Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen train&walk (6h)

See an amazing building in the heart of the former Jewish quarter of Berlin. It was build when the German Empire was formed. Jewish people were given then full citizen rights - after fighting in the French-German war 1870/71. See the fantastic but also alien Mauric architecture and hear the story behind. Learn about the variety of Jewish life in Berlin in the 1920ies.
Learn why the biggest Synagogue in Germany survived the November Pogromes 1938. It is the story of a brave Prussian policeman following laws instead of a dictator. We will follow up this terrible history of burning Synagogues then at the memorial site in the barracks.
We talk about the growing Nazi atrocities against Jewish people which finally ended in killing 6 million humans in death camps like Auschwitz.

After a 45 minutes ride we get of the train in the town Oranienburg – exactly the way inmates arrived.
We will talk about how Hitler overtook power and how the first „wild camps“ were build up - provisoric close to big cities. The first inmates were mostly political oponents as the Nazis in the first years had the focus on securing the power.
We talk about how visible inmates had been in the town. They had to do slave work on so many places outside the camp and were often walking daily between camp and worksite. This typical German small town with a lot of industry was taking massive benefit.
After the night oft he long knifes in 1934 the SS took over from the SA. The terror organisation was then running the camp and a lot of SS men were settling in town.
Get the story of the untypical heavy air bombing on that site by US bombers in the last weeks of the war.

At Bernauer Strasse we will visit the war memorial. Learn about the battle of Berlin by the Soviet army. They were liberating the camp on their way to the Berlin outskirts.
We will talk about the last days of the camp, the death marches and how it went on the first weeks after the war for the former inmates.

We will pass some remaining SS villas – a settlement created as a belt around the concentration camp. Learn how the SS was rewarding evil with career and wealth.
In front of the T-building we will talk about the SS (Schutz Staffel) under the terrible minister of interior Heinrich Himmler. They felt themselves as the elite organisation that has to do the „necessary evil“. Learn about how ideology and psychology was manipulating men into monsters.
The building was the center of evil, the former inspectorate of all concentration camps. We will explain you in what sense the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was the most important camp when it comes to administration.

At the memorial site we will gain an overview at a huge map and see how the camp was growing in only 9 years.
You learn what inmates experienced at „check In“.
In tower A you get an idea about the perspective of the perpetrators.
Through the famous „Arbeit macht frei“ we enter the roll call square and talk about daily camp life.
in the rebuild „Jewish“ barrack you can imagine how life might have felt in an overcrowded wooden barn.
In front of the former GDR memorial we discuss about remembering culture and how to create awareness.
Station Z is corresponding with Tower A. The SS killed thousends here in the shooting trench and in the neck shooting system. See the remaining 4 crematory ovens.
At the former infirmery barracks we talk about euthanasia and medical experiments.
Finally we talk about how German society was struggeling more than one generation to create full awareness. Hear some stories about what happened to former victims and perpetrators.