Berlin - Day 3 (Part I)

KZ Sachsenhausen

After a late night full of goofing around telling jokes and talking about pet peeves, we awoke early this morning and made our way through the rain, to the train, and ended up at the gates of KZ Sachsenhausen.  Sachsenhausen is 40 kilometers north of Berlin and was a labor camp designed by Heinrich Himmler, one of Hitler's right hand men.  If you really know the people on our trip, you would agree that we are FAR from a quiet group.  However, upon walking through the main gates of the camp, we were silent.  The horrifying triangular shaped labor camp once held 200,000 Soviet prisoners of war, Jews, and other groups targeted by the Nazis.  Walking into the barracks were especially shocking.  Chris and I got chills up my spine as we walked along the creaky wood floor and saw pictures of intolerable work conditions, inhumane treatment by the officers who ran the camp, and pictures drawn by the people of various tortures inflicted upon prisoners.  I'm (Jessika) not a queasy person but I felt extremely uneasy and disturbed seeing and walking upon the ground were such attrocities happened. 

The two hours we spent there were freaky, especially the chilled morturary underneath the disection room where the dead were examined upon the same table as the food was prepared for the prisoners.  There was no such thing as sanitation.  We also looked through the fence between two of the many guard towers and saw the foundation from the crematorium where the dead were thrown to get rid of the evidence as the Allied forces began liberating camps.  In the spot where they dumped the ashes, 20 tons of human remains were found.  Walking through this camp was unlike anything we have experienced before.  In the train on our way to the camp, we were curious and interested to go.  After we left, the atrocities that took place there had taken their toll on us.  We heard stories about people being shot trying to escape, families torn apart, and saw the spots were people were unjustly tortured.  It stops your heart and makes you almost ashamed to be human.  It was shocking to learn that Sachsenhausen is in the city boundaries of Oranienburg.  The houses around the camp had no clue what was going on there and taught us the true separation of the Germans and the Nazis.  It is unfortunate and sad that this awesome country has to carry the scars of such a horrible event and group of people. 

Specifically designed to cause the most horror and control, the countless watch towers, hanging poles, and roll call area of Sachsenhausen rattle the core of a person.  The group felt immense shock and fear at the attrocities that happened in the very camp we were in.  As a whole, it was a very somber time and it allowed us to really reflect upon history and gave us a deeper understanding of WWII. 

Thankfully, we have a scavenger hunt to look forward to this afternoon because our spirits need some lifting.  More to come of the hunt later, wish us luck!   ~Chris and Jessika