The Nazi Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen
Its role before and during the Second World War
Oct 14, 2009
The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was purposely built in 1936; its location just north of Berlin made it the main camp for the capital and surrounding areas.
Sachsenhausen before the Second World War
Unlike the first Concentration Camp Dachau, which was constructed around an abandoned factory, Sachsenhausen was a purpose built Concentration Camp. At first, the camp had a small population of political prisoners and criminals, but the population soon grew with anti-socials, Homosexuals, Roma and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The number of prisoners classed as ‘ant-social’ increased after ‘Aktion Workshy’ when they were sent to camps like Sachsenhausen as it had its own brick making facilities.
Jewish Prisoners in Sachsenhausen
Although there were a number of Jewish prisoners in Sachsenhausen, particularly after Kristallnacht in 1938, there was not a significant Jewish prisoner population until 1944. It was at this time that the SS evacuated thousands of Polish and Hungarian Jews from the Ghettos as the demand for forced labour for the war effort in Germany had intensified.
Sachsenhausen during the Second World War
As the war began Sachsenhausen acquired a number of Polish prisoners, mainly from the middle-classes such as teachers, lawyers and clergy, as the Wehrmacht advanced through Europe; prisoners from all nations began to arrive. Around 1941 Soviet POWs began to arrive at the camp, a number of which were shot shortly after their arrival. In Sachsenhausen prisoners were brought into a barracks type building and lined up against the wall, they were then shot in the back of the neck through a hidden slot in the wall.
Although Sachsenhausen was not initially intended to be an extermination camp there was a crematorium there and in 1943 a gas chamber was built too. The gas chamber deployed Zyklon B, used in most other camps, to kill a large number of prisoners quickly and effectively. As with other camps, scientific experiments were carried out at Sachsenhausen, these included different methods of sterilisation and castration, and observing the effects of toxins such as potassium cyanide on the body, most of these experiments resulted in death.
Counterfeiting Money at Sachsenhausen
One of the Nazi’s plans to help them win the war was to flood its enemy’s countries with counterfeit money causing the economy and banking system to collapse, Britain was the primary target. This programme was codenamed ‘Operation Bernhard’ and it consisted of a handful of prisoners with experience in printing, engraving and counterfeiting to print the fake money. These prisoners were treated better than others were for their cooperation – not that they had much choice; refusal would have meant execution. Although the counterfeiters did produce numbers of notes, the Nazis struggled getting it into Britain, by 1944 with the tide of war turning against Germany orders came for the operation to cease and the equipment dismantled.
Liberation of Sachsenhausen
In early 1945 the Soviets were approaching Germany from the East; the order was given in April of that year to evacuate Sachsenhausen. Prisoners who were able to were forced on death marches to other camps nearby, several perished during these. As the Allies advanced on Germany from both sides these marches became disorganised as guards fled, many prisoners were liberated this way. When the Soviets did reach the camp there was only a few thousand severely weak and ill prisoners who had been left there. Like with most other camps the exact number of those who died will probably never be truly known, for Sachsenhausen the estimates are around 30,000-50,000 people at least.
Sources:
Burleigh, M. The Third Reich: A New History. London: Macmillan, 2001.
 |
