This we are looking at, used to be the gas chamber of the concentration camp.
They made the prisoners to believe that this were the showers.
Then they would voluntarily entered without knowing that their real destiny was not bathing, but dying. [Music] From 1936 to 1945, there were more than
15 concentration camps in Germany and surroundings.
These were intended to put in jail and murder people, because of their race and beliefs.
Today we will know the story of one of them Luisito Comunica Hello friends! One more day at Berlin, Germany.
And for today we have a plan which is intriguing to me.
Today we'll visit Sachsenhausen, which was a concentration camp during the Second World War period.
It is well known that the Nazis, during this time, dedicated themselves to build camps, in which they
imprisoned and exterminated those who had been considered their enemies. Not only Jewish, but also gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents. Later jehovah's witnesses.
Today we will go to know one. It will surely be an experience in which we'll
learn a lot.
We will try to be as empathetic and respectful as we can possibly be.
Join me [Music] About 40 kilometers from Berlin, we find Orianenburg. The Sachsenhausen camp, was build in 1936, years before the beginning of the Second world war. Over the course of 9 years, it saw the faces of 200,000 prisoners. And after about 40 minutes we have arrived to Oranienburg. I introduce you to Tomás. Tomás is our guide. She is Andy, local guide in Berlin.
And the experience has already started.
To Oranienburg is where people used to arrive who were taken as prisoners and from here to the concentration camp, they had to walk. We're going on bus, it's a 7 minutes trip
maybe , 7 to 10 minutes. We are already at the entrance of the concentration camp.
And I want us to look at these houses behind me. These houses used to belong to the concentration camp guards. In these, guards lived together with their families, and tried to lead a normal life as possible.
Imagine that? There were families here sharing happy moments, trying to lead a normal life.
And just a few meters ahead, were people having the most terrible time, being prisoners of this concentration camp!
Wow! what a tremendous contrast just a few meters away. I must emphasize, I must make emphasis, that this place we are visiting, used to be a concentration camp, and not an extermination one.
Here you have the difference:
Although, clearly in both, a massive number of people died, the extermination camps were like it sounds, only in order to exterminate.
To the extermination camps, were taken directly people who couldn't work, that could not be exploited.
Could be pregnant women, women who wouldn't want to be separated from their babies, people with any kind of disability.
If you could not be exploited, if they couldn't get any benefit from you, you were sent to the extermination camp,
there was no scape.
And if you were in good condition ,you had good health, strength, you could work, you were taken to a concentration camp, where forced you to do various jobs.
This Sachsenhausen, is a concentration camp. People came here to work. Also, obviously many, many people died, but the murderess were not as industrialized as in the extermination camps.
As the video progresses, we will cover more of this point, but it seems important to me, for us to keep in mind, that we are in that context before we go into. In Sachsenhausen died 20,000 to 50,000 people. Is hard to know the exact amount, 'cause many registers disappeared. Authorities received the instruction to destroy the evidence of the murders.
This model we're looking at, represents
the entire area that used cover the concentration camp.
It's about 400 hectares. Think about it: Central park at New York is 340 hectares, and "The Park" which is one of the largest parks in Berlin, has 200 hectares.
The massive concentration camp used to be this triangle we're looking at, where prisoners lived.
Like everything in this area here used to be
a brick factory, all of this one here was a military vehicle depot, and this one here was a residence where guards lived with their families.
This point here, where the chimney construction is, is where later a gas chamber was built.
In this gas chamber, entered about 30 people.
At the extermination camps gas chambers, entered up to 1,500 people.
In Auschwitz, for example, which was a massive extermination camp, they were exterminating
thousands of people per day, while here
only 30 people.
It is not correct to say "only", still be a lot of people, but yes, this was more like a concentration camp, a labor camp. Right now we are crossing through an area that were S.S. barracks.
Nowadays still being barracks where police are trained.
And check out what the sign says there. The police are committed to not commit the mistakes that they made in those times. This one here is a casino, where the guards used to throw parties, another distractions. I imagine that in certain way, they considered it necessary to forget about the atrocities that they were committing every day.
That over there is the main watchtower.
This one here used to be the commanders house, in charge of this whole camp.
And this over here, all this immensity, are the the pavilions, where prisoners used to be interned,
Inside the watchtower some real photos of that time are exhibited, as well as drawings that used to be done by prisoners who were eventually released.
This in order to tell people what was really going on in the concentration camps.
In fact, most of the photos do not show such terrible actions, as those shown in the drawings.
Are exposed as well, some of the letters sent by the prisoners to their families, where they tell them that they are fine, that if people die here it's only because of sickness.
This because before they sent the letters that prisoners used to write, they were checked, to make sure they were checked to make sure that they were not saying nothing about what was really going on.
At the entrance of all the concentration camps is the phrase "Arbeit macht frei" which means: "work sets you free"
This as if it were some kind of motivation towards the prisoners.
All of these barbed wire, that in addition, were used to be electrified.
There are some stories that tell about prisoners who used to commit suicide, throwing themselves on purpose, into the electric fence.
When soldiers saw that the prisoners were about to do that, they did not shoot them, because they preferred their deaths to be as painful as possible. Around this whole track, some of the prisoners were selected to do the test shoes quality.
Basically, what they did, was that they put shoes on them that some customer from some factory would want to try, they put them to walk around the field, about 40 kilometers a day.
And after that, people wore the footwear, for which slaves had literally died. We are now, at the inside of a pavilion, where used to live around 250 prisoners.
Look at those over there. Those are bunks where they used to sleep, and no. You would normally imagine that they slept one person per bunk.
Well, no, in each of those bunk beds, about three people entered.
They were super skinny, they didn't have any calories in their bodies.
This one here was a prison.
If you think about it, all of this is a huge prison, but this was a prison with special surveillance, where they put mostly
people who were taken and who previously had some military position.
At the prison, used to live one person per cell.
So, you could think that prisoners who were sent here, had a more comfortable life.
Yes, I think that in certain way you had a more space, but you had a bigger risk to constantly being tortured.
These posts over here, had the sole purpose of torturing.
You were hand hung, but in reverse.
Your hands had to go all the way around, like this. One of the methods that was used to kill prisoners, was shooting them. We are entering a space designed only for shooting.
We can observe that it is built below ground level.
This is a hole, that was made specifically to shoot. This in case there was ever a stray bullet or a ricocheting bullet, could not make its way over the residences
or into any of the pavilions.
The saddest thing is that these killings were done in quite mechanical way, one after another, without having the opportunity to say anything to try to save themselves.
This way of murdering prisoners, in a long time, was not convenient, 'cause people know where they were going, they knew they were going to be killed, so they put up resistance.
Knowing what their fate was, of course they begged for their lives, of course they supplicated.
And this represented a certain emotional charge on the butcher.
So, the most used methods to exterminate prisoners, were those that took them by surprise.
For example, the gas chambers.
Here, in this construction, was located the gas chamber from this concentration camp.
This took them by surprise because the prisoners were told that they were going to the showers. That they were going to take a bath, that they were going to clean their bodies.
So they would voluntarily go into the gas chambers, without knowing that their real destiny was not bathing.
Another method that they used to murder was that they told you that you had to go to the doctor.
They used these devices that looked like they were to measure your height.
They put the tablet on top of your head but there was someone in the next room, that put his gun into the hole that we can see at the device.
He saw where your head was, and he shot you, he took you by surprise.
After that, they disappeared your body, they burned it on these ovens, that were here.
But before they burned your body, they took it to some place in this area, and they saw if you had any gold teeth or anything that they could use.
When your body was turn into ashes, it was possibly used as fertilizer.
Always trying to exploit your body to the maximum. People who died of natural causes, or at least not murdered, were brought here, to the autopsy room.
After that, they brought them here, to
this morgue, and dragged their bodies through this descent, using wagons or sleds.
It's kind of spooky to think that those who were dragging the death bodies down, were, in many cases, other prisoners.
Not necessarily were soldiers who did this work.
Some people were forced to transport corps, from one place to another, no matter if they had know them in life.
Maybe you were chosen to drag the body of your dead brother, your bed partner, someone you already love. But you had to do it, you had to do what you were told to, if you didn't want your fate to be the same as the one whose dead body you were dragging. It is always shocking to learn of the acts, that by discrimination, the human have committed.
The sad thing is that discrimination based on nationality, race, beliefs and sexual preferences, continues to exist at different levels.
I think that tolerance and mutual respect, are key
for this planet to function.
And that it is up to us to ensure that society achieves the peace that we want. This video is dedicated to all the victims families, of the Second World War.
"Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat their mistakes".
My friends, thank you very much for joining me in another adventure, I truly hope you liked it.
Hope you learned something from this experience.
Thank you so much Tomas, for your excellent guides.
That man knows so much. And, thank you Andy. As always my friends, see you in a few days,
with a new video.
Tschüss pimpollos. Music by Musiojad
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