When the liberators reached the Sachsenhausen , they encountered around 3,000 prisoners, nurses, and doctors. For around 300 of the prisoners, however, the Polish and Soviet soldiers had come too late. They died shortly afterwards as a result of the brutal treatment by the .
The evacuation of the concentration camp located north of Berlin had already begun the day before: More than 30,000 prisoners were sent on death marches by the fleeing Nazis, and several thousand did not survive the agony.
In total, at least 200,000 people from around 40 countries were imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and numerous satellite camps between 1936 and 1945.
By the end of , tens of thousands had died — from hunger, disease, abuse, medical experiments, and forced labor. In the fall of 1941 alone, at least 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war, including many Jews, were murdered in a specially designed execution gallery or gassed in modified trucks.
In the immediate vicinity of the Reich capital Berlin, Sachsenhausen played a special role as a model and training camp. The central administration for the entire concentration camp system was located there as of 1938. One of the most notorious Nazis in Sachsenhausen was Rudolf Höss, who later became the commandant of the extermination camp. He was executed as a war criminal in 1947.
To mark the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation, six survivors will return to Sachsenhausen at the end of April and beginning of May — three women and three men. As children and young people, they were deported to the main concentration camp or one of its satellite camps in the final years of the war.
Meeting with a 100-year-old Ukrainian survivor
Five were from Poland. Ukrainian Mykola Urban was born in Kharkiv in 1924 and is the oldest at 100 years old. This will be the first time he has taken part in a commemoration ceremony and will be traveling from Switzerland, where he was evacuated after the start of the Russian war of aggression against his home country. A public discussion with him is planned for April 30 at the Brandenburg State Office in Berlin.
During World War II, Urban supported partisans and was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1942. In the Falkensee satellite camp, Deutsche Maschinen AG (DEMAG) exploited him as forced labor for the production of tanks. Shortly before the end of the war, he managed to escape with two compatriots. The men joined a regiment of the Soviet Red Army that was involved in the battle for Berlin in May 1945.
For the survivors, it may be their last trip
For Urban and the other elderly survivors, the upcoming return to Sachsenhausen could be their last visit. This thought has been on the mind of the director of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation, Axel Decroll, for a long time. This is because most of those who survived the concentration camp have since passed away. “They were often by our side, like fatherly and motherly friends. For us, it’s a very hard blow that these people are almost all gone.”
In order to draw people into the history of former concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen or the , the memorials have been using art, music, and workshops for young people for many years. “This is so important because, in addition to traditional teaching and exhibition formats, culture can build bridges, break down barriers and reach people where their interests already lie,” Drecoll explains.
‘The Nazis turned the prisoners into numbers’
Katrin Grüber can confirm this. She is the granddaughter of a Sachsenhausen prisoner and chairwoman of the association that supports the memorial site and its museum. When songs written by concentration camp inmates are sung at official events, even those born later are deeply moved.
“The Nazis turned the prisoners into numbers, but they remained human beings. And their songs can help us to imagine the people they were,” says Katrin Grüber. Her grandfather Heinrich was a pastor and member of the Confessing Church, which stood in opposition to the National Socialist regime. Because of his activities, especially for people of the Jewish faith, he was sent to Sachsenhausen in 1940 and later to the Dachau concentration camp.
Support among concentration camp survivors
She was lucky enough to get to know her grandfather before he died in 1975. By talking about her family history, she was able to bridge the gap between the past and the present. She knows from her grandfather Heinrich that he stood in solidarity with his fellow concentration camp inmates, but also experienced it himself. “He was very close to death, but was saved by fellow communist prisoners,” says the granddaughter.
“That’s something you can always keep with you in the present,” says Katrin Grüber about the humanity she has experienced. She wants to talk about this with other descendants as part of the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Sachsenhausen. “We hope that contacts will be made that will extend beyond that day and that there will be a meeting like this every year,” says the chairwoman of the Friends of the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum.
Criticism of the current debate on migration and refugees
In Grüber’s view, the value of historical places such as Sachsenhausen cannot be overstated: “They convey knowledge and place individual fates in context. And they allow visitors to be deeply moved by the place.” And with this, she also keeping the general shift to the right in Germany in mind. “For me, one of the lessons of history is that people must not be marginalized and made into scapegoats. That’s why the current debate about refugees is so painful for me.”
Recently, the future governing coalition of the conservative Christian Union parties (/) and the center-left agreed on a massive tightening of asylum policy in their coalition agreement. And for years now, the far-right , which is in part extremist, has been spreading hatred towards those in Germany with foreign roots as well as those fleeing war and poverty.
The AfD is not allowed to lay wreaths in Sachsenhausen
Axel Drecoll is also concerned about the future of democracy as it comes under increasing pressure worldwide. The director of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation says that this is another reason why remembrance is facing major challenges. He has forbidden the AfD from participating in the wreath laying to mark the liberation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This act is an act of honor. “We will not allow the AfD to do that,” assures Drecoll.
Meanwhile, he is not only focused on the commemoration of the liberation of the concentration camps in April 1945. That very same year, Sachsenhausen concentration camp was converted into a special camp by the , which was victorious in World War II. The criminal Nazi regime was followed by the communist reign of terror.
Commemoration of the Soviet special camp
The Soviets imprisoned around 60,000 people there until it was dissolved in 1950. Most of them were Nazis, but also opponents of the new regime and people arrested for arbitrary reasons. Around 12,000 of them died of hunger and disease.
This chapter of Sachsenhausen’s history will also be commemorated at the beginning of September with memorial events and exhibitions.
This article was originally written in German.
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