Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial
Quick Overview
Description
Time
10 am
Duration
6 hours
Meeting Point
Reichstagufer 17, 10117 Berlin
Prices
Adult
aged 18 to 64
€29.90
Senior/Student/
aged 65 and students
€24.90
WelcomeCard
€24.90
Children
aged 0-17
€24.90
Required Transport Ticket
ABC 24-hour public transport ticket required
Highlights
- Our licensed guides uncover the realities of life and death in the camp, where inmates fell victim to starvation, disease, forced labour and systematic extermination.
- Take in the punishment cell block, the execution grounds, the crematoria and the roll call square (site of the camp’s gallows).
- Look around the Jewish barracks and learn about everyday life and survival under the brutal conditions imposed by the SS.
- See the infirmary, where prisoners were subjected to horrific medical experimentation.
- Learn of the fate of various notable prisoners and hear stories of humanity amid the horror.
- Understand what became of the camp and its inmates as the Red Army advanced and how it came to be Special Camp No. 7/No. 1 after Soviet liberation.
Starting Point
Meet your guide on the square next to the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears), Reichstagufer 17, 10117 Berlin. Please make sure you have your ABC 24-hour transport ticket, as well as some food and drink for the day – there is no opportunity to buy these once we arrive at the memorial.
Description
Over the nine years that the Nazis operated Sachsenhausen concentration camp, they incarcerated over 200,000 people. Some 45,000 of those interned here succumbed to exhaustion, undernourishment, disease, medical experimentation, and systematic extermination.
Established in 1936, Sachsenhausen was the first purpose-built camp to be set up under Heinrich Himmler, the new chief of the German Police. As such, it was conceived as a “model” structure, its grounds and buildings designed by Nazi architects with a view to subjugating prisoners to the absolute power of the SS. Initially intended to hold political prisoners, it later expanded to include individuals targeted due to their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability, effectively becoming a training ground for the atrocities committed during the Holocaust.
Our expert guides will help you navigate this sombre and moving site, leading you on a tour of the memorial that takes in the barracks, the infirmary, the punishment cells, the execution grounds, the crematoria, the pathology laboratory, and the gas chamber.
You will be able to hear stories of individual prisoners, such as that of Yakov Dzhugashvili, son of Joseph Stalin, and of Georg Elser, who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1939. High-profile prisoners at the camp also included a group of British Royal Marines commandos, who were forced to test German army equipment.
Your guide will explain how, as the war moved into its final phase, an unprecedented campaign of mass killings began, culminating in weakened survivors being forced into “death marches” away from the camp. The Soviet liberators then transformed Sachsenhausen into an internment camp for German prisoners of war and suspected war criminals, with some 60,000 inmates passing through the camp between 1945 and 1950.
It was not until 1961 that the East German authorities established a memorial here, and the tour concludes with a discussion of the way in which this dark past is commemorated by Germany today.
Finishing Point
The tour guide will accompany you back to central Berlin – either to Friedrichstraße train station or the Hauptbahnhof (central train station), depending on which route is most convenient on the day.
Donation
Insider Tour Berlin donates €3 per visitor to the Sachsenhausen Memorial authority for the upkeep and promotion of the site.
Insider Route
This itinerary is intended to give you a general idea of our route on this tour. You can expect to see and hear stories about all of these sites, as well as many more! Please be aware that the route is subject to change on any given day, should unforeseen circumstances arise.
- Meeting point – on the square next to the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears), Reichstagufer 17
- S-Bahn Oranienburg – walk through the town and learn more about how it collaborated with the Nazi regime.
- Former SS villas – built by concentration camp inmates and inhabited by high-ranking Nazi officials
- The Concentration Camp Inspectorate – the central administrative authority for the entire concentration camp system of the Third Reich
- The former SS training grounds – today repurposed as a police training facility
- Appellplatz (roll call area) – where prisoners were forced to assemble for hours, in all weather conditions
- The old Jewish barracks
- The prison cells – where camp inmates faced punishment and special prisoners of the Gestapo were incarcerated
- Boot testing track – slave labour in the form of testing army boots
- Gas chamber – a terrible testament to the many lives lost
- Infirmary – where brutal medical experiments were carried out on prisoners
- Station Z – mass murder, execution trench, “neck shot facility”
- Camp kitchen
- Pathology centre – where SS doctors performed so-called autopsies
- Camp brothel
Insider Reviews
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