The Second Concentration Camp

We had booked a bus tour to a concentration camp for our last day in Berlin.

This is a heavy topic.  If you aren't feeling strong today, skip this post.  

The bus trip was about an hour long to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.  It is outside of Berlin in a small town. It was built in 1936.  It was the second camp.  The first was right in town. That turned out to cause image problems for the Reich because when the doors were open briefly people could see in and witness the horror.  They then had to make propaganda films to counter that image of these "work" or "training" camps.

Sachsenhausen didn't start out as a camp for the elimination of  Jewish persons.   It started out as a place to put dessenters of Hitler's Regime, the disabled, the homeless.

It was planned as a place to experiment on the best way to kill lots of people, to make money off free labor, to conduct experiments, and to train SS guards. 

It is on the edge of a cute little town, not out in the wilderness.

It was at this second camp they worked to figure out how many people in the chamber, how much gas, how to get them in there without panic and resistance.  (They told them they were getting a shower.)

All the gates to concentration camps read, Work Sets You Free, or something like that. 

People going into the camp think they are going to work a while and with good behavior return home.   That is what they are told as they march in. No one escaped, no one returned.  

Our guide showed us the efficient triangle shape of the camp.  Efficient?  Yes, a guard tower on one side had a view of the whole camp, and clear aim.

Adjacent to to the camp was a place where SS guards were trained.  The site is now used for training German Police, and during the cold war, Russian Guards.

We walked the same road where prisoners were marched into the camp.

There is a building outside the camp where SS guards came periodically to get the newest methods and set goals for their camps.

Below is the entrance and the gun tower looking from the yard where prisoners stood for role call.

The clock above the gate has the hands painted on to the time when the Russians entered to liberate the prisoners.  Then the Russians used the camp to abuse prisoners of war.

In 1938 they started collecting people of Jewish descent into the camp.

Companies that still exist today, used the free labor in the camps to make or test their products.  The officers and guards made money from this.

One shoe company had the prisoners test their shoes.  A circular track of different size rocks was made.  A prisoner was pumped full of drugs (they were testing drug effects too) and made to run the track in too tight shoes until they died.  

Behind the camp was the shooting pit, the "showers" and the crematorium. The guides said that the view and smell of the smoke must have meant the villagers knew what was going on.

We must not let fear keep us silent or those horrors could repeat.

The guide emphasized the importance of sharing the story to help prevent it happening again.

Today, when I hear stories of ICE agents dressed all in black with masks breaking car windows to get at the wrong people before they have a chance to get their lawyers, I am witnessing a slide into hell.

Recently ICE Agents in the USA broke into a woman's home at night in Oklahoma.  They broke up the place, terrorized her and her daughters, took all their money andl electronics and kept those items even after they learned they had the wrong person.  Last I heard, she still hasn't got the items back.

This is what happens when the rule of law is ignored.  When the administration refuses to allow the courts to process the cases.  Not just citizens are allowed due process, all persons are supposed to get due process according to our constitution. 

If they can grab people and ship them off to prison without their case heard in court. Will you or I be next?

We were encouraged to take pictures.   The guide said, we need to tell the story.

Above is the ovens.  The paths we were walking on were paved with the ashes of thousands of murdered people.

We walked back up the path to the bus.  The street into the parking lot was lined with cute homes.

Back in Berlin we walked home.

First we stopped at the station to figure out which U-train we get on to get back to Central Berlin for our train ride to Prague.

We stopped at a market to pick up salads for supper.  I took a picture of the price of eggs.  They aren't refridgerated here.

The interior of the bathroom (WC) stall door at the train station. 

We are now on our way to Prague, I look out the window as we enter Dresden, Germany.   It is where we will end our second bike tour of this trip.