I wasn't sure if I was going to write this post, but I feel I should on Holocaust Memorial Day when I read that shocking numbers of people are unaware of the terrible crimes that were committed just a lifetime ago and others try to deny they happened.
I am feeling this especially strongly as we just made a visit to Sachsenhausen concentration camp during our trip to Berlin. I could have gone to Auschwitz during the last Steemcamp, but didn't feel it was the right time for me. I preferred to do this visit with family and friends.
Sachsenhausen camp is located just outside Berlin. We walked from Oranienburg station through a very ordinary looking suburb as the prisoners did in bitterly cold weather. We had suitable clothing, but they did not. They were being beaten and humiliated. The camp itself is a based around a huge triangle and standing in the middle of that it's hard to comprehend what went on there. Prisoners were made to stand there in all weathers and to watch the executions of others.
Most of the buildings have gone as the site was neglected after being used as a prison by the Russians. It was made a memorial in 1961. Some of the buildings were damaged in an arson attack in 1992.
There are displays detailing what went on there. Tens of thousands of Jews, political opponents, homosexuals and others were forced to work for the Nazi regime in quarries and factories. Many died just from that, but many were also executed, including 10,000 Russian war prisoners. At the end of the war the Nazis tried to take the prisoners away on what became a death march where thousands died before the remainder were liberated.
I learnt a lot from this visit, but there is just to much to take in and the personal stories are overwhelming. It seems bizarre, but I never knew about the 'shoe testing' where prisoners were made to run around a special track with heavy loads to test materials for military boots. They were just trying to find more ways to make people suffer. It's just amazing that some managed to survive years there and in other camps. Many must have just wanted to die.
We also saw the remains of the gas chambers and ovens, but I didn't feel like taking pictures of those. I think this is something you have to see for yourself.
We live in times where extremist groups are gaining power and encouraging discrimination by race and religion. We must continue to remember what has happened before so we can act to stop it happening again. In my lifetime similar crimes have happened in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, which shows how easy it is to descend into that sort of hell again.
We came away from this visit emotionally drained. There were various school groups there and I hope those children will keep the memories alive even though it must have been hard for them too.