Beside the wooden barracks built for the prisoners, there were several buildings made from bricks for the SS as well as the factories where the prisoners were used for slave labor. Before the beginning of WWII, most of the prisoners were German communists or German Jews. Just after "Kristallnacht" 1,800 Jews were jailed in Sachsenhausen and killed in the following weeks.
In September of 1939, thousands of communists, social-democrats and former trade union leaders were arrested in Germany. 5,000 of them were sent to Sachsenhausen, as well as 900 Jews. By the end of Sept. 1939 there were 8,384 prisoners in the camp. By Nov. of 1939 this number increased dramatically to 11,311 prisoners. This is the time when the first Typhus epidemic began. Hundreds of prisoners died from the lack of food and medical care from the SS. Until April of 1940, the dead were sent to crematories in Berlin, located 35 km from Sachsenhausen. In April of 1940 the first crematory at Sachsenhausen was ready for use.
Like all other Nazi concentration camps, the conditions of life in Sachsenhausen were extremely barbaric. There were daily executions by shooting or hanging. As an example, of a group of 320 Polish inmates only 33 survived. A few weeks after the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Nazi's, thousands of POW's were sent to Sachsenhausen. Most of them were killed by shooting, but many were sent to the Punishment Camp where they died by beatings, hangings, torture or starvation.
On January 14, 1942, the SS forced a team of workers to construct "Station Z". This new installation was built for the extermination of the prisoners. On May 29, 1942, the SS invited dozens of high ranking Nazi officials to the inauguration of the new installation. In order to show them how efficient the new installation was, 96 Jews were killed by shootings. In March of 1943, the new gas chamber was ready for use at "Station Z". This gas chamber was used until the end of the war. The number of victoms gassed at Sachsenhausen is unknown because the transports used in the gassings were never recorded.
In 1944 and the beginning of 1945, with the Allies advancing, the number of prisoners increased dramatically. On April 20th and 21st 1945, 33,000 prisoners were forced to leave the camp on a death march. Those too weak to walk were shot. On April 22, 1945 the camp was liberated by a unit of the 47th Soviet Army. The soldiers only found 3,000 prisoners in the camp. This number included 1,400 women. Most of them starving, too ill or weak to welcome their liberators. Like in many other liberated camps, despite the best medical care given to them, the prisoners died within days after being liberated. Sadly, many were just too malnourished and sick to save at that point.
Sachsenhausen is a museum today. Located in Oranienburg, Germany just outside of Berlin, the museum is 2 km from the train station. The Memorial Site is open to tourists from 8:30 am to 6 pm from April through the 15th of October, and from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Oct. 16th through March 14th. The Museum and Memorial are closed on Mondays, as are most tourist areas in Germany.
