Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [131]
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NORTHERN BRANDENBURG
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SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP
In 1936 the Nazis opened a ‘model’ concentration camp in Sachsenhausen, near the town of Oranienburg (population 30,000), about 35km north of Berlin. By 1945 about 220,000 men from 22 countries had passed through the gates, which had signage reading, as at Auschwitz, Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Sets You Free). About 100,000 were murdered here, their remains consumed by the relentless fires of the ovens.
After the war, the Soviets set up Speziallager No 7 (Special Camp No 7) for ex-Nazis, regime opponents and anyone else who didn’t fit into their mould. An estimated 60,000 people were interned at the camp between 1945 and 1950, and up to 12,000 are believed to have died here. There’s a mass grave of victims at the camp and another one 1.5km to the north.
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Sights
The Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen ( 03301-2000; www.stiftung-bg.de; Strasse der Nationen 22; admission free; 8.30am-6pm mid-Mar–mid-Oct, to 4.30pm mid-Oct–mid-Mar, most exhibits closed Mon) consists of several parts. Even before you enter you’ll see a memorial to the 6000 prisoners who died on the Todesmarsch (Death March) of April 1945, when the Nazis tried to drive the camp’s 33,000 inmates to the Baltic in advance of the Red Army.
About 100m inside the camp is a mass grave of 300 prisoners who died in the infirmary after liberation in April 1945. Farther on, in the camp commander’s house and the so-called ‘Green Monster’ building, SS troops were trained in camp maintenance and other, more brutal, activities. At the end of the road, the Neues Museum (New Museum) has a permanent exhibit about the camp’s precursor, the KZ Oranienburg, which was set up in a disused brewery shortly after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933.
East of the museum are Barracks 38 and 39, reconstructions of typical huts housing most of the 6000 Jewish prisoners brought to Sachsenhausen after Kristallnacht in November 1938. North of here is the prison, where particularly brutal punishment was meted out to prisoners. A memorial inside the prison yard commemorates homosexual victims. Nearby, the Lagermuseum (Camp Museum), in what was once the camp kitchen, houses poignant exhibits illustrating the everyday horrors of life in the camp during its various phases. There’s even artwork produced by the inmates and some of the equipment employed to make their lives so miserable.
Left of the tall and ugly monument, erected in 1961 by the GDR in memory of political prisoners interned here, is the crematorium and Station Z extermination site, a pit for shooting prisoners in the neck with a wooden ‘catch’ where bullets could be retrieved and recycled.
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Getting There & Away
Oranienburg is served every 20 minutes by the S1 from Berlin-Friedrichstrasse (€2.80, 45 minutes) and by hourly regional trains from Berlin-Hauptbahnhof (€2.80, 25 minutes). From Oranienburg station it’s a signposted 20-minute walk to the camp; bus 804 comes by hourly.
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RHEINSBERG
033931 / pop 8800
Rheinsberg, a delightful town on Lake Grienerick about 50km northwest of Berlin, has a strong cultural pedigree. Frederick the Great enjoyed giving flute concerts at the Schloss and his brother Heinrich later turned the palace into a ‘court of the muses’. The town also inspired Theodor Fontane’s gushy travelogue called Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg (Walks through the March of Brandenburg) and Kurt Tucholsky’s 1912 breakthrough novel Rheinsberg – ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte (Rheinsberg – A Picture Book for Lovers). Cultural events, along with the palace, its park, plenty of boating and some top-notch restaurants, still make Rheinsberg a pleasant getaway.
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Information
Post office (Paulshorster Strasse 18b; 8am-7pm Mon-Fri, 8am-1pm Sat)
Tourist information ( 344 890; www.rheinsberg-tourismus.de; Schillerstrasse 8; 10am-1pm