Europe Baby: Berlin

The train ride from Paris to Berlin started out amazingly. First, we were able to relax for the first time since we left Saturday. Second, the scenery was just beautiful. It was time to relax, journal, and just enjoy the French countryside. Later we transferred to a sleeper train since our train was overnight. Our 3 bunks were on top of each other and the other side of the ladder had 3 more bunks where a mom and her two kids were. The space between the two sets of beds was just wider than the ladder and when I lay on my back my left arm fell off the bed. Not a lot of space, but we made it to Berlin.

THERE IS SOME GRAPHIC TEXT REGARDING THE CONCENTRATION CAMP

That day we went on a tour of a concentration camp in Berlin called Sachsenhausen. It started out as a work camp and later became a death camp. This place was open for 9 years and then later run by the communists.

Water Tower A
The tallest point in the camp where a guard sat with a gun so he could see over the whole camp. It was in the shape of a triangle and this was at the base.

The gate that the prisoners entered through
In German this means, "Work Makes you Free"
Many thought if they worked hard they would be released and this would all be over.

The camp was shaped like a triangle. However, they expanded it and added this section to the side. It was for POW criminals, people who tried to assassinate Hitler, etc. These people knew nothing about what happened in the main camp, and prisoners in the main camp knew nothing about life in this side camp. These people had their own cells, sometimes a bed, and sometimes a window like this one. One even had a desk.

These barracks were made for 120 people, but at the height of the camp there were up to 500 women living in here. The bunks were 3 high. There were arguments each night for the top bunk. People died each night and when this happened bodily fluids leaked out. Others did not want a bed with a mat because of all the lice inside.

There were 10 toilets for all these women. They had to get up at 4:30 each day and for the most part never had time or availability to use them.

There were also these two wash basins for everyone to use to get ready. This was also the time they were given their bread (often moldy) and water soup, sometimes with a few vegetables. This was the food for the day, about 800 calories for 12 hours of work in the heat, cold, rain, etc. When they walked around they had to walk double time...you know just to burn off extra calories they did not have. The actual criminals had the best position in the camp. They were often in charge and did with dirty work for the S. S.

Prison Uniform

Here is where they completed mass shootings. However, the Nazi's realized that they needed to change the mass killings for two reasons. 1- Money, Bullets were expensive and sometimes people did not die with just one bullet. 2- Workers, When German soldiers looked someone in the eye and shot them they could not ease their conscious. Therefore, they would turn into a psychopathic killer or into a "pile of mush". They had to come up with a different plan.

This new system was created. They broke the killing process down into steps so people could say, well it wasn't me who killed another person. The person who pulled the actual trigger never saw the face of their victim. Notice in the picture above that there is a wall on the back left-hand side. The camp was on the other side of that wall, but none of the prisoners knew what was on the other side, and those selected for death also did not know the prison was on the other side. The Nazi's did not want the camp to go into hysteria knowing what was happening on the other side of the wall. Therefore, the Nazi's took the selected prisoners out in a van and drove them around to disorient them. Then they brought them in this back hallway as seen in the photo below. There were separate rooms. The prisoners were asked to fill out a medical form which was essentially their own death certificate that the Nazi's kept when the Red Cross came to check up on the camps. Finally they were led to an are to get measured. They were asked to back up to a wall. A secret door opened behind them for the man with the gun to shoot them in the back of the neck so it would be a fast death and no mess.

After that they were taken to these ovens where up to 8 bodies could be burned at a time.

We were told many more stories at the camp, but I won't post them all here. Let me know if you are interested in hearing more.

Our German dinner that night of schnitzel and potato salad. We went with other people from the tour and we didn't know it then, but we would meet one of them again in Prague.

We went on a walking tour there starting at the Brandenburg Gate

The portion of the original Berlin Wall that is still where it was built

Checkpoint Charlie

Where the book-burning took place

This is the place where Hitler died. Underneath where we are standing was Hitler's bunker. He got married on April 29th and then on April 30th the two of them ate cyanide. Hitler also shot himself in the head. The night before he tried the cyanide on his dog just to make sure it worked. He had his body burned so that the Soviet's could not take it as a war trophy. There was another leader of the Nazi's and his wife who killed themselves along with their 6 children giving them cyanide in their sleep. They did not want their children to group up in a world where the Nazi Regime was not in power.

The Holocaust Memorial/ Memorial to the Murdered Jew
This was interesting. The whole memorial was made from these cement blocks that were equal in length and width. The only difference was their height. As you walk through the blocks become taller and taller and the paths between them become more narrow and hilly. You feel smaller and smaller, less and less significant, confused as to your orientation since the blocks have become pillars looming over your head (the tallest were 5 meters). I believe there were 2, 711 pillars/blocks. The path is so narrow that no more than one person can fit through at a time. It is like the prisoners. They all looked the same from the top in their uniforms and shaven heads. The only difference was their height. That way the guards in the towers did not feel like they were killing people, but merely rats. People no longer had names or identities.