Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen

Description

The Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum is located on the grounds of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the northern outskirts of Oranienburg, near Berlin, and serves as a place of remembrance and learning about the history of National Socialism.

The camp was established in the summer of 1936 by prisoners from the dissolved Emsland camps. It differs in location and timing from the KZ Oranienburg that had existed shortly before in the town centre; the later camp grounds extended partly into the Sandhausen district and onto areas of the Staatsforst Sachsenhausen. Because of its proximity to Berlin and to the Gestapo headquarters, it played a special role within the concentration camp system.

The complex was conceived by the SS as a model camp and features a strict spatial organisation oriented toward control and surveillance: a prominent guard and command sector dominated the roll-call square and the barracks camp, complemented by an adjacent troop camp where SS units were stationed and trained. Over time some 80 external camps and several construction brigades were established; the entire system primarily served forced labour for armaments and other enterprises.

Between 1936 and 1945 around 177,000 people from more than 40 nations were imprisoned in the main camp and its external sites; including victims brought there, the total number of prisoners is about 190,000. At least 40,000 people lost their lives; among the greatest crimes were the mass shootings of Soviet prisoners of war in the autumn of 1941. From 1939/1942, facilities for killing and the disposal of bodies were gradually established on the site.

After 1945 the Soviet military administration used the area as a special camp; this use lasted until 1950, before parts were taken over by the garrisoned security apparatus. From 1961 a memorial and place of remembrance was established here, which was expanded in the following decades. Today the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum presents itself as a place of commemoration and as a modern museum of contemporary history: exhibitions and educational formats link the history of the specific places on the site with overarching thematic issues. Part of the former SS troop camp is currently used by the Hochschule der Polizei des Landes Brandenburg.