The tour was free, but I had to pay money for the audio guide. Usually it's the other way around, but since I didn't have a guide, I went ahead and paid for it. I don't think I can stress this enough: if you EVER visit this place, you MUST get the audio guide, unless of course you are with a tour guide who might just know more. It was extremely instructive, and I spent much of my time listening to the fascinating accounts that it included.
I started the self-guided tour in the courtyard outside one of the corners, as you can see by the red dot in this picture:
Also, Sachsenhausen was not technically a death camp like Auschwitz. The Nazis had two group of prisoners here, neither of which they wanted dead, at least immediately. The first were political prisoners; Sachsenhausen was not far from Berlin, and Hitler or the SS could summon one or more quickly for interrogation. Some indeed were released from Sachsenhausen after promising never to speak out against the Nazis, which they presumably followed. The second group worked in nearby manufacturing plants, one of which included German bombers. Somehow a few crashed unexpectedly outside Stalingrad, perhaps due to undetected sabotage. Some also worked in the largest counterfeiting operation ever- it's thought that one million pounds had been created and introduced into the British economy, obvious in an attempt to undermine the fragile war-time economy. They also did this against America, but there wasn't much information available regarding that. These workers, both manufacturers and counterfeiters, lived with their families and children in the barracks seen above. They could be beaten or killed for the slightest provocation, either in the camp itself or at work.
Even though Sachsenhausen was more of a work camp than a death camp, more than 13,000 captured Soviets were brought to the camp and murdered. I found it morbidly interesting in how this was carried out. It's one thing to gas unsuspecting women in enclosed showers, but it's another to try to kill 13,00 soldiers who would be fully willing to rise up, even if you have guns and they don't. 500 soldiers don't stand up well against that many men, even with guns. Not to mention that the Soviets had direct orders to try to sabotage whatever they could while imprisoned. So soon after the Soviets came, the Germans rigged a system to unsuspectingly kill the soldiers one by one: they took them through a processing procedure, which would be expected in any war camp, but the stadiometer (which measures height) was rigged so that someone from another room could fire between its slits into the person's neck. Loud music was played to prevent the other soldiers from knowing what was happening. Here's an example that I found on the internet from another camp:
It's going to be hard to stay away from the morbid during this post, so I apologize for that; that's pretty much the only thing that fascinated me in a good way, especially given the Germans' penchant for systematization.
Next I walked halfway down one side of the wall to the main entrance.
In front of the entrance gates stood the courtyard, where the newly admitted were humiliated, beaten, and sometimes even killed on the spot. To the left were some of the barracks of the soldiers in charge of the control of prisoners, and their captain would carry out these tasks.
"Arbeit Macht Frei"- "Work Liberates"- a popular saying affixed to the entrances of various war camps. I can't remember which socialist book it comes from, but it's not meant to give hope to the inmates.
Upon entering, one saw the memorial flanked by two trees; the memorial had been erected by the DDR, which didn't want something more touching, so they chose a large cement slab with 18 triangles, represented the 18 nations that lost people in this camp. The triangle was the symbol of Sachsenhausen, due to its shape, and every inmate had to wear it on their uniforms with different colors designating different offenses. The memorial is criticized because it doesn't reflect the Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and others who died in the camp, because these social groups shouldn't be linked with their respective nations so much as a culture within Germany itself. It is however true that some were imprisoned here simply for being Russian, Czech, or Polish, though they were in the minority.
The wall around the inside of the camp had a second barrier to prevent the approach of any individual. The large barbed wires on metal poles were electrified night and day (sometimes inmates would commit suicide by running into it purposely), and two rows of looped barbed wire stood a meter in front of it. Add the fact that dogs were loosed between the wall and the wire, and you can see how this system was so effective that very few people ever escaped. The only ones known to have done so either dug under the wall or escaped while on work detail.
Next I toured a largely reconstructed barrack where prisoners lived. There were separate bathrooms for men and women, but all had to share the washing facilities; one could one wash one's feet and face. While it looks like there was plenty of room available, something like 200 people had to wake up at ~4:30am and all be ready by 5 for roll call, so you can imagine the chaos every morning just to get ready and out on the parade grounds.
A typical cell in the prison.
This is also the place where Pastor Martin Niemöller was imprisoned for a time before being taken to Dachau; he survived the war. He was a member of the Confessional Church (that's a title, not necessarily a description) which was formed in opposition to Hitler's Nazification of the State Church.
Here is the DDR memorial to the victims of Sachsenhausen; as you can see in the second picture, the freed prisoners son't look thin and gaunt at all, as the author had planned- the DDR made him alter the memorial to show a different message of Socialism.
Finally, I came to the death chambers of the camp. As I said above, this was not a death camp, but that doesn't mean that no deaths happened. Indeed, not only did Soviet soldiers die, but also the sick, elderly, and rebellious. Burning was simply the best way to dispose of a large number of bodies, especially to prevent disease from spreading. They recently found the place where many of the ashes and bones were thrown; you can see it in the first picture below.
And finally, there was the building where the gas chambers and crematoriums were. The Soviets tried to destroy these, partially succeeding, but one can still see the remains, protected from the rain by an overhang. There's also a memorial to those who perished.
And that's about it. There was a memorial set up, and any nation that lost citizens here in Sachsenhausen could put up a plaque recognizing what happened here. I didn't get a picture of it, but it's worth noting. There was much more that I simply didn't have time for. There was another part of the camp that served as a memorial to the Soviets who died. It was a bit of a walk, and I didn't have time, but it would've been interesting to see. Also, there were some medical buildings in which the SS doctors conducted medical experiments; they were quite well known for trying things on the inmates that were normally outlawed. I only got a glimpse in this part of Sachsenhausen, and it was pretty sickening just hearing the things they would do. Then again, man will do almost anything to that which he calls "sub-human." We should think of the unborn in our country who are en masse being slaughtered simply for being a called lump of "cancerous cells." If you haven't yet, I highly encourage you to watch the "180" Movie. It's 30 minutes long, but worth every single minute. It connects the mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis with the mass murder of innocent babies in abortions.
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