vagabondbohemian: July 2013

About 35 kilometres North of Berlin is the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Built in 1936 and in operation by the Nazis until the end of the war in 1945. Shortly after the camp was liberated by the Russians, the Soviets turned it into their own special camp which was used up until 1950.

Berlin's public transport system is divided into zones A, B and C. We rarely need to get to zone C and so we have public transport cards that cover the A and B sections. We were going to the camp with Tom, Danika and Tom's brother Jack. With that making five of us we were able to take advantage of the special 'small group' BC ticket which cost 15.80 Euros.

Even though we had this ticket we didn't get checked at all on the train.

To get to the camp, we got off at the S-Bahn stop 'Oranienburg' and then had a 20 minute walk to the site. Grey signs pointed the way.

And a sign commemorating the 'Death March' that the Sachsenhausen prisoners faced.

And shortly after we arrived at the start of the camp area.

Where there is a bit more of a walk...

before arriving at the camp ground proper.

Once inside the camp it looks like a vast area of not much, wide open spaces with a few surviving structures towards the extremities of the camp.

On closer inspection there are many many gravel pits which are the sites of the former barracks.

And another prominent feature is a footwear test track, where prisoners were made to run 40 kilometres a day to test non-leather soled footwear.

Once we spent some time outside we went to look in the structures. Inside there is an incredible amount of information - overwhelmingly too much to read absoloutely everything. It was particularly hot today and inside the structures was very uncomfortable. It didn't feel appropriate to be complaining about how uncomfortable we were in there, so we read snippets of everything and kept moving.

Rather than write about the experience, following is a photo essay of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.