Today I visited Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, which was incredibly interesting and emotionally provocative. Sam and I arrived 45 minutes late to the train station, and both of us were certain that the group had left without us. Thankfully, we ran into everybody else right as they were getting ready to leave the station, so we got to experience Sachsenhausen. Stefano gave a great summation of the horrific atrocities that the guards at Sachsenhausen and other camps and seeing the actual locations while hearing about it gave a much better impression than just reading about it in books.
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| Gate with the infamous Concentration Camp slogan, "Arbeit Macht Frei" |
Being inside the camp gave me an uneasy feeling. It was really fascinating and I really enjoyed being there, but at the same time it was depressing and kind of creepy just imagining all the suffering and death that had occurred there. Seeing the crematorium was probably the most moving and scary part of the entire trip. The room still smelled strange to me, like the scents were still left over from 70 years ago, but I know that's impossible. When I left, I was really depressed. Someone in one of my classes had recently presented about visiting Auschwitz and claimed it had been an uplifting experience. At the time, I thought that was ridiculous, but I figured I would see how I felt after visiting Sachsenhausen. After visiting it, I still think it was ridiculous to claim that Auschwitz was uplifting, because I didn't get that sense at all. But everyone experiences it differently I guess. I can honestly say that I never expected to go to a concentration camp, even though I've always been really interested in the Holocaust. That said, I'm really glad I got the opportunity to see it, because it was something I'm never going to forget. Again, I took a ton of pictures, and I'll share some of them here.
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| Racist Nazi propaganda |
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| Whipping posts |
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| Incinerators |
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