The third day of our tour was called “Remembrance & Beyond,” a day where we confronted the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Located north of Berlin in the town of Oranienburg, Sachsenhausen was a former concentration camp used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to 1945. The site now serves as a public memorial and museum.
To enter the camp, visitors must walk in the same path as the “enemies of the state” who were forced to march from the train station to the camp’s ominous iron gates. Once inside, we climbed Tower A, the main watchtower used to monitor and look down upon the prisoners, particularly for their daily roll calls. From this bird’s eye vantage, we saw how the very architecture and design of the camp was used to further dehumanize the prisoners.
Because Jews were mostly sent to extermination camps from 1942 onward, fewer Jews were sent to Sachsenhausen than other camps. These Jewish prisoners were segregated into their own separate bunkers and given worse treatment. I was disheartened to learn that these bunkers had been set on fire by Neo-Nazis as recently as 1992.
After we paid our respects to the camp’s victims, we headed back to Berlin to visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a public art installation featuring unsettling rows of grey concrete pillars. After walking through the disorienting space, we visited the information center and read heart-wrenching stories from the victims.
To close out our day, we met to have a group discussion and unpack the gravity of what we all had experienced. Some felt deeply affected; others felt numb. Dr. Gur warned us that we might not feel the full impact of these spaces until much later. Perhaps that is why “Remembrance & Beyond” is so important. We must go beyond merely remembering— we must internalize these stories so they will never happen again.
Natalie Hazen lives in Los Angeles, CA.