Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer

The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse is another one of my favourite sites in Berlin to take visitors. The memorial is very well done and includes an outdoor exhibit that traces the length of the wall with an original watchtower, a museum and a film.

On Bernauer Strasse the border ran directly in front of the buildings situated on the East Berlin side of the street. After barriers were erected, many residents living in these border buildings spontaneously decided to flee. Eventually as the wall became a more permanent structure made of concrete, people were removed from these buildings and windows were bricked over to avoid any escape attempts.

Throughout the site are memorials to various aspects of the wall like excavated foundations of a former apartment building whose façade functioned as the border wall until the early eighties. . .

As well as tunnel 57. The tunnels are named after the number of people that escaped before the site was found and sealed.

There are also photos of those that lost their lives trying to escape over the wall.

The grounds also include the Chapel of Reconciliation. It was a Protestant Church situated within the death strip. At firs the wall looped around it and it became a disturbing symbol of the division of Germany and Europe. In 1985, as the border grounds continued to be expanded, the East German government gave the order for the church to be blown up.

The museum that is part of the memorial is across the street from one of the old watch towers and no mans land that still stands.

I highly recommend this site to anyone who stops by Berlin!

A reality of war - Sachsenhausen

The Sachsenhausen is a concentration camp found just outside Berlin in Oranienburg and today is a memorial that you can visit for free.

It was built in 1936 and was the first new camp to be established after Heinrich Himmler was appointed Chief of the German Police. The significance of this camp is that it was conceived by the SS architects as the ideal concentration camp setting and served as a model for other camps. It later became the administrative headquarters for all German concentration camps within the German sphere of influence.

The head office where all camps were operated from

Homes of high ranking SS officials

Between 1936 and 1945 more than 200,000 people were imprisoned in Sachsenhausen. At first the prisoners were mostly political opponents of the Nazi regime but then they became others based on race or what the Nazis deemed biologically inferior. In addition to those that died during their imprisonment, thousands of other prisoners died during the death marches following the evacuation of the camp at the end of April 1945. Those that remained at the camp were liberated by Soviet and Polish soldiers.

Walkway to the main entrance

Entrance and main watchtower

Part of memorial before you enter the camp

As mentioned you can tour the site for free - I really respect this decision by Germany to have Holocaust memorials and museums free of charge. It includes some of the original buildings as well as information displays and memorials to those that suffered or died. 

The few remaining buildings are bunks and a medical building. The information displays are found inside these.

Medical building

Towards the back of the camp there is a memorial.

And just beyond the walls is where the killings took place. 

Where some were shot

What is left of the ovens

This is the second time I have visited a concentration camp and the experience remains disturbing. It seems weird to take photos and share them but at the same time, it’s important that what took place does not get lost in history. . .