Berlin 6, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Firstly I wanted to visit at least one camp in my lifetime. However as I have gotten older I find these memorials to brutality really upsetting. I have never experienced the things that went on, nor do I know anyone affected directly by them but I do feel that this shouldn’t ever be forgotten and maybe knowing about it would temper extreme behaviours for future generations.

We set a whole day to visit Sachsenhausen (pronounced Saxenhousen) in Oranienburg. It is free to visit and we paid a small amount for the audio guide. The female voice sounded like Zoe Wannamaker (British – American actor) and it’s possible it is her although there are no credits.

The place was one of the first concentration camps and the one pretty much all others were modelled on and it’s huge.

I have no need to go into much detail but 200,000 people were interned here between 1936 and 1945 including political opponents of the Nazi regime,  those branded to be racially or biologically inferior, such as Jews, Sinti and Roma, and people persecuted as homosexuals, as well  criminals and “antisocials”. First, the internees were mainly German citizens, but the outbreak of the War saw tens of thousands of people deported from the occupied territories. Around 30,000 died in this camp.

There are various museums inside and as we made our way around I could feel myself getting more and more tearful and at one particular point we had both had enough. It was harrowing!

We didn’t go out for dinner that evening, we ate early and watched a movie on Lees tablet and that was our way of resetting our day!