Sachsenhausen concentration camp

From Free net encyclopedia

Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp in Germany, operating between 1936 and April 1945. It was named after the quarter of Sachsenhausen, which belongs to the town of Oranienburg. From August 1945 until the spring 1950 it was a Soviet special camp.

1 Sachsenhausen under the Nazis
2 Soviet special camp
3 Open to the public
4 Related article
5 Literature
6 External links

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Sachsenhausen under the Nazis

The camp was established in 1936. It was located at the edge of Berlin, which gave it a special position among the German concentration camps: the administrative centre of all concentration camps was located in Oranienburg, and Sachsenhausen became a training centre for SS officers (who would often be sent to oversee other camps afterwards). Executions took place at Sachsenhausen, especially those of Russian prisoners of war, either by firing squad or in the gas chamber constructed in 1943. While some Jews were executed at Sachsenhausen, the Jewish inmates of the camp were relocated to Auschwitz in 1942. Sachsenhausen was not designed as a death camp - instead, the systematic mass murder of Jews tended to happen in camps to the east.

The front gates to Sachsenhausen contain the infamous slogan Arbeit Macht Frei on them, which translates as "Work Makes You Free". About 200,000 prisoners were in Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945. Almost 100,000 people died from exhaustion, disease, malnutrition or pneumonia from the freezing cold. Many died in violent medical experiments or were executed. Amongst those executed were the commandos from Operation Musketoon and Grand Prix motor racing champion, William Grover-Williams. The wife and children of Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, members of the Wittelsbach family, were held in the camp from October, 1944 to April, 1945, before being moved to the Dachau concentration camp. Reverend Martin Niemöller, a critic of the Nazis and author of the poem First they came..., was also a prisoner at the camp.

Sachsenhausen was the site of the largest counterfeiting operation ever. The Nazis forced Jewish artisans to produce fake American and British currency. Over one billion dollars in fake cash was recovered. The Germans were unable to put their plan into action. This fake currency is considered very valuable by collectors.

Many women also spoke of themselves as inmates of Sachsenhausen and its subcamps. According to SS files, more than 2000 women lived in Sachsenhausen, guarded by SS women (Aufseherin). Through camp records it is known that there was one SS man for every ten prisoners and for every ten SS men there was one SS woman. Several female subcamps were established in Berlin, including in Neukolln.

Image:Sachsenhausen2.jpg

Prior to the liberation of the camp by the USSR, the SS guards forced the prisoners to march with them to other camps further west. Most of the prisoners were physically exhausted and did not survive this last march; prisoners who collapsed enroute were shot by the SS. On April 22, 1945, 3000 prisoners, who had stayed in the camp, were liberated by the Red Army. A large memorial obelisk was erected in the camp after the war by the USSR.

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Soviet special camp

In August 1945 the Soviet Special Camp No. 7 was moved to the area of the former protective custody camp. Most of the buildings, with the exception of the crematoria and extermination facilities, were still used for the same purposes. Nazi functionaries were held in the camp, as were political undesirables, arbitrarily arrested prisoners and inmates sentenced by the Soviet Military Tribunal. By 1948, Sachsenhausen, now renamed Special Camp No. 1, was the largest of three special camps in the Soviet Zone of Occupation. By the closing of the camp in the spring of 1950, there had been approximately 60,000 people imprisoned there, at least 12,000 of whom died of malnutrition and disease.

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Open to the public

Today Sachsenhausen is open to the public. Several buildings and structures survive or have been reconstructed, including watch towers, the camp entrance, cremation ovens and the camp barracks. A museum featuring artefacts and subversive artwork has been constructed at the site.

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