely be spared the manual labor. The others were worked to the bone, building walls and many people died from being underfed.

Escape was definitely not an option. An electric fence containing around 11,000 volts circled the property, and before the fence was the ‘neutral zone.’ Prisoners who approached the neutral zone were shot on site. Guards who successfully shot and killed prisoners in the neutral zone were rewarded with additional leave. So many prisoners committed suicide here, either by electric fence or by being shot by the guards, that the administration decided to cut off the electricity on the reachable rungs of the fence. The message being "no one dies here unless we say so."

Sachsenhausen was intended to set a standard for other work camps, both in layout and in treatment of prisoners. Its layout was deemed highly efficient in terms of the extermination and control of prisoners. It was designed so that one main 8mm machine gun above the entrance would dominate most of the camp, with very few additional watchtowers along the perimeter. 

The white building is the entrance gate, known as "Station A." The machine gun watchtower can be seen in at the top. The electric fence and neutral zone are also shown. 

This is the marching strip around the perimeter of the roll call ground. Here, prisoners marched over the variety of surfaces daily, in order to test military footwear. They were required to march between 16 and 25 miles each day, and were shot if they collapsed.

Some of the prisoner's barracks are still standing, where we were able to see the wooden bunks, toilets, and washrooms where the prisoners were kept. 

Rooms like these were designed to hold 120, and ended up housing up to 400 prisoners at a time, meaning 9 people per bed-block. The overcrowding and heat exhaustion alone was enough to kill some prisoners. 

Prisoners toilets

Prisoners washrooms. The guards would sometimes change the roll-call time, forcing the hundreds of prisoners to wash up within 30-60 seconds before punishments started being doled out. Many prisoners died being trampled in these kinds of cases.  And those who didn't make it out in time were sometimes drowned in the washbasins by the guards. 

I can't remember, but I think this is a political cartoon done by a former prisoner?

The outside of the prisoner barracks.

If you look back up on the map, you can see the "punishment barracks." these were kept separate from the general compound. Here, the SS officers would enact various punishments on prisoners: arrest in complete darkness, systematic beatings, strangling, or "pole hanging" an illustration of which is shown below. The SS used this special punishment block for anyone they wanted to torture and kill, or force to commit suicide, without being observed by anyone. 

As you can see, the guard has a whip with which to hit the prisoners, as if the pole-hanging wasn't torturous enough. 

This memorial is located in the "farm area" of the camp. 

I can't recall what this building is. I want to say that it's the factory where they manufactured the military boots for testing? If it's not that, then it's the execution barracks. 

This device was originally located inside the execution barracks. The prisoners would be told that they'd be going in for a check-up with a doctor, and that they'd need their height measured. They'd be taken into one of two rooms. In the wall between the rooms was a slit, with this "neck-shot" measuring device concealing it. When the victim was standing against the rod, preparing to be measured, an SS guard concealed in the adjoining room would fire a fatal shot through the slit. Sachsenhausen administration praised this invention for its efficiency-- only one bullet required per victim, it was a guaranteed fatal hit, and the guards never had to look the person in the eye. Absolutely sickening.

This is the camp kitchen. The prisoners painted comical little murals of their food on these pillars.

Potatoes being scrubbed up.

A carrot taking a shower.

Two fishy sweethearts about to get caught.

Potato sauna.

They also had a list of the camp victims, compiled into a Book of the Dead. Some people were there looking up names of their ancestors. 

in 1961, once the Soviets took over use of the camp, they constructed this obelisk as a memorial to the prisoners of Sachsenhausen. The East German government focused on the suffering of the political prisoners, over the other groups of people detained there. The red triangle was the symbol given to political prisoners, just as jews were given a yellow star.  

One of the smaller watchtowers, along the perimeter of the grounds. 

The inside of the watchtower.

A newspaper article illustrating evidence found related to crimes committed at Sachsenhausen by the Soviets. 

More barracks, I think. This time for the "special" prisoners. 

Graffiti on the walls of the "special camp." 

One of the more harrowing sites was the execution trench. This is where a majority of the Soviet Russian POWs were shot and killed.  The execution trench, the execution barracks, and the crematorium & gas chambers were all located in a portion of the camp nicknamed "Station Z" by the guards. "Station A" was the main gate, where you entered the camp. So, "Station Z" was where you made your exit. The only way out. 

In 2005, archaeologists discovered a layer of ashes during renovations. Read the article about it here. Too much interesting and sad info for me to type out. 

Photos of a few of the inmates who died in Sachsenhausen.

Station Z Crematorium. From the beginning, Sachsenhausen was supposed to have it's own crematorium, but that didn't happen until around 1940, when they got a small, one oven crematorium. Until that time, the bodies of the inmates were sent to other crematoria around Berlin, or buried in Oranienburg cemetery. Soon, small crematorium was no longer adequate, and they built this building with 4 cremation ovens, a gas chamber which was disguised as a shower, and the execution trench. 

This is the memorial outside of the crematorium. Evidently, it's ALWAYS covered in flowers like this. That fact alone gives me hope for humanity. That so many years, decades even, can pass and people are still paying tribute to those who lost their lives so tragically. 

After leaving Sachsenhausen, we made the train trip back to Berlin, and saw the Holocaust Memorial there. An architect named Peter Eisenman designed the memorial, which is constructed with almost 3,000 stone slabs of varying heights. 

Walking through the memorial, at first, is pretty underwhelming. The slabs come up to your knee, and as you look around, it's nothing spectacular. However, the further you walk, the height of the slabs rises, almost imperceptibly.  

Before you know it, The slabs are high above your head, you can't see in any direction, and it's rather disorienting and frightening. Chris stepped around one slab, and I didn't know where he was. It was like he evaporated into thin air, he was nowhere to be seen, and I got a little panicky and anxious. The feeling of loneliness and powerlessness I felt is hard to describe.

It was at that moment, I realized the significance and symbolism of the monument. Hitler and the Nazi Party's rise to power seemed so harmless and innocuous at first. 

It started with small random acts of control that eventually escalated to organized and industrialized mass murder. And good people like you and me didn't realize what was happening until they were in the thick of it. Until it was too late. 

Realizing all of this in the middle of the memorial was such a powerful moment for me. A testament to be aware of the things that are happening in the world around me, to be invested and active, and to take a stand for what's right.