Sachsenhausen was a Nazi concentration camp from 1936-1945. It was built with prison labor and…read moreserved as a model camp for future concentration camps. Later, from 1945-1950, it was a Soviet special camp that imprisoned minor Nazi officials as well as other politically undesirable people. Under the Nazis, Sachsenhausen was a labor camp rather than an extermination camp, but it treated its prisoners extremely inhumanely and had a medical-experimentation area, gas chamber, and crematory ovens. Tens of thousands of prisoners died from starvation, disease, forced labor, and murder. The Soviets did not maintain the condition of the buildings, so today the camp is a memorial that contains only a handful of original and replica structures. Sachsenhausen has no admission fee, but it does have a small charge for a guided tour. My husband and I toured the camp with our own private tour. We spent quite some time here walking among the visitors center, original walls, guard towers, the "green monster" SS building, prisoners' barracks (most were only outlined in the ground), a prison, execution trench, hanging gallows, mass graves, etcetera. This was the first concentration camp that I have ever visited. It was very educational and interesting to see the camp. Each barrack was somehow used by up to 300 prisoners, despite containing only a small number of beds, toilets, bathtubs, and tables. May the victims rest in peace and the perpetrators not.

This was my second Concentration Camp experience and my hubby's first. He didn't really want to go,…read morebut ended up being fascinated by everything he saw. It's a large camp. Very large, with a lot of walking. You purchase your tickets and then walk down a long lane to the actual entrance. The entrance is flanked on one side by house that once housed the commandant of the camp and his family, and is now a small museum. The other building is an exhibit type of hall. Of course, you walk through a gate with the infamous words ARBEIT MACHT FREI (work sets you free). Once inside the camp, barracks, offices, the morgue, the kitchen, the crematorium, the roll call area and a cemetery (not to be confused with a larger cemetery located down the road from the camp), are among the sites you can tour. It literally took us the entire time the camp was open to see everything. In fact, we actually got locked it the cemetery at closing and a gruff man, who feigned not being able to speak English, was upset that he had to retrieve us. We weren't happy about it either, sir! Of course the cemetery was across the entire property from the entrance, so we had to not only hoof it through the gate, but back to the area where you purchase tickets. Did I mention it was raining and we were soaked to the bone? My one regret is not being able to pick up a book about the camp while there. If you've never been to a camp, this is a good one to go to. Although large, it is extremely informative and does a good job educating the public about what went on inside the camp. I do recommend bringing tissues, just in case. 87/2025