Sachsenhausen Death Camp 11/21/25

Today we woke up to sunny but quite cold weather, 31 deg F that felt like 25, so we thought it was a perfect day to visit Sachsenhausen! So we put on all the clothes in our suitcase and prepared to spend the day outside. We took a train to Oranienburg, and walked the last mile to the camp. Sachsenhausen was opened in 1936 and was well known as the training camp for SS soldiers, as well as being the administrative center for all the concentration camps. There was a gas chamber and crematorium here, as well as medical facilities where forced sterilization procedures and inhumane medical experiments were performed. A brothel was located here also, with female prisoners being subjected to rape by SS officers and forced into sexual acts with prisoners, presumably as a reward for the male prisoners. Thousands of people were tortured to death here, as well as starved, beaten, and forced into hard labor until they could no longer labor. Prisoners were forced to torture other prisoners, in addition to being forced to burn the bodies of the dead and serve the SS officers in their fancy restaurant next door. The more I read, the more I was disgusted. It is hard to see and read about it, but necessary to understand how this all happened.

Before the camp was liberated by the Soviet and Polish Armies in 1945, Heinrich Himmler, a coward who killed himself by cyanide poisoning after he was captured, ordered the murder or relocation of all the remaining prisoners. 33,000 inmates were sent on a forced death march that many did not survive. The majority of those killed at Sachsenhausen were Soviet POW’s. The most famous prisoner was Joseph Stalin’s oldest son, who Stalin refused to swap for another prisoner. He eventually died at the camp. The camp was liberated in April 1945. Here are a few photos.

We had dinner in Oranienburg, then retuned to Berlin. We needed a pick me up after that sobering experience, so we headed to the LGBTQIA Christmas market and found some Hot Aperoles (the best drink at the markets), and watched some crazy cold people singing Karaoke for a bit before heading back to the hotel. It feels good to be warm again!

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