Particularly, the focus is made on activity in concentration camps as a subject when the history of World War II and the Holocaust is discussed. During World War II in Nazi Germany’s capital, the Berlin city had several concentration camps in which so many people tortured and died. Here we can look though some of the main concentration camps in Berlin, and the facts related to it.
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen was one of the very initial camps functional under the Nazis after they began its operations in 1936. Located near Berlin it was used as an example to which other camps should conform. Here are some key facts about Sachsenhausen:
Sachsenhausen mainly confined political prisoners, anti-Nazi Communists, Socialists thus generally political prisoners in addition to other groups of people.
It was to serve as a symbol of the Nazi regime, intended to exclaimed the superiority of the Nazis and used as the training trains for SS.
People in prison went through torture of forced labour, involuntary experimentation and torture, and harsh punishment.
At Sachsenhausen it is believed that between 30,000 and 40,000 prisoners died because of hunger, sickness, shootings, or weariness.
Sachsenhausen liberated by Soviet Army on the 22nd April 1945.
Ravensbrück Concentration Camp
Ravensbrück is situated about 56 km north from Berlin and it was the major concentration camp for women in the territory of the Third Reich. Here are some important facts about Ravensbrück:
It was created in 1939 initially for female political prisoners and members of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jewish women.
Medical experiments were particularly carried out on the inmates of Ravensbrück.
Consequently, prisoners were sent to work under excessive subjection, no food, and extremely poor living conditions.
Some of the women and children who survived Ravensbrück believe that more than 90,000 lost their lives within this camp.
The camp was then liberated by the Soviets on April 30th, 1945.
Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück Memorial Sites
Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück are now reconstructed and turned into memorials in order to remind people of suffering and horror of Nazi extermination camps. These memorial sites afford both the opportunity to ponder and the chance to study. Here are some key details:
Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum:
There are museum, exhibits and guided tours, special program, and educational services at the memorial site.
One subtopic concerns historical aspects of the camp’s history and the prisoners’ lives, with another subtopic relating to the lives of the SS personnel.
People can visit the former prisoner barracks, punishment cells and the camp where Waffen SS was trained.
Ravensbrück Memorial Museum:
It adds something to understand about the lives of the female prisoners as depicted in the memorial museum.
Programs include ones about resistance in the camp, lives of inmates, persecution based on race, and religion.
The area of the former prisoner’s living conditions, the crematorium and the memorial garden are available for visitors.
Conclusion
It is remiss to forget the concentration camps located in Berlin, for those who perished as well as future generations, so that all may keep such acts from reoccurring. Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück have become sights of the main focus of the history that humanity does not want to remember. That is why it becomes our duty to aware ourselves and the generations to come about these facts to be sensitive, and accepting.
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