Memorial Sachsenhausen

Built in 1936 on the edge of Oranienburg, Sachsenhausen was the SS model and training camp and remained the administrative headquarters of the entire concentration camp system until the end of the war. The Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was based here, making Sachsenhausen the logistical brain that organised Auschwitz, Buchenwald and the rest. Around 200,000 people were imprisoned, tens of thousands killed by execution, starvation, forced labour and medical experiments. After 1945 the Soviet NKVD ran the site until 1950 as Special Camp No. 7 for internees from the eastern zone, another 12,000 died. The triangular ground plan, the roll-call square, the reconstructed barracks and Station Z with its crematorium ovens can all be walked. A direct train from Berlin makes the visit easy, the site is free and open year-round.