So our last day in Berlin was solely dedicated to visiting the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp which is located about 30 minutes outside of the city centre. The camp was somewhat revolutionary in terms of the Holocaust as it set a standard for many of the camps that were built after it. Our tour guide was fantastic as he had studied the Holocaust, Hitler, WW1 and 2 etc so he was extremely knowledgeable and had toured this camp many times. He had also been to Auschwitz and several other camps and thought that Sachsenhausen was the more interesting. This made me happy as I really wished we could have made it to Poland to see Auschwitz.
I dont feel I can really accurately describe everything we saw and the ins and outs of the whole experience other than to say it really was amazing. Our tour was extremely thorough, not skipping one single detail and some of the stories left me with goosebumps. Watching interviews with survivors of the camp describing the guards who had become bored with their everyday routines taking prisoners caps and throwing them into the "death strip" and forcing the inmate to retrieve it knowing full well he would be shot. Seeing the actual device which was made to resemble a height measuring tool which actually used a mechanism to reveal a crack in the wall where inmates were shot by a guard in the next room. Seeing the crematoriums....
I had tears in my eyes nearly the entire time but one quote I will never forget by an inmate telling what an SS guard said to a new influx of inmates;
"There is a way to freedom, but only through this chimney".
We will also be visiting Dachau and Buchenwald as well. On a lighter note we got drunk at our local Indian on free booze again and we are off to Hamburg today and Wacken is in 2 days!!! Cannot believe it.
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