How Blessed We Are

Today we went to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Like Danchu in Munich, it was outside of Berlin in a small town. Its sad that these small towns claim to fame is a large concentration camp. Especially because the majority of the houses there were built by concentration camp prisoners for SS guards. These houses are still in use today. I cant say I would want to be living in one of those homes with a concentration camp as my front porch view.

Again, we did this tour through New Europe. These tour guide however are different from the free tour guides. Solemn and knowledgable, and have a passion for educationing others on the horrors that lie inside the walls of these camps.

This tour, while similar to Danchu told a different story. The bunkers and cell blocks were very similar, as well as the victums who were sent to these camps. This tour went into more detail on what excatly were expected of the prisoners. One work detail was to test German army boots. They were given boots, usually to small for their feet, then sent to run back and forth on a stretch of broken rocks while carrying a ten pound bag. Usually this would last for around 12 hours or till they dropped dead of exhaustion.

Other work details were working in factorys, such as Hugo Boss factorys. Hugo Boss also designed the SS guard uniforms. Makes you rethink buying a Hugo Boss suit. Women were usually prostitues and many other men did back breaking labour in fields. All this work however was imperative to the German war machine. It is the hard labour of these people that kept it runnning.

There was also a roll call every morning and every night. This was when every prisoner was lined up and accounted for. However, this could go on for hours. There were alot of prisoners. So you would have to stand erect and still, in the burning heat or the frezzing cold till everyone was accounted for. As well, if someone was not there...roll call would start from the beginning. Everyone was accounted for....everyone. That means, if someone died in the night or while working....another prisoner had to drag the dead body with them to roll call.

There was also a public exucation stand in the middle of the camp. For anyone who disobeyed or did not do a job properly. They were killed in front of everyone, and left hanging there for the day for everyone to see.

There was also a seperate hidden area of the camp. In this area was the Station Z. This was to kill prisoners of war. At the time, mostly soviet prisoners or people of interest from Germany and prisioners from the camp needed to be killed. There is a trench were they would pile in tons of men....they line them up in fives and shot them. The SS guards were having problems with this. Not only was it hard to get all the piled up bodies out of the trench, the SS guards were having a hard time looking the person in the eye....the person begging for mercy, scared, and speaking of their families. They were still human, and they knew what they were doing was wrong. So the Nazis built a seperate building to deal with this.

This building was Station Z. You would be sent in, thinking your going to have a medical examination. Then you wait in a room listening to loud classical music. (to muffle the noise) Then your sent into a room and lined up against a wall (thinking they are to take measurements) then from behind the wall a rifle is placed in a small hole that lines up with your neck, and your shot dead. This way, the SS guard did not have to see the person. They just pull the trigger. From there the body would be dragged to the Krematirum to be burned to ash. Near the end they had to bring in more mobile Krematirums to keep up with all the bodies. A total of 15 at the end.

There was also a medical examination building. This was mostly for the public. To show the world that they were providing medical attention to the prisoners. However, the tortured prisoners were only patched up enough to keep working. They also did experiments on the prisoners. Such as giving them dieases to see how it affects humans to find a cure. However, they would always let them die from it.
We also the old SS guard meeting hall and housing units as well as their training camp. This training camp is now being used to train German police. Hmmmm........

Interestingly, when the camp first opened they were having problems with the SS guards. Many were depressed, not working sadistically enough, and many were committing suicide. Just goes to show, many people knew this was wrong and against human nature. However, the Nazi's always came up with solutions to these problems. They made a meeting hall, were after a shift they could drink and be merry. The Nazis provided alot of alchol to them. Keep them drunk was the plan. It also worked to torture the prisoners. For they could hear the merriment over the camp walls.

After a tour like this, there is not much to say. Only that if you ever get the chance to go, you should.

That night, we were looking for something to keep our minds off the tour. So we went on a pub crawl. Again, we were ID......it was really getting kinda ridiculous. But we had an amazing time. Berlin has AWESOME clubs and pubs. Every place had a completely different feel. We even went to a place where in the middle of the table is a beer tap. You just pour your beer and on the computer screen it tells you how much beer your getting and what you own. Then at the end you pay your tab. To cool! And dangerous! Either way....great way to end a fantastic stay in Berlin.