Sachsenhausen

Location: Germany, 35 km from Berlin
Established on: 1938
Liberation: April 22th, 1945, by a unit of the 47th Soviet Army.
Estimated number of victims: 30 - 35,000

On July 12th, 1938, the first barrack of the camp was built by 50 inmates transferred from Estergewen .In August and September 1938, 900 inmates were once again transferred from Esterwegen to Sachsenhausen in order to take part in the construction of the camp. Due to the lack of food and the incredible cruelties of the SS, most of them died during this period. End of September, the "Konzentrazions Lager Sachsenhausen" was ready and the first political prisoners arrived in the camp.

Beside the wooden barracks built for the inmates, there were several buildings built from bricks for the SS as well as several factories where the prisoners were used for slave labor. Before the beginning of the World War 2, most of the inmates were German communist or German Jews. Just after the "Crystal Night", 1,800 Jews were jailed in Sachsenhausen and killed in the following weeks.

In September 1939, thousands of communists, social-democrats and former trade union leaders were arrested in Germany. 5,000 of them were sent to Sachsenhausen, as well as 900 Jews. End of September 1939, there were 8,384 prisoners in the camp. In November 1939, this number increased dramatically to 11,311 prisoners. At this time, the first Typhus epidemic started. Because the SS refused to give any medical care and due to the incredible lack of food, hundreds of inmates died in the following weeks. Until April 1940, the dead were sent to the crematories installed in Berlin, located 35 km from Sachsenhausen. In April 1940, the first crematory was built in Sachsenhausen.

Like all other Nazi concentration camps, the conditions of life in Sachsenhausen were incredibly barbaric. There were daily executions by shooting or hanging, i.e. 33 Polish inmates who were the survivors of a group of 320 inmates; or i.e. 88 Dutch civilian hostages killed by the SS in May 1942. A few weeks after the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Nazis, thousands of Soviet POWs were sent to Sachsenhausen. Most of them were killed by shooting or sent to the Punishment Company where they died by beatings, hangings, torture or starvation.

On January 31th, 1942, the SS forced a team of inmates to build the so-called "Station Z". This new installation was built for the extermination of the prisoners. On May 29th, 1942, the SS invited dozen of high ranked Nazi official for the inauguration of the new installation. In order to show them how the new installation was efficient, 96 Jews were killed by shooting. In March 1943, a gas chamber was added to the "Station Z". This gas chamber was used until the end of the war. The number of gassed victims is unknown because the transports for gassings were not registered in the entry registers of the camp.

In 1944 and begin of 1945, due to the Allied advance, the number of prisoners increased dramatically. On April 20th and 21th, 1945, because of the Soviet Army advance, 33,000 prisoners were forced to leave the camp on a Death March. They were divided in groups of 400. The SS intended to embark them on ships then sink those ships. Thousands of inmates died during this Death March. They were killed by shooting because they were too weak to walk

The camp was liberated by a unit of the 47th Soviet Army on April 22th, 1945. The Soviet soldiers found only 3,000 survivors in the camp. This number included 1,400 women. Most of them were starving, ill and too weak to welcome their liberators. Like in several other camps, and despite of the medical cares they received, many inmates died in the days following the liberation.

Sachsenhausen is a museum today. It can be easily accessed from Berlin.

All information and some photo's take from the www.Jewishgen.org you can find the information and more here > Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (Germany)