Berlin Day 2: A Bit of History

Item #1: Did anybody know that Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was the most important Concentration Camp in Northern Germany? I sure didn't. Although, don't feel bad that you probably didn't either, because for over 40 years it was "behind the Iron Curtain". Sachsenhausen was apparently the training grounds for the SS officers assigned to every other concentration camp! I'm not quite sure that there are words to describe some of the atrocities we learned about on our tour (or at least none that are in my limited vocabulary), so I'll just let some of the pictures speak for themselves.   

You start off the tour at Gate A:

Arbeit Macht Frei translates to Work Shall Set You Free.

You then make your way past a preserved section of the Neutrale Zone.  I'm not really sure that the German Nazi's knew the definition of Neutral.  If you stepped a foot into this zone, the Germans would shoot you without warning.  Not exactly my idea of neutral. 

The Neutrale Zone

Inside the two Jewish Barracks that are still standing, you can see the 3-tiered bunks that were used.

3-Tiered Bunk Beds

In one of the barracks, you can also see the fire damage from an attempt by Neo-Nazis to burn down the remaining Jewish Barracks about 10 years ago.

Fire Damaged Jewish Barracks

This quote was at the entrance to Station Z.  This was the facility that the Nazi's used to streamline the murder that they committed on a daily basis.  Apparently the Nazi's believed that if you entered the camp via Gate A (aka the beginning of the alphabet), you should only leave through Station Z (the end of the alphabet).  For the most part, Station Z no longer exists. The foundation is pretty much the only bit left because the Russian's blew it up after they stopped using Sachsenhausen as their own POW camp in the 60's.

Quote from Andrzej Szczypiorski, who was a prisoner of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

We also went through the pathology building, but I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures of that.
Behind the infirmary building were 6 mass graves.  These graves represented the 300 people in the infirmary that were unable to be saved after Sachsenhausen was liberated April 22, 1945. 

With this, our tour ended, and all of us walked quietly to the bus that would be taking us back to the train station.  Upon arriving back in Berlin, Katie and I made our way to the main train station, where Katie hopped a train back to Leipzig, and once again, I'm on my own....

On a happier note, I'll be going to the Berlin Zoo tomorrow!

Cheers!
KM