This stone marks the path prisoners were forced to travel during a death march -end WW2. If a marcher could not keep up, he was shot and left on the roadside.
About the tour: "Just outside Berlin, over 50,000 innocent victims of the Nazis perished in Sachsenhausen in conditions of appalling brutality. The camp became a training ground for the execution of the Holocaust and ultimately the center of the whole concentration camp system. After the Nazis were defeated, the Soviets turned the camp into a gulag for their own political enemies. Thousands more were to perish over the next five years." (http://www.berlinwalks.de/tours_sachsenhausen.html)
Layout of Sachsenhausen- a triangle shape enabled a minimal ratio of Nazi Guards to thousands of prisoners.
Tower A: Main entrace where all prisoners passed through to enter the camp.
"WORK WILL SET YOU FREE"
Cabins were made to fit 130 people but as more prisoners were admitted, nearly 400 people were crammed into the space.
"The Green Monster"- Dining Hall of the SS Guards living at Sachsenhausen. Prisoners were forced to serve the meals.
"Any prisoners crossing will be shot."
When the camp became more crowded, prisoners were assigned random tasks: shoveling piles of sand from one place to another and back again, standing still at randomly located posts for 14+ hours, or pictured here- running back and forth along the shoe testing ground, wearing footwear 2 sizes too small.
Prisoners lived in constant fear of being tortured or killed by the SS Guards. Some were even drowned in the washroom basin.
This is the jail within the camp that was reserved for special prisoners-specifically politicians who opposed Hitler and the Nazi Party. Prisoners were strung by their wrists and forced to hang for hours on end.
Some prisoners received special priviledges for performing skilled labor- like creating counterfeit money (shown here are the stamps used in the process). Hitler's goal was to cause hyper-inflation in the British economy.
Camp medical facility where SS Guards tricked the Red Cross into thinking the prisoners received adequate healthcare. In reality, cruel and unusual medical experiments were being performed.
Station Zed (equipped with gas chambers and neck-shooting facilities) was built as a means of quick and efficient extermination. Each oven could incinerate 250 bodies per day.
So sad. Please, just take a minute to reflect on these things...I know it is a lot to take in, but it is important to remember.
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