Christmas in Germany: Berlin and Oranienburg's Concentration Camp: The Last Day

On December 28, we toured Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, just 35 kilometers north of Berlin in Oranienburg. It was bitterly cold; the temperature was thirteen degrees below zero Celsius and dropping. Those are dangerous temperatures. We wore two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two sweaters, coats, face masks, and hats, and we were still so cold we couldn’t stop shaking even for a moment. But once we were there, we felt like we had to go through with it, as an act of solidarity. I mean, the prisoners there often didn’t have shoes, and their clothing was most often just a thin linen shirt and trousers, so how could I complain about the cold with all my clothing?

Sachsenhausen was a Nazi concentration camp used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in 1945. Due to its location so close to Berlin, it became the administrative center of all concentration camps and a training center for Schutzstaffel (SS) officers.

The "green monster" was an SS casino, where they ate and socialized. It was so called because if you were unlucky enough to have to serve SS officers there and got noticed, you were likely to be brutalized or murdered the next day.

The famous Nazi slogan, Work Makes Free. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeit_macht_frei

The suicide zone. Anyone stepping outside the sign was shot without warning.

Mass burials under the snow

Trenches for mass executions

To say life was hard on prisoners here would be the understatement of the year. They were often worked to death in the brick works or the counterfeiting operations. Our tour guide told a story of an SS officer who asked two men, “Why are you here?” The Soviet said meekly, “I am here because I am a Communist, sir.” But the Jew begged the officer, “Please, sir, I haven’t done anything. Please, there must be a mistake.” The SS officer reared back and slapped him across the face with his massive keyring. Blood and skin splattered everywhere. The Jew collapsed to the ground. He was ordered to clean up his mess. “I don’t have a rag, sir,” the Jew protested. For this he was severely beaten and kicked. The SS officer ordered him to take off all his clothes and clean up his own blood with the rags he had worn. This story stuck with me.

This memorial building was burned in a demonstration by Neo-Nazis. It was left in its ruined state as a warning of extremism.

Someone left a rose

Although it was intended as a labor camp, mass executions took place at Sachsenhausen. At first, the executions were done in a trench, either by shooting or by hanging. These trenches were filled with deep, untouched snow on our visit. It was hard to imagine lining up and knowing that you were headed to death. Later, a gas chamber was constructed. We toured the remains of that evil building, referred to as Station Zed. The chamber used liquid Zyklon B, which was placed in small glass bottles near the ventilation system by the door. The bottle was broken with a spike and the gas mixed with air and was forced into the chamber.

Near the end of the war, 13,000 Red Army POWs arrived at Sachsenhausen. Over 10,000 were executed in the camp by being shot in the back of the neck through a hidden hole in a wall while being “measured for a uniform.” Their bodies were then burnt in a crematorium.

The crematorium and some roses

The room closest to the front of the frame was where prisoners were shot through a hole in the wall

In the spring of 1945, Sachsenhausen was evacuated under the threat of the advancing Red Army. The SS ordered 33,000 inmates on a forced march northeast. Thousands did not survive this death march; those who collapsed were summarily shot by the SS. On April 22, 1945, the remaining 3,000 inmates were liberated by the Red Army. Many of these only survived a few days and died of starvation or disease.

I was too cold to do much more than listen numbly, but when we reached Station Zed, the foundations of the building that contained the gas chamber, the shooting chamber, and the crematorium, I felt creepy, as if I could see the prisoners if I just closed my eyes. It was a place of great evil.

We got on the bus, crammed with over 100 people, and made our way back to the train station. Our tour guide recommended a restaurant, and since we hadn’t eaten anything but a donut all day, we happily followed his directions and walked several blocks in the bitter cold only to discover that the kitchen wasn’t open for another hour. So I led us back to a different restaurant I’d seen, crunching thorough the foot-deep snow.

Our last real German meal was at Oranium in Berlin. Michael had sausages and goulash, and I had roast beef in a red wine sauce with roasted potato wedges and almond broccoli. It was terrific.

We stopped for one last glühwein at the Gesundbrunnen train stop and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, we were fortunate to discover that Frankfurt had cleared all its days-long delays from the massive snowstorms and the Great European Freeze that had gripped the continent. We arrived at the airport well before dawn. We had a 1.25-hour flight from Berlin to Frankfurt, a two-hour layover which turned into a 3.5-hour layover, and a 9-hour flight to Philadelphia, in which we watched several movies and drank caffeinated beverages to stay awake. After another 3 hour layover, in which an hour was spent waiting for our bag (the plane was frozen solid and they couldn't get the door open), we had another 2.5-hour flight to Nashville. I struggled mightily to keep my eyes open. From there we had a 30-minute drive after getting our bags and shuttling around the parking lot. In all, we were awake for almost 23 hours. But we went to sleep at nighttime and woke in the morning, and we completely beat jet lag on the way home.

Germany was an awe-inspiring trip. The people, the history, the food, and the scenery were all fantastic. I’d go again in a heartbeat.