Sachsenhausen (13th September)

Despite the pub crawl last night we're up early (well, for us travelling it is) at 8am in order to make the 9:55am meeting time for the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp tour. When coming to Germany Shona really wanted to visit a camp to understand what actually happened. Our guide is Nigel, a Scotsman who was part of the British army for many years and was even stationed in East Germany during the cold war. He is very knowledgeable about the Holocaust and has spoken to many people who lived through it to get a real understanding of just what happened. He is very factual about how he delivers the information and while it chills to the bone sometimes you don't get too upset. To get to the camp we catch the train (it is actually working which is a good start). This is the same train line and our stop is the same one that all the inhabitants took. One of the interesting facts is that two days after the Nazi party came to power they opened Sachsenhausen. It was originally in an old brewery and they used it to round up all their political opponents to train them to like the Nazis. Many of these people were even released in the next two years. However by this time there was change and they had decided that a proper camp would be needed to house the Jews, Roma, Cinti (both Gypsies) and gays. They didn't actually know what to do with lesbians. In fact it wasn't until 1944 that they started to round them up and the rationale was that it was bad for public viewing. The persecution was all about mind games. Jews etc would arrive on the train and be walked to the camp (carrying the dead of course, as numbers had to be accounted for and they had been crammed in trains for up to 3 days). The SS would say "you're late, you were supposed to arrive 2 days ago. So 2 people are going to die and you need to choose who it is. So which 2 people will it be?" The inhabitants would think 'how are we late?' they'd done as they were told and were too frightened to push anyone forward. So after a short space of time the SS would say "you're pathetic! You can't even pick two people, so we'll choose them for you and we are going to choose 4." This gets in their minds as if they'd only said something then 2 other people wouldn't have died. From there the prisoners would be asked what their skills were in order to be divided up. Sachsenhausen was mainly a working camp not an extermination camp (more on that later). As such the words Arbeit Macht Frei -which stand for 'work makes you free' are inscribed on the gate. The prisoners would make up anything if they thought it would save their lives. So they'd say they were plumbers and builders etc when actually they had no idea. They were then tasked with building certain parts of the camp. A classic example is the big green monster or the old SS social building. It housed their kitchens, dining hall and some recreation rooms. The big green monster is now falling over in a heap as parts have caved in and the foundations have fallen in around them. It shows just how desperate these people were.Additionally the Nazis had everything worked out using statistics. So based on the time of year and the work a prisoner was doing they knew how many calories they would burn during the day. So if it was 1500 calories they would only feed them 1200 calories, then take off any extras that the SS would take for themselves (not that they were supposed to) and basically they were underfeeding them to the point where they would die of starvation and other illnesses. The food was like cabbage soup and so people were mainly bags of bones. This also meant that they could fit three people to a bed. The best way was for the middle person to put their head between the others feet. These beds were 3 high bunks and people would move throughout the night (silently) to get away from the heat on the top, or the damp of urine etc on the bottom. Sachsenhausen was tough, one survivor of both Auswich and Sachsenhausen told Nigel that Auswich for most people was easier. At Auswich you arrived, walked to the gas chamber and within a few hours you were dead. Whereas at Sachsenhausen they worked you into the ground. When the Nazi's decided that they wanted to step up the extermination programme they trialled possibilities at Sachsenhausen. The prisoners built the extermination building and the original plan was to use the Zyclon B in it's usual form which was a liquid. They actually used it all over the camps as a diluted cleaning product. However the SS doctors put a stop to this because they were concerned of the concentrated amounts getting into the water supply. Instead they came up with the gas concept. If prisoners didn't die of starvation and exhaustion they could also be taken into the other rooms on the pretence of a medical exam. They would be measured for height and at this point a .22 gun would be put on the back of their necks from the secret room behind and they'd be shot dead. The residents of town around Sachsenhausen knew what was happening because there was a dreadful smell in the air and thick black ash, from the crematory where dead prisoners would be stuffed into an industrial oven. However they couldn't say anything or do anything because if they did then they would end up in there with the same fate. We can tell you many other horrific and graphic stories if you are interested in understanding more. On the way home our guide tells us that we will catch the 3:35pm train, which is already waiting (it's about 3:20pm at this point). We head up and get on the far carriage (with Kiwis Megan and Grant and an Aussie couple) as discussed. At 3:27pm there's an announcement in German, the doors close and the train starts to move. Uh-oh, we all realise that the train has left way early and Nigel and others of our group were still at the station. Oh well we know what station to get off at. Not that simple, remember that the German trains are having issues at the moment? We are taken 5 stops and then we have to get off and catch a bus two stops, and get back on a different train. We had no idea, but a lovely German girl could hear us talking English and helped us out. She was actually getting off at our stop too, so she stayed with us like a new tour guide the whole way. She was so sweet, but we didn't end up getting her name. It had been a rough day in terms of understanding but we still needed to eat and get on with the present. Berlin is supposed to be cheap so we took ourselves off to the steak house as we haven't had proper red meat in ages. It was not so cheap, upon looking at the menu we realised it would be 75 euros for dinner and instead we walked out to purchase two 3 euro kebabs instead. A much better price for the backpacker and they were delicious. Oktoberfest is coming up in Munich, but Berlin has it's own version on now. With other busabouters we head to the beer tent to join in the festivities. They even have small steins of wine for Shona and we learn the German beer drinking song "Ein Prosit" which the band plays at fairly regular intervals.