The Sachsenhausen Berlin KZ concentration camp, also known as Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen, was a significant site during the Nazi regime. It was one of the first major concentration camps established by the Nazis and played a central role in their system of oppression and genocide.

The Birth of Sachsenhausen Berlin KZ

Sachsenhausen concentration camp was built in 1936, 22 kilometers from Oranienburg near Berlin in Germany. It was first conceived to be an model camp, where the National Socialist government demonstrated its authority and pledged on the policy of race purification. The concentration camp was model for other concentration camps and was primarily a place of detention and slave labor for political prisoners.

Situations in Sachsenhausen Berlin Concentration Camp

Since the very beginning of its existence Sachsenhausen was noted for its severe standards of living. Inmates labored in very overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, suffered from malnutrition, and diseases. Inmates was exposed by the SS guards to different forms of physical and mental vices, for example, flogging, gassing, injections, and hanging. The sign “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”) at the entrance shaped as a gate was an example of cynicism, because the inmates in the camp had to work under the most appalling circumstances when it was a punishment.

This paper examines the Function and Purpose of Sachsenhausen Berlin KZ.

Sachsenhausen was also occupied in using the process of political repression, extermination and enslavement as a tool in the implementation of regime policies. Its primary functions included:

Political Dissidents:

Sachsenhausen was home to all oppose to the Nazi regime; communists, social democrats, trade unionists, and other activists. The camp was to be a facility where the regime would practice and ensure enforcement of total obedience to the Nazi party.

Enemy Combatants and POWs:

Towards the end of the second World War Sachsenhausen also served as detention centre for the enemy and prisoners of war. Numerous numbers of Soviet POWs perished and lived in the camp.

Targeted Groups:

The Nazi targeted special categories of people with regard to their political, racial and social classes. These were the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and also the physically handicapped. sover there many of these groups were incarcerated, prior to be transport to the killing centres such as the Sachsenhausen.

Experimentation and Forced Labor:

The camp also provided the location for barbarian acts of medical experiments on prisoners. For all intent and purposes, inmates were subjected to unimaginable suffering in the name of pseudoscience. Also, let’s not forget about forced labor which was an important part of the German war economy; prisoners were used as cheap workforce in nearby industries or construction sites.

Liberation and memorialization

In the course of the Second World War, the Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen was used by Germans as a so-called Death’s-Head Concentration Camp for prisoners of war and other prisoners of Germans; liberated by Soviet on 22 April 1945. During its time of operation the camp housed over 200000 prisoners and it was estimated that between 30000 and 35000 prisoners died within the camp. Today it is a memorial and museum, devoted to the people who died there, and to the memory about the crimes, which where made there.

Taking a Tour to Sachsenhausen Berlin KZ Today

Sachsenhausen is very vast with lots of exhibitions, which therefore requires time if one is to understand the history of the concentration camp that was set up. One should come here with some love in one’s heart since entering the territory, which is charged with the memories of numerous innocent souls.

Therefore, when you planning to visit, kindly visit the website for the details of the opening times for the house, tour guides, and events in advance.

Conclusion

Among the number of WWII museums, the Sachsenhausen Berlin KZ concentration camp is an example of the cruelty of the NAZI. Learning its mission, history, and the great deal of pain of its prisoners we pay tribute to the victim and attempt to make sure this will not happen again.