As we all know, Berlin's a city in which history can be relieved in every single corner. Their locals and almost every building or place in the city reminds us of the terrible things that happened there not long ago.
I'm a very sensible and empathic person, so I was aware that this place might be "a bit too much" for me, but I didn't expect it in the way I did. Although I found the people there really nice and helpful towards turists (specially when asking them to talk to me in English, as my German is not so good, lol), I felt overwhelmed by how strong Berlin's vibe was.
Don't get me wrong, I loved Berlin. I'd return every single time I could, but still, I could feel the remainings of history still there.
The day I arrived, I remember it was about to rain and everything seemed really gray and sad. I was expecting to be amazed by this city and it didn't disappoint me at all: it's so different from every other place. In a good and in a bad way.
I did some walking through the Memorial of the Murdered Jews (you can see the picture above!) and I felt so weird. All blocks coming over me, the uneven floor, the little space between each block, a gray sky that would drown us all. After that, I went to the musem that's under the memorial and those feelings deepened a lot. It was a lot for me to take in.
I loved the fact that the city was built over its ashes and there's such strong sense of regret towards what happened to all minories that were chased, haunted and killed in those very dark years. There are monuments and art everywhere, and I believe that's the best way to remember all those that suffered such sad destiny.
I walked a bit more to the Berliner Mauer East Side Gallery to cheer a bit up. Art's amazing and it's great to see how people has put their creativity to work in order to never forget.
That was my first impression of Berlin. A very shocking impression for me, at least. The following day, I had booked a tour to get to know Sachsenhausen's Concentration Camp, which is located in Oranienburg. It was a very short train travel of no more than 30 minutes. I've always been really interested in History, so it was mandatory for me to go!
I still can remember shivering. I still can remember how terrible I felt whenever I saw that place.
Sachsenhausen was the "working" camp for Berlin area, it was established in 1936 and held almost 200.000 prisoners till 1945. Unlike other concentration camps, the idea behind Sachsenhausen wasn't to murder hostiges, but to obly them to work. That, of course, didn't happen.
Arbeit macht frei
Allegedly, "work sets you free".
Prisoners that were taken were political opponents to the Third Reicht and all those which were considered as "inferior" by the Nazi regime, such as Jews, Homosexuals, Sinti, Roma, etc. They were taken there to work in factories in extremely bad conditions, which would cause them severe health problems.
From the 200.000 prisoners that were held in Sachsenhausen, it's calculated that almost half of them passed away due to health issues, overwork or were executed.
Some friends had told me that they didn't enjoy the visit, as there wasn't much to see. I didn't know what they were expecting, but it was more than enough for me to feel inside of me that that was a terrible place.
Walls everywhere, a very grey atmosphere and so much that has happened in that place. Our tour guide told us stories about prisoners and how guards would make fun of them. They were supposed to stay in their place and in the queue they were asigned and they couldn't even move, as that would make them get shot. These guards would take off the prisoner's hat, throw it near the electrified fence (you can see in the picture above) and if they didn't get it back, they'd be shot. Otherwise, if they looked for it, they'd be electrified. Pure cruelness. That was devastating for me to hear.
That "fortress" was the place in which the Nazi regime would make the prisoners stand to get executed. I'm shivering just by remembering all this, I still can't believe the amount of cruelness that was shown towards other human being.
By 1943, when everything was starting to get out of control, Sachsenhausen started extermining prisoners as well. Gas chambers were built and used towards all those that couldn't work anymore and by 1945, they murdered every single person that wasn't healthy enough to move them to Auschwitz. Extremelly cruel.
Not long before the Nazi regime would fall, the gas chamber began to be destroyed so that there would be no proof of the things they had done. Still, after the Third Reich fall, they were able to find mostly all prisoner's clothing and shoes.
As well as all the remainings of the camp, there are some memorial to all those that were murdered there.
In the picture above, the orange triangles represent every single minory or ethnicity that was haunted by Nazi regime.
And, as a way of ending this post, I want to share with you this letter that someone had left into the little musem that's inside Sachsenhausen. I really felt this words up to today, it's terrible what humans can do when they're so blinded by power, ignorance and hatred.
