Sachsenhausen: The SS
established this concentration camp in 1936 as the main one for the Berlin
area. It only consisted of men. It was larger than Ravensbrueck. In the early stage of the camp’s existence,
the camp consisted of mainly political opponents. Stalin’s son and Pastor Marin Niemoller ,who
wrote the famous poem “Last They Came For Me,” were actually imprisoned
here. The camp is shaped like a
triangle. At the top was a watchtower
where the SS could view the entire camp.
After Kristallnacht, Himmler ordered the arrest of 30,000 Jews, and
6,000 arrived in Sachsenhausen. The
number of Jews decreased when they were deported to other concentration camps
in Poland, most often Auschwitz, in an effort to make the so-called German
Reich free of Jews (judenfrei). 91% of
the prisoners consisted of foreign prisoners, and 20% consisted of
Jews. Don’t ask me why that doesn’t add
up to 100%. I’m thinking those were the
statistics during different years. After
the war, the Soviets used the camp to imprison Nazis, and then it was closed in
1950.
One remarkable fact about Sachsenhausen is that everyone
noticed it. It was not hidden - it was
in the center of town to make people afraid.
Again, the townspeople KNEW! The
camp looked like a park, which was a type of psychological torture for the
prisoners. There was even a petting zoo
and a lake!
The hospital was created for medical experiments. Boys between 8-23 were injected with
Hepatitis, so the SS could find a cure for the German civilians. The
main mode of execution was by shooting.
The Nazis took the Soviet prisoners to a doctor and pretended to examine
them. The next thing they knew, they
were shot in the back of their necks. One gas chamber was used as a technical experiment. The Nazis were looking for more efficient and quicker methods to kill people. Most gas chambers released gas into the room. In Sachsenhausen, gas was mixed with the water in showers in 1943.
Click the picture to enlarge what you are seeing.
This article showes that Sivonne is reporting the true horrific events as they happened to none Jews. She is not biased by her being Jewish an of a Holocaust surviving family. Dad
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the camp was made to look like a park in the middle of the town! Everyone knew it was a concentration camp, and still the towns people did nothing about it. In the hospital, they treated the humans like lab rats, testing them to find a cure to the disease. I can't even imagine the fear of going to the doctor and not knowing if you were getting a check up or shot in the back of the neck. The picture of the trench reminds me of one scene in Night. It was the one where the little boy suffered from hanging because he didn't weigh enough to be killed instantly. It brings back the emotion I had to that one part of the book. The symbolism in the last picture struck me the most; station z stands for the end of their lives. I'm so glad that the non-guilty prisoners wanted that saved from bombing. It really does show the truth to the sick life the Nazis gave the people who lived in the concentration camps.
ReplyDeleteI hate how they make it look like a park and had a petting zoo and lake. Thats probably some of the worst torture they have. Also, how they injected boys from 8-23 disgusted me. They did it for the good of the Germans, of course, because it's always all about the Germans. And, how they tricked them into thinking they were at the doctors being examined, but then they shot them in the back of the neck. That's just awful. These things don't even sound real because i can't imagine them actually happening. One other thing is the picture with that little room. They had to squeeze in there with 400 other men. I think i would go insane and maybe die of insanity. I wouldn't be able to deal with squeezing in there.
ReplyDeleteI find it extremely shocking that the concentration camp was designed to look like a park with a petting zoo! It is surprising that a park, such an innocent environment, is inside the walls of place where people lost their freedoms, and were persecuted and tortured because of their race and religion. What was more shocking was that the townspeople knew about the camp and didn’t do anything about it. When I went to the Nuremburg museum, I saw a documentary about the townspeople not knowing what happening in the camp. The picture of what looks like thousands of skeletons with Nazis standing near them nauseates me. To see so many bones and dead souls lying on the ground without being respected makes me feel sick.
ReplyDeleteI found it ironic that the Soviets later used the camp to imprison Nazis since the Nazis were originally the ones imprisoning people, including Soviets. I was also really shocked that the camp was put in the center of a town and made to look like a park. This fact completely destroys the argument that the German citizens "didn't know" about the concentration camps. I used to believe that this was the reason they didn't try to stop the Holocaust, but now I know that this was clearly not true. It is sickening that someone would go have fun in a park where thousands of people were dying at that very moment. The picture of the skeletons made me wonder how the Nazis could look at them and not feel guilty for the way they treated all of those people even if they didn't see them as human.
ReplyDeleteThe whole town knew about it, i think that it was a "if we don't say what it is, it's not here." kinda deal. What bothered me about this camp was the way that they tortured, then killed the man. it wasn't one or the other, it was both. This camp is like the O'Henry of death camps, it lives, breathes, and speaks irony. The men in charge of the camps eventually will be held in the same camp as prisoners, so they got what was coming for them. I hated looking at the picture of the men gathering in a group with the mass grave in front of them, its like the "you are next" kinda deal, emotional torture. The Nazis were cruel to make a death camp look like a petting zoo; it taunts the captive with the views of freedom, yet freedom is so far away. Disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI was really bothered by the fact that everyone in the area knew of the concentration camp and what was happening to people inside of it. I am not exactly sure why they would make one so public just to frighten people and to torture the "prisoners", but I do know that a petting zoo is over-the-top. I find it frightening myself, knowing that people have the capability to frighten a whole town to the point where they do not help take down the concentration camp.
ReplyDeleteA few things disturbed me about this post. First off, it freaks me out that the Soviets put the Nazis in the camp after the war. I know what the Nazis did was horrible, but they didn't have to sink to their level. Putting people in conditions like that was not and never will be justified no matter what they did. Second, I can't believe they gave boys Hepatitis! I highly doubt they did it to find a cure. I think they did it just to torture the Jews. Lastly, I was shocked that they didn't even try to hide the camp. Not only was that awful for the citizens of the town to be scared like that and unable to do anything, but it is a slap in the face for the Jews. It seems like they were treated like animals and played with psychologically everyday at this camp, and that makes me really sad.
ReplyDeleteIt's horrible that the camp was literally in the middle of the town! How could a German living in that town see it every day without feeling guilty or empathetic for the Jews? Like Sarah P. said, this proves that the Germans knew exactly what was going on and they just didn't want to try to help. Another thing that surprised me was the shower room that could fit 400 men. In the picture, it looks so small... I can't imagine how so many people could be forced into such a small room.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I am not surprised that the doctors in the concentration camp preformed experiments on boys age 8-23. I think it is disgusting and inhumane, but I am not shocked. I cannot understand how educated people found it acceptable to inject people with a cureless disease in order to try and find a cure or a better way to treat Nazi soldiers. These men were like the doctors’ Guinea pigs, except they were forced into it. It is awful that the camp doctors committed these kinds of cruel experiments. I am shocked at the fact that sometimes over 400 men were forced into one room to wash up. These rooms look to be smaller than my room, and I know that 400 people could not fit into my room. I don’t think I could ever show respect to authorities of these concentration camps.
ReplyDeleteWow. The whole town knew but no one spoke up? I'm just shocked that they didn't even make an attempt to hide the camp, or make it secretive and the fact that the camp was even designed to look like a park with a petting zoo, is awful like they were animals! Testing them to find a cure and tricking them into their own deaths by having them think they were only going to be examined. The whole thing is just so unbelievable and terrible!
ReplyDeleteIts ironic that the camp was a triangle with SS officers at the top, watching the rest of the triangle, or “inferiors”. It’s also ironic that the Nazis were imprisoned in the same place they imprisoned the Jews. It shocked me that the camp was in the middle of the town. You can’t ignore that at all, and no one stood up. To make matters worse, it was made like park. Imagine kids looking at this place, thinking it was a park, when in all actuality while they looked at this “park” hundreds of Jews were being gassed to death. How could you have a petting zoo here? The hospital made me sick. How could you experiment on children and young adults? 8-year-old minds haven’t even developed yet. I can’t imagine a worse slow death. Gas mixed with water doesn’t seem like that much of a positive change either. I almost shed a tear looking at the skeletons. Their bodies look crumpled together too. The sad thing about it is that when you’re a skeleton, you can’t see your individual story. When the Nazis die, they will realize that in the end we are all equal: skeletons have no race, eye color, or religion.
ReplyDeleteIt shocked me that the camp was in the middle of the town and the townspeople knew about it but they did not do anything to stop it. It was also shocking that the Nazis made the camp look like it was a park that was happy because of the lake and the petting zoo but it was ironic because they were killing prisoners while all the other stuff was going on.
ReplyDeleteIt seems peculiar and unique yet interesting that the prison structure be designed in the shape of a triangle; as you said, it gave the guards excellent vision of all prisoners. I find it rather silly and unjust when German citizens plead, "we didn't know!" for there is no support for their argument because the evidence is clearly directly in front of them, right next to the zoo. I also find it ironic that Nazi soldiers eventually found themselves on the other end of the spectrum when they were imprisoned by the Soviets. When discussing the experiments performed on the boys and young men, I could not but think about Dr. Mengele, and wonder if he was instrumental in the supervision, execution, orchestration, or studying of such experiments.
ReplyDeleteI though all of the concentration camps were the same. I didn’t know some were gender specific. Stalin’ s son was imprisoned by the Nazis? Why? What happened to him? I like what the soviets did. They used the Nazis’ arsenal against themselves. I wish they built a death camp for the Nazis to make them pay for what they did. This camp wasn’t a secret, but the others were? Germans citizens knew about the camp, but still they didn’t do a thing about it. They did experiment here it too? I bet Dr.Mengele was running the experiments.They missed gas with water. Why didn’t they just use gas chambers like most of the camps?
ReplyDeleteThough I know it to be true, it is extremely hard to believe that this camp was in the center of town, where everyone could easily see. I understand that they used it to make people afraid and I know for sure that I'd be extremely frightened, but how could everyone just sit back and watch. That's one of the two parts of the holocaust that completely perplexed me. The other part was how could the "sane-minded" nazis do such cruel things. I thought that the camps were just all mixed genders, but I could see why the nazis wouldn't do that. They didn't want the Jews procreating so it makes sense to keep male and female apart. I was surprised while reading this that Stalin's son was also captured and put in this camp. Why?? I thought that Hitler and Stalin were "allies". Wouldn't Stalin be bitter about that?? And when you mentioned the experimenting that occurred, I just cringed. The poor people. I wouldn't wish that upon my worse enemies, any of this. No one deserves to have their humanity and dignity stolen in such ways as these.
ReplyDeleteI hate how the townspeople were around this all the time. The camp was in the middle of the town. The camp looks like a park and includes a petting zoo. I guess Hitler was trying to get them accustom to this fear. I still find it hard to believe that the Nazis were treating the Jews as animals. I'm still in shock about the fact that they injected the innocent prisoners with Hepatitis. I also find it hard to believe of how these people were educated people with medical degrees, who went to school for many years.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that this camp was in the middle of a town. The German people did not care at all and if anything supported it! I don't know if Germans are dumb or were just brainwashed but either way what they were letting happen was wrong in so many different ways. They acted as if it were a great attraction! Like hey let's go look at the suffering Jews!! That doesn't sound like much fun. I'm also amazed at the crematorium. It's funny that the nazis tried to destroy it and were stopped. They didn't want people to know what they were actually doing and the Jews actually stopped them so we can see it today.
ReplyDeleteIt's upsetting to find out that the whole town knew that this was a concentration camp but still did nothing about it. If the camp was right in the middle of town then they have no excuse for not knowing it was there. It's shocking how they preformed experiments on little boys and young men. They were basically lab rats. Now days we wait years before we can test anything on humans. This shows how the Jews weren't even looked upon as humans. This was all for the benefit of the Germans. It absolutely disgusts me to even think anyone could do such a thing.
ReplyDeleteThis camp was not place in which a map or directions were needed to find. It literally sat right in front of the town. It stood distinctive from everything. It would be just as if you took the Twin Towers of 9/11 and placed it right in the middle of Myers Park. This shows that the townspeople easily noticed it but did nothing to stop it. There were men and even children who were being killed just a short distance from them, They knew but they did nothing. It is a possibility that they were frightened and didn't want to be killed. Frankly I might have double-guessed myself if i started walking up to a torture zone.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if there is a camp for all females there is one for all males...
ReplyDeleteI am in love with the ironic twist about this camp. This was a place Nazis used to hold and torture people. In the end, they were imprisoned in the prison they built. This may be the sweetest revenge I've read of so far. The fact that everyone knew about this camp made me audibly gasp. There was a lake and a petting zoo?! The fact that Nazis worked so hard to convince the Germans that Jews and those who opposed Germany were worthless. This may be the greatest piece of propaganda, honestly. Nazis completely desensitized the people to mistreatment and treating humans as animals. Time and time again, I am shocked at how terribly the innocent prisoners were mistreated.
I had no idea that Stalin even had a son, much less one that was imprisoned as a political opponent. It still surprrises me that only 20% of the prisoners were actually Jewish. The pictures on from this camp absolutely disgusted me. Can you imagine trying to cram into one room of over 400 other men, just to wash your hands. And having the fear of a SS man drowning you if you attempted to wash your feet. I still baffles me that their "soldiers" could kill someone so easily . They honestly and truly believed that these people were not even to be treated like human beings. But they knew they'd gone wrong when the war was over! Trying to burn any of the evidence like the crematoriums and documents. Still cannot belive that so few of the Nazi's caught were actually caught.
ReplyDeleteAgain Himmler is a sack of worthless trash, I honestly do believe Himmler was more culpable than Hitler. I don't blame the people of Berlin; yes they knew about the Concentration camp, but were they really going to risk their lives and their families to defend others. The people were afraid to death of the Gestapo and the SS officers, Would you risk giving up everything to gain nothing because it's morally right? When I read that prisoners of the concentration camps were injected with Hepatitis, I was like, how much more experiments did the Nazis commit in secrecy that we don't know of, how much more is there that we didn't uncover, the full depth of what the Nazis did will never be known. I knew Stalin let his son rot in jail, but i didn't know that Stalin's son had been a prisoner in a Concentration camp. I was also surprised by the low number of Jewish prisoners, but I do understand that by then most Jewish people had probably left in fear of the Nazi motives. The thing about the petting zoo and how normal it looked pissed me off, but demonstrated the Nazis perfection of deception.
ReplyDeleteWould you risk giving up everything to gain nothing because it's morally right?...In answer, I honestly don't know...but that's what true heroes are made of
DeletePeople are still uncovering the truths today...There's a lot of documentaries that show this. I want to emphasize that the Holocaust affected more than Jews. It affected everyone!
ReplyDeleteThis post actually made me re-read the words so I knew I was reading it correct. This camp description by far has given me more shocks. This post proves that the concentration camps were not only filled with many other human types. I can't believe that these Nazis used their prisoners as lab rats! The experiments they conducted on they people are just go against humanity. The things they did to younger boys really got to me. Also the fact that the camp was easily seen angers me. Did the other townspeople see what was going on and didn't care or where they too afraid to speak up?!? This reminds of The Sunflower when the Jews were walking into town, and nobody ever noticed or cared to speak up... This must have happened a lot because if it didn't then people would have rebelled.
ReplyDeleteI think a little of both...some were too scared; some didn't care.
DeleteWhile I was reading this post I was shocked. This camp was in the middle of a town! Everyone in the town knew! The townspeople knew and didn't do anything to stop it! were they too afraid to speak out or did they just not care? This makes no sense to me. All the things they did at this camp was inhumane and pure torture! They were indeed lab rats for the doctors! Why didn't anyone stop this? The way they set up the camp also was twisted. Why did they put a petting zoo and lake in? Did the boys even got to the petting zoo or use the lake? I have no idea why the townspeople didn't do anything to help. If I was a towns person of that town I couldn't bare to look at the camp every day.
ReplyDeleteWe will read an article about why "no one step in'" It's pretty scary.
DeleteThe fact that this camp was larger than Ravensbrueck and withheld mainly political opponents is crazy. It makes me realize how many people besides the Jewish were imprisoned. It is already hard enough to speak out against esteemed views, but if anyone else did, they had the same fate as people considered inhuman. Despite learning about Kristallnacht a plethora of times, its significance still astounds me. What a massive excuse for 30,000 Jewish people to be arrested. I can’t believe everyone noticed this camp! It really makes me think poorly of the townspeople. Hearing about medical experiments and gas chambers in the camp makes my skin crawl. However, I’m becoming more interested in reading Boys from Brazil.
ReplyDelete-Allie Rousseau
That book is so incredibly good...It is science fiction but the story definitely could have happened.
DeleteMixing gas in the water, seriously? Nothing was done to stop these horrific acts? THE CAMP WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A TOWN! The Nazis were just so vicious and vile, and the didn't care. Kristallnacht, just an excuse to gather Jews and spark Hitler aim to the "Final Solution". Seeing the remains of the dead prisoners sickens me. Seeing the crematories and knowing that people were burned just because the Nazis didn't want evidence that these even occurred is just inhumane. To hear that they Hepatitis was injected into their bodies is just mind blowing. I'm just like why? Please state your purpose in doing all this. Trash, that's it, just trash.
ReplyDeleteYes, remember I told you that deception and irony are key motifs in the Holocaust. They didn't want massive chaos, so they used the deception of showers so the people would go "willingly"
DeleteYes, remember I told you that deception and irony are key motifs in the Holocaust. They didn't want massive chaos, so they used the deception of showers so the people would go "willingly"
DeleteIt is disturbing that every person in town knew about the concentration camp, but so very few did anything about it. To sit back and watch you fellow humans die is not only immoral but disgusting as well. It is not the Jews who deserve the title of inhuman but the citizens of the town who took no action against the Nazis. Also, it is beyond cruel to put the Jews in such horrible conditions just feet away from a park. The Germans wanted to not only kill the Jews but make them see all the luxuries they used to have. Can you imagine being shot in the back of head while watching children swim in a lake? The experiments were what affected me the most though. Not only do I fall within the age requirements for testing, I am a twin. I can only imagine the suffering felt by the children who were force to watch their siblings tortured in front of their eyes. Physical pain would be manageable than the psychological horrors faced by the twin watching. I can guarantee with absolute certainty that I would rather die than have to go through that. -Henry Thompson
ReplyDeleteOh, God, I forgot you were a twin. Wow, this must really resonate with you.
ReplyDeleteThis was disgusting! It's almost like the Nazis were rubbing it in the townspeople faces. Like they knew they couldn't do anything about it. They wanted to put fear into the people, hell I would be terrified if that was in my neighborhood. There was a petting zoo in there? REALLY?? Okay, so do they want people to fear them, or enjoy the camp? Just like you always say they are treating the Jews like animals. They don't see the Jews as humans, and that is humiliating. This camp is honestly twisted. First gas in the water like what if a kid got in contact with that water. Well apparently the Nazis didn't care about that, of course not! Why would they? They already treated them like animals.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I cannot imagine going through is the gassing. I think the gassings are just another example of how malicious the Nazis were. Being gassed seems like one of the worst ways to go, and especially if the gas is mixed with water to deceive the victims. I can’t begin to imagine how they suffocated and suffered even more than they already had. I would much rather be shot in the head to get it over with. One thing that constantly annoys me is that the townspeople knew about the camps. It seems like everyone you could think of knew what was going on, but they didn’t do anything to stop it. It is the same story over and over. The allies knew about the Holocaust but didn’t do anything until they had to. The Germans knew what was happening to their friends and neighbors but didn’t do anything. It seems like most people had an idea of what was happening, but they all stayed out of it. I understand that people were afraid to oppose Hitler, and I don’t know if I would have had the courage to try to help the Jews and other victims. It just seems like the Holocaust was able to continue because people waited too long to act or didn’t act at all.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the Nazi’s took it a little too far with this camp. For example, they mixed water with the gas. The people in the camp might actually think they were getting a shower; when in reality, they were being toyed with. Another example is that they had the camp in the middle of the town. Where they trying to assert their dominance or something? Because this is just wrong on so many levels. Another thing that I noticed was that Stalin’s son was a prisoner in this camp. I would think that Stalin would try and break him free or try to bargain for him. But I guess they did keep Nazi’s in there until 1950, so that might have been his punishment for them. Finally, did the prisons even get to go to the petting zoo? Or was it only for them to see?
ReplyDeleteThis article was so short, yet it still managed to have the same effect on me that the longer ones did. They managed to have a concentration camp in the middle of a town, yet people still did not think that anything that the nazis did was wrong! They were able to clearly see what was going on at the concentration camp and the horrors that occurred there, and they were still ok with that! The statistics on the people there confused me a lot, but I think I figured out how it works. Some of the foreign prisoners must have been Jewish. I was also amazed that the Soviets used the camp to house nazis after world war two! I never thought of what they did to general soldiers when the war was done. I was also surprised about the medical experiments done to the men there.
ReplyDelete-Nicholas Hicks
Why was the camp in the shape of a triangle? Was it for security purposes? I wonder how the Nazi soldiers felt being imprisoned in the camp after the war ended. I hope they got to experience how to live under those hard conditions. How can people notice such a vast concentration camp but just overlook it? I don’t see how they were able to walk by it everyday and see the conditions of the camp and not do anything. I would think they would want to extend a hand to help out and put an end to it. Even if they were afraid, I still think they could have attempted to help. It’s sickening that the prisoners were used for medical experiments. I can’t believe boys as young as eight years old were being injected with deadly diseases. It’s hard to believe the prisoners were tricked into believing they were seeing a doctor, but they were instead killed on the spot. It’s also saddening that the Nazis mixed gas with the water the prisoners were using to shower. I’m learning more and more valuable facts about the Holocaust that I never knew about through these blog posts.
ReplyDeleteThe idea to inject people with Hepatitis so that they can find a cure is so stupid. Why not use people who already had it instead of infecting other people? And then, they brought people in who was going to get examined but was shot in the head instead. What is wrong with these people? I can’t believe they had a concentration camp right in the middle of the town! I could not live there and see all of those people in the camp suffering. They made it look like a park with a zoo! That is so messed up. If I was a Jew, I would probably feel like the animal in the zoo.
ReplyDeleteWow, this camp sounded like an actual prison. I’ve seen pictures of prisons that have watch towers so guards could see over all of the prison. That is the image that came to me when I read the description. I wonder why the townspeople never tried to help feed or help the prisoners escape. Was it because they were afraid for their lives, or did they hate Jews as well? It’s sad that they injected kids with Hepatitis to find a cure for the Germans. They used the Jews as lab rats. They didn’t care what happened to the Jews at all. It disgust me that they mixed gas in the water of showers to kill the Jews.
ReplyDelete-Jake Rutledge
This camp looked and seemed very menacing. A camp in the middle of town designed to intimidate residents of the town and the camp prisoners? Wow. It doesn’t help with the fact that this camp was specifically made to hold political opponents. This shows how unforgiving the Nazis were. If you didn’t agree, then away you went. They had almost no tolerance for people that were different from them or had different views from them. I don’t know if I really agree with the Soviets imprisoning Nazis there after the war. I feel that the concentration camps should really stay untouched and unchanged to keep it a sacred place to remember all of those who lost their lives there and to also remind future generations to come what happened there so it never happens again. I also think it is horrible how the Nazis injected prisoner children with Hepatitis. That kind of experimentation should not exist, same for the horrific Mengele experiments we saw in class.
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting to see that this camp only consisted of men. Also, it’s cool to see that the guy who wrote the poem “Last They Came For Me” was imprisoned in this camp. It is interesting to see how something we read in class can be applied in a situation that occurred in history. Even though Stalin was not a Jew the Nazis came after him after all the other “unsuperior” races were captured. This shows the true meaning of how they should have stood up of each other to prevent this from happening. It is creepy how this camp was not hidden. I thought the Nazis wanted to conceal their crimes. I guess not…. The fact all the townspeople saw all the prisoners in the camp had to be so humiliating and psychological dehumanizing for them to endure.
ReplyDeleteWhat really disturbed me isn’t that the townspeople knew about the concentration camps and didn’t act, but that Sachsenhausen was disguised as a park. The townspeople knew about the camps and didn’t do anything about it, but that didn’t shock me. If you were a German citizen would you object, and possibly be killed and have your family be killed; while the Nazis continue to murder millions of Jews? Since Jews being tortured didn’t affect the townspeople personally, they seemed to ignore what was happening, because in the end, the townspeople “believed” that whatever happened to the Jews was not going to affect them. I believe this is where humanity screws up; not getting involved because we believe the outcome won’t affect us. I believe that countless number of lives could have been saved if the townspeople objected/protested as a whole community. What really infuriated me, was the fact that the slaughtering of Jews was being disguised as a park, where countless kids will come and play. Sachsenhausen being put in the center of the town and being disguised as a zoo symbolizes so much. This was psychological torture for the prisoners; I don’t know how it the prisoners were able to live their lives. The Jewish prisoners were being physically tortured, while the Germans (They knew about what was going on) brought their kids and enjoyed themselves where millions were suffering. It must have been excruciating for the Jews, EVERYDAY they hear people (Who are enjoying themselves) come and go, yet none of the people are willing to help them or sympathize for them. This kind of reminds me of your post about the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp scenery; I feel as if the scenery of these camps deprive the prisoners of hope.
ReplyDelete-Chris.M
Is this a joke? The concentration camp looked like a park..in the center of the town...and had a petting zoo? It was obvious that people knew about this concentration camp, so why didn’t they step up? Why is nobody taking action when this is obviously happening in plain sight? Other countries can’t pretend that they didn’t know about this happening when the camps were literally in the center of the town. Euphemism is very popular amongst the Nazis. I can’t imagine having to always question everything that came out of their mouths. My hopes of survival would be constantly crushed every day. The example with the hospital is definitely another form of this euphemism. When the Nazis promised the Jewish people that they were going to get treatment/examined, they actually were going to pretend to do these things and just shoot them. The word “hospital” sounds like a place where someone will get help…a place that brings hope to getting better. In reality, it was just an excuse to torture the Jews even more. Lastly, the caption under the picture of the washing rooms was gruesome. These people were tortured in any way possible. How could you live like that every day? The Jewish people couldn’t have felt safe anywhere they were. Even in the washrooms, they had a risk of being drowned by the SS officers. The whole situation is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the camp was in the middle of a town is sickening, and the fact that no one in the town tried to stop it is even worse. The Nazis did a thing during the holocaust that I can't imagine doing; treating people as livestock rather than living souls. The picture with all the people at the edge of a field looked like freshly plowed earth at first, but upon further inspection, I saw that it was rows and rows of dead bodies. If any picture from the holocaust is disturbing, this is the one. These people had been left there on the ground for so long that they had become rows and heaps of bones. To me, leaving the bodies out to rot on open ground is worse than being burned or buried in a mass grave. This shows how low the Nazis thought of the Jews. They considered them so subhuman that they had no problem watching them rot away in a field. I really can't believe that a whole country would accept such terrible crimes against humanity.
ReplyDeleteI guess I’m confused why the Nazis built a concentration camp right in the middle of a town. I thought that the Nazis wanted to keep their actions private but I guess not. They must’ve done that for a reason but I’m sure that reason was lost with countless numbers of info the Nazis burned. Also, I didn’t think the townspeople actually knew the full extent to what was going on in the camps at the time. I thought the Nazis used countless Euphemisms to disguise their true actions. Either way, I’m sure the townsfolk knew some about the harsh conditions the Jews were receiving.
ReplyDeleteGarrett Hensley
It is awful how they made the concentration camp to look like a park even though all of the others new exactly what it was, and with is consisting a petting zoo and lake inside of it makes it even more worse and shows how it was a type of psychological torture for the prisoners. It makes me disgusted to think of how the Germans brought in patients and would practice special operations on them which basically just made them each into different labs to conduct experiences on, for example as said about how they used the gas chamber as a technical experiment. The picture that showed the many skeletons just lying there on the ground was horrifying and awful to see how just a group of people like the Nazis can be such terrible individuals.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that the camp was made in the middle of town and looked like a park! Did it not throw people off a little when they couldn't get into the "park". Or when they looked in and saw what was appening in the "park"? I'm sure they knew. But even then the people knew! They knew exactly what was happening and didn't do a damn thing. The pictures of the camp didn't even look welcoming like a "park", so I understand how it was used to scare the people. It's amazing to see the trench that hangings happened in - where everyone could see. Possible even the people on the outside. That makes me wonder how big was this camp? And how far could the outsiders see in? Whatever it is the people on the outside knew, and still did nothing.
ReplyDeleteHow can another concentration camp be larger than 160 soccer fields? That’s crazy! I didn’t realize that the camp consisted of only 20% Jews. That’s eye opening because we usually only learn about the Jews, not the other religions or races. It’s crazy to think that the camp was in plain sight and that many people knew about it but did not do anything. Why the heck was there a petting zoo? Also, the fact that they injected diseases into the prisoners is sick. Where is the humanity?
ReplyDeleteThe thing that really shocked me about this passage is that Sachsenhausen was in the center of tow, and it looked like a park. People who lived in that time period and claimed they didn't know anything about the concentration camps really disgust me. This camp is the evidence that demonstrates that everyone knew and said nothing. I really cannot imagine how a petting zoo and a lake could fit in such a horrible place. It's also really hard to process how they injected boys between 8-23 years old. Those people did not have a heart.
ReplyDelete-Ginny Ammannato
Disgusting and vile! I can't express how horrible it must have been to live in conditions like the Sachsenhausen offered. The most shocking part about all of this is that the location of the camp was in the center of town! How could someone stoop so low? The German citizens visited this location daily, knew exactly what it looked like, and knew what it was but still managed to not make an impact and prevent more death. Wow! These victims were treated like such animals! They were lab experiments for diseases in "hospitals". It disgusts me to even think that another person would want to harm another human being. The people who chose not to help deserve just as much as the blame the Nazis received. Horrible...
ReplyDelete-Armin Salic
I am baffled that the camp was in the middle of the town. People KNEW is was there. Throughout this unit, I always find myself going back to the bystanders effect and the murder of Kitty Genovese. Kitty’s murder was after the Holocaust this just reminds me on how important it is to inform the next generation. We can’t repeat the past. I just find it weird that a event like that can tie back to the Holocaust in such a way. Another thing that I found very twisted was the fact that the camp looked like a park. The concentration camp even had a petting zoo and lake.
ReplyDeleteIt’s awful that the concentration camp was in the middle of town for all to see and people still didn’t question Nazi ideology. However, the people were convinced that Jews were the burden of the country, so they thought it was necessary to isolate them from the other pure Germans. Nevertheless, they had to have heard the gunshots, and this should’ve propelled them to do something. Additionally, I think that the death by shooting was much more humane-for lack of a better word- than gassing. The prisoners thought they were going to get a medical check up, so there was no anxiety or fear before their inevitable death. The bullet also killed them with little to no pain most likely unlike the the slow suffocation of being gassed. The pictures of the actual places where such atrocities were committed also resonated with me. It’s strange to see it brought to life after merely hearing stories about it for so long.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, placing the camp in the middle of town was likely a smart move on the Nazis' part. The Nazis are well aware that the surrounding townsfolk either subscribe to their ideology or are afraid to act, so you have one of two reactions: sadistic satisfaction or fear. The Nazis were no strangers to fear mongering, and placing a massive fear monger in the center of Sachenhausen surely discouraged much opposition. It's horrible, but there aren't many who would act against their fears in such a public setting. Hence, the passerby effect exists and is prominent.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it is really tragic that the concentration camp was in the MIDDLE of town. All these years of people wondering if others had knowledge of the holocaust was true. How can you ignore something right in front of you. People knew that millions of innocent people were getting murdered , yet they didn't do anything about it. Was it because they were scared of the consequences, they didn't care, or did they want the Jews dead? At first I thought that them being bystanders didn't mean that they were associated with the crimes that the Nazis did, but now I am starting to believe that people who did nothing to help the Jews and were aware that they were being murdered were just as guilty as the murderers.
ReplyDeleteRahma Abdullahi
The fact that they placed the camp in plain sight and no one did anything about it is terrifying. To know that they had a petting zoo is also sickening because they made it seem like all of this was "normal". The Nazis were already cruel to the Jews, but taking them to the "doctor" and shooting them in the back of their necks is inhumane. Also, hearing about how the Nazis had the guts to mix the gas with the water in the showers made me extremely angry because they took it way too far. There was no reason for it because the Nazis knew they were either going to die in gas chambers or beworked to death, so what's the point in skulking? Let the people prepare themselves, say prayers, and say goodbye to their families before they die. Don't just kill them unexpectedly. - Anna
ReplyDelete50 kids have probably said this already, but a Jew can also be foreign. A Hungarian Jew may be considered both a foreign “prisoner” and a Jew, which would explain why the percentages don’t add up. The location of Sachsenhausen in a town is strange. It seems to me that the Nazis were getting cocky and almost daring someone to speak up about the horrors of concentration camps. This ties back into the Genovese Effect we learned about in class. The townspeople were obviously aware; the Nazis intended for this to be the case. It’s possible that this wasn’t a result of the Genovese Effect; perhaps the townspeople didn’t care in the first place and didn’t expect anyone else to stand up at all. It seems like a risky move on the Nazis’ part. A townsperson could have told the rest of the world about what was happening, or victims might escape the camp and hide themselves amongst the townspeople. The location is one thing, but the way they made it look like a park is yet another. It managed to be both damaging to the victims and entertaining to the German citizens. It’s hard to believe the lengths the Germans went to in order to cause suffering.
ReplyDeleteThat's insane. When I first learned about the Holocaust I believed that only Jewish people were imprisoned in concentration camps, but I was REALLY wrong! I find extremely interesting that the camp was only made up of about 20% Jewish men. I'm sure other people have said this too, but people can be Jewish and also be Foreign. For example, a Jewish person from Hungary could be considered a foreigner. I think this camp can link to the "by stander" effect. Of course, the townspeople knew about the camp and what was going on inside it, but they were all looking to each other to actually do something about it. Since there was a large group of people in the town, the sense of responsibility to help is completely diminished.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of making the camp "comforting" by having a lake and a petting zoo is sick. It's a torture of the mind, having fun, but knowing there is no escape. If you have ever had your phone taken, but your parents just leave it out, that's a similar feeling. The townspeople were driven away by the fear factor. The plan was to make sure they knew,"If you oppose us, you die". Hence the famous Nazi saying: "If you aren't with us, your'e against us. I hate the idea of the "hospitals" that they performed experiments and murders in. It's like a horror movie.
ReplyDeleteThis post and the other post were very interesting. I find it strange that both camps were specific to one gender, and both were disguised to look prettier than what was happening inside them. Sachsenhausen is interesting because it has many things that are different compared to other camps. Other camps had no trees and especially not a petting zoo! I thought the petting zoo was odd. Was it used to try to make it seem like a park so the townspeople wouldn't know what was going on? (Even though we know that they knew.) Not that this is as important, but I thought it was weird how the camp was triangular in shape and in the center of town. The whole thing is just shocking!
ReplyDeleteWhile we believe that having the camp in the middle of the town was awful, and the fact that no one did anything about it was even worse, these people that lived there were probably already brainwashed in Nazi Ideology to believe that what they were seeing was okay and normal. It is horrible to think that people actually knew about the camps and what was going on, but for most people it was imbedded into their brains that it was alright to do this. And as for the people who knew that what the Nazis were doing was absolutely horrendous, they probably had the option to keep their mouths shut or join them in the camp. It is terrible that the leaders of Sachsenhausen made the camp appear to look like a park, complete with a lake and petting zoo. This probably also deterred people from helping the "prisoners" in the camps because the fake atmosphere made it look like they were fine. I was disgusted to hear about the experiments the SS did on children and adults. Injecting an 8 year old child with hepatitis, to find a cure for the rest of the Germans? Absolutely sickening. I cannot believe that the Nazis were always look for more efficient ways to KILL PEOPLE. I understand that death is all around us- in old age, sickness, war, and other circumstances. But the fact that they talked about it in such a "civilized" manner, they used the words "quick" and "efficient " to describe killing humans, it is just hard to believe how truly evil the Nazis really were.
ReplyDeleteI said before that I didn't think I could get more shocked because of what I have already heard about. I was wrong. I can't believe they had petting zoo! They were in the middle of the town, and the camp was set up like a park? They'll so desensitized that families went there? I couldn't ever imagine wanting my children (not that I have any currently) to see a sight such as that. If I did take them, I would tell them that what is happening to the Jews is wrong. Once again, the Jews were treated like we treat animals. We use animals to find cures for diseases and that is what they did. I feel like I've heard about the showers mixed with gas before. Maybe it was a book or movie, I don’t remember. Anyway, I know Jews weren't sure if they were going to die or be cleaned half the time. To have that hanging over your head when you walk into the shower area has to be one of the worst feelings.
ReplyDeleteI forgot that Hitler used the concentration camps for his political enemies before they were used for the Jews. I was not aware that Joseph Stalin’s son was in there! I also find it incredibly ironic that the Nazis were imprisoned in this camp by the Soviets…looks like they got a taste of their own medicine. It made me depressed to find out that this concentration camp was in the CENTER of the town! I can’t imagine living near a concentration camp and acting like it was no big deal! I would be emotionally scarred if I could see and smell the smoke coming out of the crematoriums’ chimneys. How people just continued with their lives is beyond me! It literally makes me sick to think about how these men were experimented on; I can’t even imagine the pain they endured. The picture with the skeletons on it horrified me not only because there were so many dead bodies but because there was a group of people standing right next to them like it was a regular field of grass! I was terrified to see the pictures of actual crematoriums. How on earth can people do that?!?! It makes me furious to learn that people actually died that way!
ReplyDelete- Madison Bain
I imagine that people would have thought differently of this camp than that of pure Jews because they were mostly political opponents. The prisoners would not consist of other ordinary citizens but outspoken/known enemies of Germany, so the placing of the camp in town would not be as weighty as an extermination/concentration camp of their Jewish neighbors (although they probably still would have done nothing). It is interesting, though, that the Nazis would use this camp as a kind of prototype; it was as if they though that they were preparing more efficient camps for the real enemy. This prototype idea also included the testing of diseases for cures. I hate to think that they forced the deaths of innocents to try to find a cure (how twisted!); it would be like the US testing plagues on death row prisoners. It's immoral.
ReplyDeleteThe design of the camp is rather sick. It was as if it were an amusement park of anguish. A nice place to visit and tour the torture facilities! It's rather perturbing to think of how these people were able to view these people as beasts or sacks of flesh fit for caustic finale.
Definitely the weirdest part,not surprising though, was that fact that it looked like a park. Obviously the Nazis wanted to show off the fact that they were killing Jews by placing that camp in the middle of Berlin. If that wasn't enough, they were being presented as animals, almost as if they "captured" them. That's one of the things that disturbed me about Sachsenhausen. Another is that fact that nobody seemed to mind at all, this ties into the Genovese effect. If it was in the middle of Berlin, how did nobody escape, this might be due to the fact that it was in the shape f a triangle, which allows the whole ting to be seen at once. Either way, Sachsenhausen didn't seem to be the skeleton in Berlin's closet, they flaunted it; they were proud of what they had done.
ReplyDeleteSomething that really stood out to me was the fact that after the war, the people who were imprisoned were the Nazis! Karma sucks doesn't it! It is also extremely ironic that the ones performing the torture eventually became the ones who were receiving the torture. You mentioned how there was a petting zoo on the camp grounds, and I found that very disturbing. When I read that, I obviously thought of animals being in the petting zoo, but I bet the prisoners were the ones who felt like the animals. They were being ostracized by the people they once knew as friends. They were being stared at as if they were the animals being presented. Was there a reason why there were some men and women camps but also some camps that had both men and women?
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me so much of the bystander effect. Like really people- inside the park with a lake and petting zoo is humans being tortured and killed. This drives me crazy. I did not know Joseph Stalin's son was still around during the time of the Holocaust. Honestly, I have never actually know what time period he was from. The fact that it looked like a park and had a beautiful lake was cool. If I were being killed, I would at least want to see happiness or something beautiful in the world around me. Why was there a petting zoo? Could the people around the camp go visit and pet the animals? I also wonder why the guards shot the prisoners in the neck. Why not far away? I put myself in the guards' position and can never imagine cold-blood killling a person. I would be scarred for the rest of my life, which I'm sure most are.
ReplyDelete-Mary Banks Farmer
Everyone and their mothers has already commented this, but I was horrified to hear that the camp was in the middle of a city. Before this class, I always thought concentration camps must have been well-hidden, built in the middle of nowhere, or at the very least least outside of populated cities for them to go unnoticed for so long; now I realize that they were absolutely noticed, and people simply chose to do nothing. Imagine Freedom Park here was a concentration camp and everyone in Charlotte simply sat by and let it be. I want to say I can’t believe it would happen, especially not in Germany, a country considered to have been the most civilized in the world, but at this point in the unit I unfortunately know better. The other thing I found horrifying was that the Germans were able to experiment with people’s lives like it was nothing; even CHILDREN were forcibly injected with Hepatitis under the pretense of finding a cure, and the Nazis spent all these years looking for the fastest and most efficient ways to kill these people because they honestly believed it was the right thing to do. I really do wish I could say it’s unbelievable.
ReplyDelete-Rachel Kraiss
Again, I come to this blog thinking that there weren't more horrific things to read about, and again, I'm proven wrong. One thing that really made me think of the experiences these campers had to endure is the fact the Nazis added poisonous gas to the showers. Imagine just taking a shower and suddenly you start dying. This again proves how heartless the Nazis were. But we all knew that. Another thing is that really shocked me was that this camp was in the middle of the town. This takes the bystander effect to a whole another level. They were able to see people getting executed for being who they are, but they did nothing.
DeleteABSENT/ MAKEUP WORK
ReplyDeleteAgain, I did not realize that there were camps that contained all one sex. What was the purpose for having all one sex... was it to prevent new births? I was shocked to hear that Stalin's son was held captive here. That just goes to show how much power Germany had. Did Stalin know that his son was here? Did his son die here? I found it hard to imagine that people that powerful were put in prisons; obviously there life is no more valuable than any others, but I found it interesting that people weren't more urgent when they realized that big figures were missing. Its terrible that the Nazis used psychological torture...that could almost be worse than physical torture. Im sure that many prisoners left the camps with mental problems and psychological illnesses. If it was so public, the people really had no excuse for not trying to help. Lastly, Its really sick that they made the camp look so "pretty" and like a public park...I don't know that just really gets under my skin.
Lily Jones
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this the main thing that stood out was the petting zoo and lake! Not only did they dehumanize the prisoners, but they treated them like animals. And no one stood up to the "park" that was in the center of town?! That was shocking. Seeing the trench, and reading about the showers to kill the Jews left me with an uneasy feeling. Although the entire concentration camp was filled with horrific acts done, the killing methods were a huge part of the shock I endured. The medical experiments were another act the Nazis did that made me sick. When I first read that Stalin's son was held captive here, I realized how large Germany's span of power truly was. Reading about children to young adults being used so that the Germans could remain well. With the camp only having men, that puzzled me. Hitler wanted new children to be born so that more workers could be alive, but then why did they make camps of one sex? Did the girls have their own camp? That still makes me wonder about their intentions. I can't help but wonder why the townspeople didn't try and speak out to the injustice that they SAW everyday. I know it was used to scare them, but couldn't they do SOMETHING?! With reading about the different concentration camp segments, I have realized there is truly nothing the Nazis haven't done.
After reading this entry and the Ravensbruck entry, I have learned that the camps were not always co-ed. I wonder why there was specific ones for men and women. I am also disgusted that this camp was made to look like a park and that it included a lake and a PETTING ZOO. That is unbelievable to me. Even more disgusting is the fact that people were sent to the doctor for "examinations", but they ended up being shot. I thought this was terribly surprising, and then I read the part showers having gas mixed into the water. My mouth dropped open in shock. I also agree with Lucy's point above. After reading each one of these entries, I am more surprised and disgusted than the one before.
ReplyDeleteA petting zoo? Really? How could these crazies treat people like this?? I can't believe that it was known to the German Citizens! How could they know and not even try to help the prisoners. They wouldn't dare risk their lives for others. The poor kids had to be injected with hepatitis for the SS officers? The kids went through hell for the health of the officers, yet they were still tortured. I'm very curious as to why it was shaped as a triangle, other than the fact that there was a watch over.
ReplyDeleteChrysoula Xyrafakis
The main thing that shocked me was the fact that this camp was made to look like a park. I feel as if this was to make the "prisoners" feel trapped and to create nightmares for the future. Maybe it was to make the guards feel better? Also, what idiot guard would drown someone in a room full of his friends? Did they feel so confident about their superiority that they would do this to show power? also surprised me that the Nazis had co-ed camps. I never have thought about this before.
ReplyDeleteIt gets on my very last nerve knowing that the townspeople KNEW that there was a concentration camp full of people dying EVERY DAY and did not try to do ANYTHING to stop it! That is like how the UNITED STATES new that the Concentration Camps were going on and did NOTHING about it. Oh the nerve! They even had a PETTING ZOO?! Are you kidding me!?! These are people not animals! I cannot believe they had those young boys not only be infected with hepatitis but be killed right after to improve the health of the people ignoring the working death camp right in the middle of their city.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy how many people were in each barrack and how little time they had to get ready every morning. It's also horrible how those Nazis would drown the Jews sometimes in the foot washes. That is so senseless and awful!!! If I were one of those Jews, I would have been scared to death, literally, from the fear of being killed or drowned unexpectedly. It's also how incredible how little people in the concentration camps (or what I assumed to be concentration camps) were Jews. I expected it to be the other way around-with 91% of the prisoners being Jews and the other 20% being foreign prisoners.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not believing that any of this happened while people knew. How? It was disguised as a park, but people still knew? Were the bystanders afraid to get involved because they saw what could possibly happen to them? Or did they not care? Unfortunately, we will never know. I just need everyone to be educated on this topic so it won't ever happen again. Judaism is not a race. It is a religion.
ReplyDeleteIt is disgusting to me how much these innocent people were treated like animals. They were literally used as guinea pigs to see if doctors could find a cure for the germans. Also, how on earth do they think it's okay to have a concentration camp in the middle of town....(even though there shouldn't be any in the first place) This is a perfect example of bystanders because people just walk by and pay no mind to the fact that these people are being MURDERED. I wonder if any german ever had the courage to try and do something about it, even if anyone did do something, it obviously didn't work. There was no hope trying to fight against the Nazis.
ReplyDeleteI got the chills when I enlarged the photo and realized what they were standing next to, as if it was any other day in the park. And how the camp was in the middle of a town, with people who knew, and could have said something. I can understand how they could have been to scared to speak up, and risk being put in the camp. But it also just comes to show how much power and control the SS had over the people.
ReplyDeleteWhile looking though the pictures it left me stunned with the one to enlarge. They forced Their prisoners to stand next to the bodies of people they may of knew. While it may of been a good thing that they wanted to find a cure to hepatitis, it was brutal just to bring some people in and just shoot them. The worst part is that Nazis Used them as human test subjects for there gas chambers and to find a cure. It goes to show what one person can do to an entire nation.
ReplyDeleteI hate how this camp was not hidden and everyone around them knew what and where it was. Yet, no one helped the poor, innocent people being tortured and killed. Also, I can't believe that they made the camp look like a park and even had a petting zoo. Maybe they did that so the people who saw it wouldn't think it was a bad place. Another thing I read that I hated was how the nazis used the "prisoners" as rats to find cures. It disgusts me how they would trick the Jews and other people that they were getting a check up but just shot them with Hepatitis. Looking at the washroom picture amazed me because i can't imagine how they fit up to 400 men in that little room. I still don't understand how one person caused this whole mess that killed millions upon millions of innocent people.
ReplyDeleteIt baffles me how senseless this was. I'm so perplexed as to why people could do this and why people would let that happen. It isn't that people didn't know about it. They chose to look the other way. I hate that they valued some lives more than others, and similar things like that still happen today. It is so twisted that guards would drown the victims with no reason. Why? That's all that is going through my head. I was looking a the picture of the trench where people were shot and hanged, and it hit me that you were standing in the exact spot where so many people were tortured. The same spot where brutal guards showed no sense of humanity and respect. It is so mind blowing to think that anyone of us could have been in their shoes as a victim, guard, bystander, or someone who helped. Hell, one of us could have been Hitler himself. I hope that no one finds themselves tapping into the same potential for hate and violence that Hitler and his followers did.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I learn something completely new every time I read your blog. I had no idea there was a camp centered in a town. That is crazy to me that citizens stood by and lived in such a place. Whether they were afraid or not, they still stood by. The fact that a petting zoo was around is horrific. How could people even think about entertaining themselves when genocide and murder was going on. I can't even imagine living by and not saying anything. Where was the humanity? Where was the outcry? I also was not aware of the experiments that were done on the "prisoners". It is even more inhumane to inject humans with disease like they are lab mice. They were literally treated like animals.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that really disgusts me is the experiments Nazis would do on those in the concentration camps. The fact that they used those they held captive to find a cure for a disease is so sick. It is already bad enough that they didn't feed the prisoners, worked them to death, and "selected" people to die in gas chambers. Experimentation is a whole new level of inhumane to me, and makes me think of the animal diction Simon Wiesenthal uses in The Sunflower. The people in concentration camps were treated like animals in every way possible, and the fact that a human could do this to another human is sickening. In addition, I am so disgusted at the idea that this concentration camp was in the middle of town and people were made afraid of it rather than standing up against it. The thing that is sad is that I'm not even that shocked that the German people were turning a blind eye to the camp because it seems to be such a recurring theme. They looked away so that they wouldn't get hurt themselves, which is so immoral in my eyes. It makes me rethink my disagreement with the idea that people help those close to home rather than those far away because clearly the German people that supported the Nazis were only looking out for themselves, even when concentration camps and death were staring them right in the face.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say from this article is HOW DID THEY NOT KNOWWWWW?!? The camp was actually set up to look like a park in the middle of town and was visible to all the citizens. There was no way that the people didn't know what was happening, after seeing this image I can easily say that "I didn't know" is not an excuse. Then the way the Russians tried to bomb the camp to cover it up was just disgusting. What is even the point?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me that they bothered to separate camps by gender. The prisoners were in all likelihood going to be killed, it seems like a waste of effort. The camp being in the center to scare people was probably much more effective than most tactics, as rumors were sure to be spread. Its awful that they experimented on young boys. Human lives being treated like a science toy. I'm glad the people wanted it preserved, otherwise we wouldn't get to see it with our own eyes.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI chuckled at the fact that the Nazis took care of the Russian prisoners by a “shot in the back of their necks.” The reason I felt this was comedic was because as bad as this was it was one of the more human actions the Nazis took. This just goes to show how savage and despicable the Nazis were. I also wondered why they chose to use “boys between 8-23,” I would think that they would’ve wanted the younger ones for hard labor. I also wanted to know if the picture with the bones spread out was during the war or after? If it was during the war I wonder why they decided to space out the bones in a orderly fashion. My guess if this was taken during the war was either to show power or to play a sociological war with the prisoners.-Cameron Wakefield
Everything about this is sickening. I am slightly curious about the reasons behind making the camp look like a park. You mentioned that it was "A form of psychological torture," but how so? It is also disheartening to know that all those people knew about the camp yet did nothing. I wonder if any of them actually did help. I'd love to hear their stories.
ReplyDelete-Llanina Gomez-Goldberg
I am going to feel very embarrassed if you meant to say that they had a petting zoo and a lake as a joke. If so, I did not pick up on it. It is so incredibly ironic to have such horrendous acts being committed in such a seemingly cheerful place. I wonder if they decided to make it seem cheerful to make the Germans admire the work of the Nazis. If they were aware that this was a concentration camp, the petting zoo and lake must have led the people to believe that the Nazis work was good for the German people. This is not the only stark example of irony in this post. They imprisoned Nazis there after the war! It must have made them think very, very differently after going through some of the experiences that those who they had previously imprisoned went through.
ReplyDeleteI never really realized how many bystanders there were during these times. You would think with such immoral acts happening that people would want to stop them. Because this concentration camp was in the middle of the city, everyone could see what was really going on. Seeing this made the people scared, and it shut there mouths. Being killed in a gas chamber is probably the worst way to die. Especially since the Nazis told the Jews that they were going to "take a shower". It makes me ill to the stomach thinking about how horribly they were treated in the camps. I'm not sure if what I am seeing is right, but I am pretty sure that in one of the photos there are many skeletons on the ground. I so, that is extremely sad and awful. On the other hand, I like how the Jews preserved the crematoria areas so that the truth about these tragic times could be known. It is important for us to know the truth because we need to know how wrong this was.
ReplyDeleteThat is horrible. To make it look like a friendly park in the middle of town. But really it is not friendly at all. People are murdered and tortured inside there daily. That is very interesting but also completely horrible. To think that they were finding the best and most efficient ways to kill human beings is horrible. It's like they are rats cockroaches to them.
ReplyDeleteUpon reading this I began to think of an extremely hidden concentration camp in the middle of the woods, but was out in the open. Whoever built this camp to look like a park with a f-ing petting zoo needs a huge beating or slapping. That's just completely cruel. I can't believe that all these normal German civilians could be so brainwashed.
ReplyDeleteWho in their right mind would actually go to a "petting zoo" for The Jewish victims of the holocaust. I would probably be put in there fro fighting a Nazi fro their cruelty and just everything. I have barely any words for this because all of our blogs have shocked me somuch.
- Hannah Kocsis
I did not realize that they had all men or all women concentration camps. I am confused why there was a petting zoo and a lake. Did they want people to think that they weren't the bad guys or that they weren't doing anything bad? It is awful that kids were used as an experiment. They got a disease just for an experiment, then they got killed. That is awful and no point to it. They killed people for experiments, which is the worst thing ever. They were awful people, and all they did was torture people.
ReplyDeleteI think it's crazy how the Soviet's used the concentration camp on the Nazi's after they were the ones who were being imprisoned. Ironic, right? I also am shocked that the people of the town knew what was going on, but didn't bother to stop it. They accepted the Jews as the victim and although they knew it wasn't right, they did not feel the need to help. I also think it's sad how they made it seem better than it was by putting a petting zoo in it and making it look like a park. And the medical experimenting, what the heck! This is inhumane and quite disturbing.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the camp was in the middle of town really makes me sick. Plus , the residence in that town had no BALLS to tell someone of these unspeakable, inhumane acts really make the whole situation worse. One thing that the Nazis did that I couldn’t imagining doing to someone is treating them like animals. I mean come on, a f****** petting zoo, now that's repulsive. When I read the part of the SS “testing” little boys/young adults, injecting them with hepatitis, just find a cure… that makes me sick. These are human beings not guinea pigs for christ sakes. For me, one of the most powerful photos in the blog is the trench one. Just thinking about all the people that died there really gives me chills. When I was done reading this, I went back the the photo of the washroom and just closed my eyes. I can't even imagine that many people cramped together in that small, confined space.
ReplyDeleteXan Brien
ReplyDeleteThe fact the the camp was shaped like a triangle and was in the middle of the town freaks me out. I had no idea that the Nazis did experiments on people! I knew they treated them like animals but not as lab rats. Also making the men all wash up in those small rooms is really sad. And the fact the some SS guards drowned Jews in there is even worse. The gas showers is terrible too. I didn't know that the Nazis imprisoned Soviets too. And Im glad the Soviets but the Nazis in the camps to make them feel the pain after the war was over.
I think it is, I don't want to say smart because I feel like that is saying what the nazis did was good, but interesting that the Nazis put the camp in the shape of a triangle so they could see everything. The fact that the Nazis did experiment on their "prisoners" honestly scares me. I thin k it is interesting that the jews wanted to keep the prison in place and not destroy it.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, on every single one of these blogs I just want to just ask "why?" but we do not know exactly what went through everyone's minds during these events. The civilians knew exactly what was going on inside of the camp and they chose to keep their mouths shut even though they knew what was morally right. Something that I found interesting was that the Nazis were also held captive in that same camp where they held the Jews.
ReplyDeleteJordan Morris
I have never experienced heart ache like the people of this camp must have. Since the citizens could onlook the camp i cannot understand why someone wouldn't speak up and tell someone about the horrible acts taking place. I mean come on!!! How could you not send a letter or leave the country to tell someone about these camps so they can stop what is going on. Seeing the picture of the trenches makes me weak to my stomach imagining the thousands of people that were ruthlessly slaughtered in that deep hole of death. The fact they actually put a petting zoo inside a concentration camp makes me angry. How can you compare human lives to those of animals? These people were human and each one had a story.
ReplyDelete-Brady
ReplyDeleteI thought it made sense that they put the German’s opponents in the camps because it was originally “meant” for them to keep there, when most of the real plans for the concentration camps was to keep the Jews in the camp. I was surprised when I read that only 20% of the camp were Jews! The whole plan for Hitler was to kill all of the Jews, yet the majority of the people in this camp were not Jews! I was upset when I read that the camp was in the middle of a town! I can imagine a man going to work and seeing all of these men in a block standing in striped clothes waiting to be either killed or worked to death! I would have to move because I would not be okay with every day waking up and seeing what happens to the people in the camps and the fear of me or my family being next.
The fact that the camp looks like a park is just deplorable, i mean i get the fact that the townspeople needed some like excuse to call it but putting in a lake and a petting zoo all just to torture and kill people. I probably bet it was better then Auschwitz.But disguising it as something with a positive connotation is honestly just discusting that they discuised a death camp as a park. And the fact that this death camp didn't even have a bunch of Jews in it. And that the whole place is a complete physiological torture center is even more messed up because in their mind they think parks are good places and then they get worked to death and killed and its just sad what they had to go through for so long with no one coming to their aid.
ReplyDeleteSachsenhausen was quite interesting to me. The fact that it only consisted of men didn't really surprise me for some reason. What really surprised me was that it was bigger than Ravensbrueck. How can a concentration camp be that big? This camp arrested a few Jews but it decreased as the Jews were sent to Poland. The camp only consisted of 20% Jews which is a hue shocker to me. This camp wasn't hidden like many of the other camps which makes me wonder why no one did anything. It was in the center of the town which I feel is quite scary. The camp looked like a park but it wasn’t fun. It's scary how they shot the prisoners before they discovered gas chambers.
ReplyDeleteSachsenhausen (Saxon's house) from what you are saying is one of the original concentration camps and it is a hard pill to swallow that they already had mass murder in mind. The remains of the crematorium is a glimpse of one of humanity's darkest hours. I did not know one of Joseph Stalin's sons were sent to a camp and I would like to know which son. Also I think that 91% were foreign prisoners and 11% of the 91% were Jewish which leaves 9% to be non foreign Jewish people. It is understandable to see why the citizens did not become upstanders. Because the Jews were former citizens and the townspeople saw how little remorse and mercy the nazis treated them and they probably thought that it could be them inside of they attempted to do something. People always say it is easier to rule with fear than with love and Hitler took that to heart and carried it out to the letter.
ReplyDelete-Mitchell
How can this camp not be bigger than Ravensbruck? This one however wasn’t the same “effect” so to speak. While Ravensbruck was the more hidden, less-heard of camp. Sachsenhausen seemed to just be intimidating. There it stood in the middle of a town almost as if it were saying, “Try me. See what happens”. It's understandable though, I mean if you went against the Nazis you’d be imprisoned just like them. In a lot of cases I can see people not wanting to risk helping at their own expense. Once again we see the cruelty of kids being used as test subjects. Not much of a surprise considering we see Mangela killing thousands for experiments that surely won’t work. My last thing is how can the people shooting live with themselves? It's not like today were everyone shoots blanks until one hits. It's putting a gun to someone’s neck and knowing you have to rob them of the most important thing they have. I honestly don’t know how you can be persuaded to do this.
ReplyDeleteThis camp was an all men camp and was bigger than Ravensbruck. I was surprised when i saw that Josef Stalin's son was held in the camp. The nazis were so despicable that they put a petting zoo in the camp. That alone gets me heated. They made the camp look like a park. That is just to make a fool out of the jews. And lastly, The camp was in the middle of the town so everyone could see it. The nazis were so cruel that they used children as test subjects. The worst part is that they pretended to check on them and they shot them in the back of the neck. How could someone do something this inhuman. How can the nazis live with themselves after killing so many harmless people? I wouldn't be able to shoot a mouse.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that this camp was placed in the center of the town is sickening. Hundreds of Germans saw the horrors that took place behind the walls but failed to stand up for what is right. I get that they were probably scared to but you still have to think that at least a small group of people would have the morality to step in. This is a great example of the effect bystanders can have on the victim. I also found it interesting how Stalin's son was held in this camp. It is absolutely vile how the Nazis used the kids as experiment subjects. No human should be the focus of an experiment without the consent of that person. Also, the experiments that they were performing on the kids such as injecting them with Hepatitis is awful. This would result in only suffering for the individuals tested on. The actions of the Nazis truly show how beastly and inhumane some humans could be.
ReplyDeleteI found it extremely weird that Sachsenhausen was
ReplyDeleteIn the middle of the town and looked like a park. This camp being in Berlin creeped me out. I can’t imagine a camp in the middle of Charlotte haunting all of the free people outside of it. All of the experiments in Sachsenhausen remind me of how bad the Nazis really were. I can’t believe they tried to cure an incurable disease. This camp proved that the Nazis really hated more than the jews. A large concentration camp hold eighty percent foreigners and only twenty percent of jewish people? This threw me off completely. How could the Nazis be so selfish and rash? The methods of murdering these people seems more cruel than other camps. They infused the gas within the shower. This must’ve been a way to get the people into the chambers easier. The photos were very informational. I saw a lot about Sachsenhausen within only 7 photos.
This one didn’t hit me as hard as the others. The only thing that absolutely shocked me was how they practically made this camp into a lovely park with a lake and a petting zoo. How on earth could someone create a joyful place in the midst of devilish torture and murder. How this was the true test site for all the beginning plans for their mass murder was very “how on earth”, they took the first innocent men and injected them or gasses them as an experiment for all the others who were going to die. They were the guinea pigs. How did the surrounding civilians of the city the camp was centered in also not alert outer authorities? They had to know something was not right.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to learn that this camp was not hidden but in the middle of the town so everyone could see it. I guess the Nazis really wanted to send a message to the German people. I'm so used to most of the Germans being bystanders whether there was a camp in the middle of their town or not; the Germans would still act like it wasn't their problem, and no matter what, the Germans thought they shouldn't help the Jews. When you said they created a hospital just to serve as a place to do experiments, I wasn't surprised because there's so much of that in the Nazi regime, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's completely twisted and screwed up. That's exactly what I think. I think the Nazis are beyond messed up mentally and the world should have punished each and every one.
ReplyDeleteThis one didn’t surprise me as much as the others did. Though, I found it very surprising that this camp looked like a park. It’s crazy to me that German people walked passed the camp every day watching the Nazis do all of the cruel things that they did. I can’t imagine walking through downtown Charlotte watching someone be killed and no one caring about it. I also find it crazy that no one stepped up. Especially since the camp was in the middle of a town, you would expect for some people to try and stop it. They thought that making the camp seem like a park gave it a better image, but that wasn’t the case at all. The thought of putting a camp in the middle of a town is disgusting to me. I would never be able to live life walking through town seeing people killed and tortured. I don’t know how people did it and the Nazis were very cruel for this.
ReplyDeleteReading this I wondered lots of things, one being why the camp was the shape of a triangle. Did this have a more significant meaning. I think it’s very interesting that this camp was In the middle of town and portrayed to be like a park. If I lived in that town I would be creeped out and scared. If I were a prisoner of this camp I think that I would be so embarrassed, but maybe embarrassed isn't the word because their lives had no meaning anymore. Seeing the picture of the washroom and reading the caption scared me. How can 400 people fit in that tiny room at once? The worst part is that the SS officers torture carried into this simple daily routine. I can’t imagine being drowned in front of all the other prisoners after I had just woken up. The way these “prisoners” were treated should never, ever happen again.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part about reading this was finding out about how the camp was located directly in the center of town. The fact that people could see this huge concentration camp created to hold “enemies” to the Nazis is insane! The camp would strike fear into the people. It would make it so they wouldn’t act out against the Nazis, or they would end up in the “petting zoo.” The sheer size of the camp also shocked me. When reading about how it was even bigger than Ravensbruek was interesting, especially since it was located in the center of town. I feel this camp was a symbol from the Nazis to the people. They were telling and showing them their power, and that it would be useless to try and fight back. I feel that this, to some extent, is why the citizens did not come forward. Why would the citizens even try to come forward when they could stay in the safety of their home if they just listened to what the Nazis would say?
ReplyDeleteNowadays, there are so many debates regarding the ethics of using animals as test subjects for advances in medicine, technology, and education, yet back then, the Nazis took countless men, women, and children and used them in experimentation processes, some of which were to enable advancements that we currently seek today. Other examples of experimentation were just for the purpose of curiosity, efficiency in slaughtering people, or even fun. Also, the fact that they would build a seemingly normal, civilized “public area“ so tantalizingly close to all of the prisoners is a twisted and cruel form of psychological abuse. Yet again, I find it ironic that a place that we commonly know and utilize to heal and rehabilitate people was built in a concentration camp solely for the purpose of experimentation and torture. It sickens me that human beings are capable of possessing such sadistic morals and acting upon them as if it were a walk in the park.
ReplyDelete-Maya M
I was shocked to read that the concentration camps were designed to look like parks. I was also completely shocked that it was in the middle of a town! I can’t get over how everyone knew that it was a concentration camp, and still the townspeople did nothing about it. It’s awful to hear how they treated them like lab rats in the hospitals to find a cure for a disease. How could humans do that to their own kind...I can’t even imagine. Although we have been learning a lot about the Holocaust we haven't been many visuals so it was nice and interesting to see some pictures that you had taken.
ReplyDelete-Ashley LeBlanc
The camps that were in use were inhumane, they not only murdered people, the officers also torchered the victims who occupied the space of the camp. Because of this i am rooting for the Soviets. Violence is not always the answer, but sometimes it is easier to kill then forgive, and forget. In the case of the Soviets i believe they had the right to use the camps to contain imprisoned nazis, seeing as Nazis were the ones who controlled them before. It’s crazy to think that over 30,000 Jews were being transported at a time, between one camp to another ultimately until their deaths. And on top of this the camps were not even hidden, the citizens of these areas saw what was happening and allowed it to continue.These types of situations really shed light to life's many amenities, and how you should use every viable resource you were blessed with.
ReplyDeleteReading your blog prompted me to research Niemoller, the prominent outspoken protestant pastor | political activist against Hitler, who spent seven years in a Sachsenhausen and is best remembered for a poem who wrote while held as a prisoner in the concentration.
ReplyDelete"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
His last line resonate the spirit of a true activist, giving his life in service of his calling.
The fact that the Nazi's used war prisoners as a human guinea pig is yet another illustration of how self serving their mentality was and there extreme disregard for human life.
May humanity never stoop to depts of "looking for more efficient and quicker methods to kill people ... In Sachsenhausen, gas was mixed with the water in showers in 1943."
Again with the irony. Making the camp look like a park in the middle of the town where the people Knew and were just AFRAID is sickening. The thought of his much torture and mind games this must have created for the 'prisoners' is terrible. This alone is terrible, but to add onto it by having a petting zoo and a lake makes it sound like a crazy messed up fair of some sorts. It almost makes me think that the animals were there to symbolism themselves. The animals represented them. Trapped and being watched from the outside of walls or gates.
ReplyDeleteLooking through the pictures, the skeleton one caught my eye. The amount of bones and dead bodies just being disregarded and disrespected like that makes me upset and angry. It just isn't right. We are all human and no human should disrespect another human like they had done.
I thought this blog post was very informative, yet it didn’t shock me as much as the other two did. Yes they if also have killings here but for some reason I don’t feel the way I did for the other two posts. The most shocking about this post was that the camp was right in the dead center of town. I would not want to be walking around my town and then turn a corner to see a camp where people were being murdered at. As I am thinking why didn’t some of the Germans help them escape I came up with an answer. I thought that if they helped out they would be killed by the officer in the tower. I know as much as I would like to help I would rather stay alive and yes that is selfish and rude but it is the truth. Some Germans were probably thinking that the jews should die because it’s what Hitler wants, but they don’t deserve to die. It’s just cruel that they would murder the men out in public like that. -Riley Dilsworth
ReplyDeleteThomas Simmons
ReplyDeleteThis blog didn’t impact me as hard as the other ones. It was so ironic that a petting zoo that made some many people happy was turned into murder and torture place. Also, why was the place in the shape of triangle. It was so sad that these people were the Germans test subjects. Then the Germans used the Jews to see if gas would and gas chambers would work. How could they fit so many people in that one chamber. I could not go in these gas chambers and know that I’m going to die. I could not mentally prepare myself for that. Also, the worse way to die is suffocation. I think no one should be treated like this or be killed, because they believe in something different. It still happens today!
This was absolutely horrifying to read about! They put a camp in the middle of a town for everyone to see. That is such an awful way to scare people. The townspeople were already terrified of being deported, but now, the threat was in front of their face every single day. In addition to that, it was crazy to learn that this camp was not only just for men, but that the majority of the prisoners were not even Jewish! I knew coming into this unit that it wasn't just the Jews who were targeted, but I did know that it was mostly Jews. However, this camp has proved me wrong. While, yes, more Jews fell victim than any other group of people, this camp proved that they weren't the only big group of victims. I also thought it was crazy that the SS brought prisoners to the hospital just to be shot the next day. That seems crazy to me, and somewhat counterproductive. Why go through the trouble of transferring the prisoners to the hospitals, if they are just going to kill them. This may sound insensitive, and I definitely don't want it to, but I guess i’m just confused by it.
ReplyDelete- Kyla Hannan
It was horrible to read that this concentration camp was in the middle of a highly populated town, yet no one saw any issue with it. And if they did they did not step forward. They really presented this camp as if it were a park?! That is unbelievable. I cannot imagine going outside and having a concentration camp virtually in my backyard. It is disgusting that none of the citizens did anything. Also, the fact that so called “doctors” used Jewish people to experiment on!! They used them as if they were rats. It is absolutely horrifying what these doctors would do to boys that were as young as 8 years old. Again, seeing the pictures of this place made me feel awful. I wish that the Nazis that did these horrible things to innocent people had all gotten the justice they deserved. It is unbelievable to think that some of them escaped, and that there are still nazis that exist to this day. -Sophia R
ReplyDeleteNot sure if it was pointed out or specified later on but I’m still confused on the reason the camps were made up of ninety one percent prisoners, and twenty percent Jews, leaving it short of one hundred percent. Anyway I was shocked as I was informed how much of a normal thing this was in the center of town. I can't wrap my mind on the fact there was petting Zoos and a lake surrounding it almost portraying these as if they were supposed to be entertainment. With my current knowledge of the Nazi’s views on Jews, I wasn’t very surprised to see that this concentration camp was almost put up like a park. Although I am terribly disappointed, I am not shocked to see the hate and cruelty the Nazi’s demonstrated on the Jews. I think the Kristallnacht movement added fuel to the fire only giving Hitler more of the opportunity to justify his killings of what turned out to be millions. I thought it was interesting to find out that the man who wrote the famous poem “Last They Came For Me,” was housed in this specific camp.
ReplyDelete- Moose M. III
When reading this article, I was confused on many things. First of all, why would the Nazis waste so much money on putting a lake and a petting zoo inside of the concentration camp? Even if it was for psychological torture, I don’t see how these two things were meant to hurt them. Although, the petting zoo may be torture because the Jews could look at the animals and see how they were trapped and treated like animals. Something else that did not make sense to me was how the Nazis brought the people who they wanted to execute into a doctors office, pretended to examine them, and then shot them. Since they were already being blatant about their abuse by putting the people inside of a concentration camp, I wonder why they felt they had to hide killing. The last thing inside of your blog that I want to talk about is how they incorporated gas into the showers in the concentration camp. I have heard that about another concentration camp and I think it is extremely cruel, just as pretending to give an examination and then shoot someone, that they would pretend that the people were getting a shower, and then they just got gassed.
ReplyDeleteDoing experiments on better ways to gas people sounds so torturous. It sounds like mixing the gas into water might make it less strong, so it would take longer for them to die. If they never completely died from the gas because it was not concentrated enough would be worse than the gas just killing you immediately. I'm not sure if the gas they used as other camps killed you quickly or not, but at least it was not a new test.
ReplyDeleteI guess I have no point of reference, but I can't imagine 400 people in that washing room. It seems like even 100 would not fit. It seems like most of them would not get clean. Especially during colder months, I feel like you would not want to use it because there would be no way to dry off or stay warm after. Your feet would get so cold after getting them wet in that fountain. I actually never really thought about trying to stay clean in a camp. I guess food and warmth were high priorities.
Moriah Campbell
Delete- Clay Tobin
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this article I was first taken back by the fact that they somehow had Stalin's son captured. I was surprised by this because one would think that someone apart of the USSR's first family could become captured by the enemy. In my reading I also connected Niemoller to his very empowering poem. I also was at first surprised by the zoo and lake in the concentration camp, but then I just thought for a second and it made total sense because they were totally focused on the extermination of the Jews and do it efficiently so lets wear down their spirit to make them easier to deal with. I was surprised that the Soviets used the camp for prisoners and didn't just shoot the Nazis in there vicotious state after conquering Berlin. The reason for using the shower for the gas also made sense to me because they probaably wanted to not have to deal with all of there prisoners going crazy knowing they were walking to there deaths instead of just taking a shower. I also remember something like that happening in The Boy In The Striped Pajamas when they thought they were going in for a shower, but were actually gassed through the shower.
Many of the things that surprised me about Ravensbruck also surprised me in this article. Firstly, I was surprised that they designed the camp to look like a park. It just seems cruel to make places where such ugly things happen to look so pretty. It also surprised me that only 20% of the prisoners were Jews. Again, when I’ve learned about the Holocaust in the past I only ever learned about the Jews being persecuted. It shocks me that the atrocities committed against the Jews were only 20% of the abominations executed in this camp. It also shocked me that this camp was in plain sight. First of all, I would have thought that since they were doing such terrible things, they would want to remain hidden. Second, if the people in the town could clearly see what was going on, it astounds me that none of them did anything to help. Another thing that stood out to me in this article was the experiments that they did. It’s terrible that they put gas into the water for the showers, I would have thought that the Nazis would at least let the prisoners shower safely. I was also appalled at the fact that they used children as tests for their medicine. There is enough controversy now about whether or not it’s ethical to perform such tests on animals, the fact that these people were doing such things on other humans shocks me. It also amazes me that nobody did anything to stop this inhumane act.
ReplyDeleteClaire Porier
One piece of information from the blog that I found really interesting was the fact that this concentration camp was in the middle of the town. I was really shocked that people could see what was going on inside the camp, but they did not do anything about it. It made me think back to the conversation we had in class about why bystanders did not do anything about the holocaust. I knew that one reason would be fear, as you said, but I also thought that they could have wanted this to happen to the people in the concentration camp due to hate. I was also moved by the pictures you included. It was very disturbing to see the place where so many people died in the most horrific ways for being opponents of the government or because of the religion they practiced. It was also crazy to think about how that place would be the thing those people would see before leaving this Earth forever. Another photograph that was upsetting was the one of the water basin. It was disconcerting to think about how they would force that many men into that small of a space, and that the SS guards would shoot them for doing something as simple as washing their feet.
ReplyDeleteHalsey Patrick
I was shocked to learn that Stalin’s son and a Pastor were imprisoned. I also found it strange and ironic that the Soviets used the camp to imprison Nazis after they had just been imprisoned in the same place. The fact about this camp being central adds onto the argument that the Germans “didn’t know.” It’s hard to believe that people didn’t know about something that is not hidden. It’s also frustrating to hear again that they were scared to say anything especially since it was right in front of their eyes. The hospital and experimenting made me think about Josef Mengele. I can’t imagine doing that because it is so disturbing and wrong. The one picture of the trench made me make the connection to Night when Elie described the hangings that happened too frequently. It brought back the solemn and grave emotions.
ReplyDeleteElla Page
Reading about Sachsenhausen made me sick. The fact that they used prisoners to do medical experiments was awful, and the medical experiments were only benefiting the Germans, not the Jews. They also executed people by shooting them, but they created a gas chamber to test out ways of killing people faster. The fact that the Nazis “needed” more efficient ways to kill people is absurd. And one of the worst parts about this camp was that it was in the middle of town for all of the Germans to admire. Something that was interesting is that some very notable people were held in the concentration camp including Stalin’s son and Pastor Niemoller. Pastor Niemoller’s poem “Last they came for me” is something that speaks to me a lot. The poem shows that nobody wanted to help the Jews and defeat the Nazis until the Nazis did something bad to their country. If other countries came to defeat the Nazis earlier maybe much less of these awful things would have occured.
ReplyDelete- mac patterson
Sachsenhausen is the male version of Ravensbruck except for a lot deadlier. The last two photos disgusted me. It looked like a mass grave that was horribly covered. Or were the bodies out to warn the other "prisoners." I was again surprised that the camp did not hold mostly Jews, only about 20%. The fact that the "hospital" was a lab to cure Hepatitis. Also, there was a petting zoo. What the heck? Why? What was the point of making Sachsenhausen seem like a park? I understand the psychological torture, but I feel like there was something else.
ReplyDelete- Katy Masotti
As I read more and more of these blogs, there's a growing theme of bystanders staying silent and perpetrators finding new ways to test morality. What upsets me most is that the bystanders are starting to shock me more than the Nazis themselves. There were so many opportunities to prevent the hangings, experiments, and dehumanization. An effort could have at least been made by anyone, especially power structures. Again, the photographs continue to evoke both confusion and horror. It's so hard to believe that humanity managed to stray so far from the foundation of goodness and truth. It's even more difficult to have to acknowledge that in 2018 governments and citizens are continuing discrimination against minorities. I realize I can't stay silent on issues that are important to me because these blogs show how far injustice can permeate the system.
ReplyDeleteAnnie Vedder
This post left me reeling from the brutal nature of the Nazis. The fact that they displayed the camp as an attraction is unfathomable. The Nazis had no war honor as they disrespected Jews, war prisoners, and used the camp as a deterrent to people intending to act out against them. Additionally, I don’t understand how they could find the cruelty in themselves to inject an infection into a person for an experiment. I can’t believe the Nazis used their prisoners to find cures for drugs. With the number of people in the camp, it is likely that they harmed more war prisoners than Jews. This camp is a primary example of the relentless nature of the Nazis as it demonstrates that they were cruel to everybody, not just the Jews. I also don’t understand the point of having a petting zoo and lake in the camp when all the prisoners were nearly worked to death, tortured, or directly killed in mass executions.
ReplyDeleteOkay so like...WHAT? The part of the Holocaust that always resonates with me is not the fact that the S.S. officers were inhumane when they killed the Jews. It's the fact that everyone played physiological tricks on the Jews. I just don't know how someone couldn't go crazy from all of it! I mean, you would pretend to examine someone's neck and then kill them. Seriously, did you have to do that? Going back to another post, the S.S. officers were not forced to do the things that they did. They weren't even forced to murder. That's why one cannot say that the Nazis were forced to do what they need to do. Some of them decided to pick even more humiliating ways of dying. Seriously, that is just really messed up. I notice that a lot of people on this blog couldn't believe the concentration camp was in the center of town. However, I could totally believe this. The camp incited fear in the townspeople because they knew that if they resisted, they would end up in the camp. The fact that all the horrors of the camp were out in the open were used as weapons against the people. It is honestly a very clever way of keeping everyone in line. I also appreciated how the prisoners wanted the crematorium to be unharmed so that it could serve as evidence of the Nazis' horrors. It is true, pictures of these killing machines today remind us the terrible things that the Nazis did.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this blog, I remembered that before I took this class I believed that these concentration camps were hidden. It was a common misconception that nobody in Germany knew about these camps… because they did! In this case, the disgusting concentration camp was in the middle of the town and was disguised as a park! Another part of this blog that terrified me was that SS guards are known to have drowned prisoners in the basin for simply washing their feet. I can't even comprehend the horror of friends and family watching a guard murder a person for washing their feet. Never will I be able to register how it is possible for a human to have that much hate and anger driven towards another human.
ReplyDelete-Sophie Slayden
Absolutely disgusting that the Nazis made this camp out in thee center of the town so everyone can see. I always thought they didn't want people to know about what they were doing. I wonder why they sometimes only made male camps and sometimes only made female camps. Probably for certain types of labor, who knows. It's horrifying to hear that the Nazis injected boys and young men with hepatitis to try and cure their people of it. I don't understand how they thought they would cure it if they were injecting people with it. I don't think they were trying to cure them at all, I think they were just trying to kill them in a slower fashion.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin
Prior to taking your class, I too believed in the common misconception that the concentration camps were hidden, and I could not believe that the Nazis placed a camp in the middle of town for all to see! I thought back to when we read "Night" and how the Nazis and Jews had to clean up the camp so that when others reached the camp, they wouldn't think the Jews were living as pigs. Additionally, the Nazis justified their actions to the townspeople, but couldn't those people see for themselves the inhumane actions of the Nazis in the camp that was placed in the middle of the town? I was especially confused as to why the Nazis did place a camp in the middle of town if that would allow everyone to witness the Nazi's hostile behavior. Furthermore, I could not believe that the Nazi's would drown Jews in the basin simply because they were washing their feet. This also brings about the question of why the Nazi's would showcase their actions to the townspeople.
ReplyDelete-Sara Trochanowski
How can they make this something like a park. This is a concentration camp and they make it look like a park just so they could torture people. That is just cruel and unjust. I think that it is really crazy how they just left it in the middle of the town. They did not put it on the outskirts of town or away from it. What shocks me even more was their reasoning for it, they just wanted to put it their to frighten the people that were living near it. The most insane part about this camp is that it was really just a camp that was an experiment for the other camps. I think that is insane because it shows how the Nazis tortured and wronged all of these people with unthinkable experiments.
ReplyDelete- Charlie Robinson
When I first read that Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp, I expected to see more persecution against the Jewish people. I was surprised to see that it was mainly for political opponents. I was also surprised that anybody related to Stalin would be allowed to stay alive in a concentration camp instead of just being killed. It made more sense to me why there were few Jews in the camp after I read why they were deported. At this point, it almost made sense to me. I think I’m becoming too desensitized to this content. It did bring me some joy to see that Nazis ended up being imprisoned there after the war. Putting it in the center of town at first seemed like a bad plan to me. However, it is actually an ingenious strategy because it is almost impossible to escape the camp and then escape a city. Also, it is a form of propaganda against the other political ideas. I think it is horrifying that anybody would be injected with hepatitis, let alone anybody as young as 8. I wonder what became of that hospital after the war.
ReplyDelete-Nate Reiney
I’m sorry. The fact that the statistics do not add up to 100% concerns me. 91% of the camp population were foreign prisoners, and 20% were Jews. The Nazis were allegedly the “superior” race. Their math is wayyy off. 111% is 11% off from 100. Obviously they knew that the numbers were fudged, but was their reason to convince people that there was a high percentage of Jews? If that was their reasoning, they could have just switched the numbers completely because their extra 11% was not questioned too hard. It makes me mad that the Nazis were able to get away with so many things because bystanders did not question what they were doing. HOW DID THE CITIZENS NOT QUESTION THE CONCENTRATION CAMP IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR CITY. The fact that the camp sat in the middle of the city to scare the citizens is alarming. With all of the other information provided, were they even scared, or did they just look at the camp and shrug their shoulders. A recurring theme is that no matter where you put a concentration camp, the citizens surrounding the camp will not do anything to stop the camp from happening. The fact that Nazis were low enough to conduct experiments on other humans within the concentration camps is sickening. How could they not have asked themselves, “what if I was in this position?” Thank you Mrs. Stone for these blog posts. Also, thank you for taking the pictures at the camps in order to provide visualization.
ReplyDeleteElyse Duley
They always chose beautiful places to commit such horrors. Places where someone would want to be. You'd want to be believe that genocide is a "live and learn" type "mishap". Recent and ancient times show that humans never do change. We're still animals despite the civilized appearance society makes us out to be. From the Al- Alfan murders in the 80's, to the killing of the entire bloodline of the Moriori in 1835 spanning to 1935. It's all genocide. Genocide at it's finest is an art we've perfected. Apprenticed from hate and fear of things foreign and unknown. If it isn't like me something is out of place. "it" must be shot in the back of "it's neck". No names, people stripped from their identity to becomes just a pitied topic in history. La verded sige en los lugares que los muertos disean.
ReplyDeleteDavid P.III
It is terrible how the public around the camp accepted this. I know that there was the threat of being caught by the Nazis if you disagreed with what they were doing but still, you are just gonna sit back and let this happen without making the effort to try and help innocent people. However, I cannot assume that all did nothing and the fear they had without going through it myself. Another awful thing is how they injected the boys with hepatitis to “cure” it. It is sickening to think about eight and nine year old children being injected with a terrible disease all because of their beliefs. You have to be extremely messed up to do something like that. The picture that really stood out to me was the one with the men standing behind the field of bones. You could tell that this was a normal thing for them, to have to see and live with that would be terrifying.
ReplyDeleteDavid Winslow
It's ironic that the Nazis were imprisoned there after the war. It also seems odd that they had a petting zoo inside of a concentration camp. I can't imagine why the Nazis would want to encourage citizens to enter. I always thought that the Nazis hid what they were doing to their citizens, but this is the exact opposite. In The Sunflower, the citizens they passed seemed to pity the victims, so unless the citizens near Sachsenhausen were different, I wouldn't expect high attendance ratings at that petting zoo. Furthermore, petting zoos are marketed towards CHILDREN. They were encouraging parents to bring their children into the concentration camp...
ReplyDeleteAlso, for why the 91% and 20% don't add up, I would guess that they overlap. You could be a foreign prisoner and Jewish at the same time.
-Brian Ramsey
I think it is disgusting that any person would try to psycologically torture any person by labelling the concentration camp as a Zoo. I think it is even more disgusting if people participated in it. The amount of humiliation that puts on a person goes over my head because I truly do not understand what it looks or feels like. The entire camp was in the middle of the city; someone had to say something, right? I feel like this is the same thing as the woman who was murdered by a man who attacked her three times; there were like thirty-three witnesses in that case if not more. My mom told me about the case, which she learned about in law school, a few years ago, and I always wondered why nobody called the police. However, I believe that the only person who had the right to hesitate to call the police was the Jewish man, who said the last time he interacted with police he was placed in a concentration camp. The fear factor worked then because people who knew it was wrong saw the people being hung in the trench, the bones of dead Jewish people, the petting zoo, and the crematory and probably thought it would be them in the all of the situations if they stood up against the Nazis. It amazes the amount of effort to ensue fear into upstanders so they remain silent that the Nazis put into the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteRyan Szeker
It digusts me that they created the concentration camp to look like a park. As if the physical torture that the inmates had to go through was not bad enough, they had to torture them psychologically. The person who came up with the idea to make it like a park in order to torture the Inmates must have been so sick and twisted. I was also surprised to read that the majority of the inmates at this camp were not Jewish. I had always believed that the camps were predominantly Jewish, but the Nazis hatred extended to anyone who did not agree with their exact beliefs.
ReplyDelete-Jane Jeffries
91% foreign prisoners and 20% Jews; I would have thought there would be more Jews than that which really suprises me. When I read that it looked like a park and that it was in the middle of a town I was speechless. That must have really tortured the prisoners that were inside because they were so close to civilization but they couldn't leave. I wonder if any civilians tried to help prisoners escape since it was in the middle of the town. It makes me sad to think that they injected the boys with Hepatitis just to find a cure for the German citizens.
ReplyDeleteThis was the main camp for only Men and it was bigger than Ravensbruck. The prisoners were all different, 91% were foreign and 21% were Jews. The thing that shocked me the most about this particular concentration camp was that it was in the center of town to intimidate people around it. They didn’t try to hide it they used it as a scare factor. The Nazis knew how to get into the heads of the prisoners. They made it look like a park, they even had a petting zoo and a lake. They also built a hospital for experimentation. I still can’t get over the fact that they just put it in the center of town and no one cared at all.
ReplyDelete- Brad McKewon
I find it actually fitting that the Soviets kept the Nazis in their own concentration camp for years. It was also ironic and very deceiving that the camp was made to look like a park because parks are usually places of relaxation and play; which the camp was the total opposite. I really can't believe that they infected the prisoners with hepatitis because it just sounds so morbid; also i can't believe the amount of deceptiveness that the Nazis gave off such as the doctor trips and showers.
ReplyDeletethat was by Lawson Swisher
DeleteWhat really doesn't make me happy while learning about all of this is how disrespectful the Germans were. They would set this up and make it look so casual as they were doing mass killings every day like it wasn't anything. It's disgusting that they would infect Jewish boys for research because it just leads to a more painful, lasting death. All this goes to show how savage the Germans were. It was also surprising to see how little Jews there were compared to the other amount.
ReplyDelete-Carson Bahr
Perhaps my favorite quote from the Holocaust is from Pastor Marin Niemoller which sheds an essential light on the lessons we ought to have learned from the Holocaust. On the bit about statistics in the beginning. I think the confusion stems from misinterpretation of the statistics. Sure 91% were foreign and 20% were Jews but it's important to recognize that some of the foreign people could have been Jewish. Thus the statistics add up. I wonder who the Germans were trying to intimidate by having the camp in the middle of camp. The Germans? Potential dissidents? Also I think its horrendous that the camp was structured with petting zoos and was akin to a park. It's a unique form of hell for the prisoners to be in such a beautiful place but to be subject to the camps constantly. Furthermore, it's barbaric how it wasn't enough for the Nazis to kill Jews. They had to perfect the art of killing to maximize efficiency.
ReplyDelete-Ely Altman
I wonder what was going through the minds of civilians who saw this camp in the middle of their town. If I saw this I honestly wouldn't know what to do because at this point, Hitler had over thrown almost ever government in Europe. This is also the first time I am hearing of an all men concentration camp. I wonder if the men were treated more harshly in this camp than in other camps. --Marin Boulware
ReplyDeleteThis blog post resonated with me because I have also been to Sachsenhausen. Last summer, my dad, sister, and I took a day trip from Berlin and toured the concentration camp. We went inside the barracks, the watchtowers, and we were shown the crematorium. They told us that the SS officers sometimes forced the prisoners to stand outside in ranks for days even when it was freezing cold. The craziest part to me was the fact that there were normal-looking neighborhoods surrounding the camp. On one street, there was a row of houses where citizens lived; I never would have suspected that a concentration camp was just on the next street over. It still comes as a shock to me that German citizens were fully aware of the camps, yet they did absolutely nothing to try to stop the deaths of millions. It was also horrifying to me to see the crematoriums because so many innocent men were killed there.
ReplyDelete-Caroline Mecia
Since this was an all men camp and even bigger than Ravensbruck, I bet there were men in concentration camps then women.It also seems that they divided the camps based on the "crime" of the "prisoners". This camp consisted of mostly political opponents, and the Ravensbruck was a mix of a lot of different types of people.I think the placement of the camp was more than just a location, it was a statement. They put a very large camp in the middle of their capitol, that shows what the Germans were about, so to speak. The SS were incredibly disrespectful, it's like rubbing acid in a wound. It's a sad day when humans have to come up with "better" ways to kill each other in larger groups because the other way wasn't adequit enough and because the SS were becoming mentally ill.
ReplyDelete-Jayden Childress
This camp in particular I have many questions for. For example, why create the camp in the shape of a triangle? Why only put men in the camp? I had previously thought that all the concentration camps were similar or the same in many aspects but this one seems like an outlier. It is one of the only ones in the middle of a town which was interesting. I can’t imagine a concentration camp in the middle of huntersville or a smaller town like that. People's everyday lives involve walking through or around the camp to get ot destinations and it’s impossible to ignore.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of creating the camp in the fashion they did was cruel. I can't imagine walking around the camp all day long being a citizen of the town. When I enlarged the photo of all of the bone remains from the prisoners, it sent chills down my neck. I don't understand how people could be so evil to do such a thing. Also, it is extremely disturbing to me that the SS were injecting diseases into people to try and find a cure.
ReplyDeleteThe first question that popped into my head was, is there a differentiation in the treatment and style in which the men and women camps have? Secondly, why was Stalin's son placed in a concentation camp? The pictures on this post also stood out to me. It stunns me that Nais, human beings designed an entire camp with designated KILLING areas. I cannot get over the fact that this is somehing that could happen in the modern day. (Also, on a side note, I think that the 91% foreigners and 20% Jews adds up to over 100 because some foreigners may have also practiced Judaism.)
ReplyDelete-Giuli Iannitti
DeleteThe worst thing about this camp to me, is the fact that it shows just how strong the Nazis hold over German society was, and it is such a cruel punishment to be held in a prison with freedom just outside the walls and in the city, and for the everyday Germans they had to watch these people suffer, and have an inability to do anything
ReplyDelete-Filip Weil
It angers me that the camp was in the middle of the town, and the people knew it was there. I always find myself going back to the bystanders effect and this helps me see how effective it can be. This reminds me how important it is to inform the next generation. I just find it weird that a event like that can tie back to the Holocaust. Another point that I found terrible was the fact that the camp looked like a park. The concentration camp even had a petting zoo and lake to make the Jews think they were safe.
ReplyDelete-Jacob Guzi
I think it is disgusting that this camp contained a petting zoo and park. The public was allowed to interact and have fun in the park while next to them inhumane torture was taking place. This camp really showcases all the bystanders in Germany. All of the people in the town knew about the camp, and they decided that it would be a great place for a park. These people completely ignored mass murder even when it was happening right in front of their faces as they hung out and went to petting zoos. The gas experiments that were done here also repulse me. Nazis were conducting experiments on how to efficiently kill more people right next to the public, who looked in but said nothing. -Macey Smith
ReplyDeleteIt’s truly awful that Sachsenhausen was made to look like a park; it’s like the Nazis never ran out of torture methods for their victims. But even though the camp looked like a park, the citizens had to have known what was going on inside. The pleasant facade acted as another shield to German citizens, kind of like the gas chambers “protected” SS officers from nightmares. The citizens still knew they were ignoring innocent people being killed, but the illusion of the park must have given them peace of mind and was able to ease their personal guilt. As long as the citizens were personally happy, they didn’t really care about the wellbeing of others. I guess humanity is more selfish than it appears.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures also shocked me. It’s so difficult to imagine that machines would be built for the mass murder of other humans until you can see it with your own eyes. It sent chills down my spine that multiple people had put work and time towards killing innocent people. Yet again, I don’t understand how the bystander mentality took hold of everyone during such an awful time.
- Ava Clark
It's terrible how the people of Berlin were completely aware of the camp and did nothing against the Nazis. They didn't have to fight back, but they could have spoken resistance and at least protest the actions of the Nazis. It's also disgusting how the Nazis used the camp as one big euphomism towards the German people and the outside world. It's also sad how they injected the boys with hepititus just for experimentation was terrible. Giving them an incurable, lifelong disease is terrible and the Nazis never thought of the consequences. Taylor Fleeman
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the camps were so public and yet no one did anything to stop what was happening is just mind bottling. In the center of town there were thousands of prisoners. They weren't being hidden, it is not as if no one knew what was happening, they just chose to ignore it. I can't even begin to imagine the torture and humiliation of all this. Living in a concentration camp that is dressed up to be a park surrounded by people, and yet people acting as if you weren't there. To go through so much and experience trauma that can never be understood and still be overlooked must be heart wrenching. They had to play along with how the camp worked just to get shot in the back of the neck. It is just a disgrace.
ReplyDeleteAilish Coughlin
I am confused as to why the camps would be made public. I had thought that the Nazis would be somewhat ashamed of their atrocious deeds but I guess I was wrong. I am surprised that the Jews and political enemies did not want the Soviets to bomb the buildings. I would want everything that cause me such pain destroyed. I did not know that experiments took place at camps other than Auschwitz and I am deeply saddened by that. How many experiments took place?
ReplyDeleteCooper Owens
DeleteAfter reading this artcile I ponder why the Nazi’s decided to seperate the Jews based off gender. I wonder if it was for a factor of fear (by separating families) or if once again it was to make the Nazi’s feel more empowered. The triangle aspect of the camp also drew curiosity to me. The fact that the Nazi’s put this camp in the center of a town (with a petting zoo and lake) made me realize that this was the norm for these SS officers. I never knew why there was such a great hate towards the Jewish community, and how so many of these Nazi’s were ok with these camps. I never understood and I never will, that’s the biggest question I have.
ReplyDeleteDavid Hanley
I am astonished that the Nazis were that bold to place the concentration camp in the middle of town. I imagined that the Nazis would be somewhat secretive about what they were doing to these poor people, but by making this concentration camp public it shows that they could care less about their actions. I am also confused as to why the people who lived in the town would even go to the concentration camp/park/zoo. Did the fear factor even affect the townspeople? I wonder why did the concentration camps get split up by genders? I also learned that this was one of the first concentration camps to experiment with the infamous gas chambers. They also used the different gas and added it to waters into the showers to see how it affected the people/prisoners in the camp.
ReplyDeleteIt is extremely disturbing that the Nazis placed this concentration camp in the middle of town. It was torture for the Jews because they were surrounded by people who could have easily protested or helped them out, but they did nothing. It also makes me extremely mad that the Germans in Berlin were scared of this concentration camp. They viewed the Jews as a breed of dangerous animals and it is sickening that they didn't even feel sympathy for them. The pictures are disturbing but need to be shared with the world. It is astounding that the Nazis were so accustomed to seeing dead bodies that it brought them no emotion. They just stood by them with no guilt.
ReplyDeleteAva Harrell
Soren Gautam
ReplyDeleteI found it unbelievable that the camp was created to look like a kind of central park in the middle of town. Everyone had full awareness that it was in fact a concentration camp, but they still did nothing to help the Jews. In hospitals, the Jews were tested on to find a cure to hepatitis. The worst thing is that they tested the youngest male Jews ages 8-23. I can't imagine how scary it must be to visit the doctor without knowing you're going to be shot in the back of the neck. In the end, I am very glad that the prisoners stopped the Soviets bombing to preserve their symbolic station z. It shows that they wanted this camp to be remembered for all the lives that were taken, so people would never forget what happened in the Holocaust.
It is horrifying to me that the Nazis made this camp completely open for the public to be able to see the Jews inside. It astonishes me that townspeople didn’t do anything about having a death factory in the center of their town. It must have been extremely embarrassing and shameful for the Jews to have to work in front of the whole town. It’s also disturbing to me that Jews were given hepatitis. I can’t imagine how many Jewish lives this must’ve taken, and it was all so that German citizens wouldn’t have to suffer from the disease. There are other ways to find the cure! It was also horrifying to read about the Jews being shot in the back of the neck, especially when they thought they were going to the doctor! How ironic!
ReplyDelete-Sam Wofford
One thing that I was unaware of was the immense separation of men and women. I knew that they were seen differently, and I knew that they were separated within camps; however, I did not know that there were completely separate camps for men and women. Sachsenhausen must have been a fairly large camp given that 6,000 out of the 30,000 Jews arrested after Kristallnacht were sent there. Again, at this camp, the Jews were outnumbered. I thought that the Jews always outnumbered the other groups but after reading this article, I am proven wrong. I start to question what I would have done if I would have seen this torture happening in the middle of a town. This camp was, in fact, in the middle of a town so it would scare people. It is ironic that the camp looked like a park because nothing about a concentration camp was park-like. I can’t believe that young boys were harmed with Hepatitis just so the SS could find a cure for German civilians. They treated these people like scientific experiments and animals!
ReplyDelete-Emi Jones
I believe it's amazing how the Soviets used the concentration camp for the Nazi's after they were the ones who were being imprisoned. Ironic, right? I also am shocked that the people of the town knew what was going on, but didn't bother to stop it. They accepted the Jews as the victim and although they knew it wasn't right, they did not feel the need to help. It's so strange that they thought of the camp more as a "petting zoo" of sorts.
ReplyDeleteEvan Pratt
DeleteI am unsettled on the fact that the Germans made the concentration camp in the middle of the town. Everyone in the town knew what it was but did nothing to stop it because of the fear of being inside the concentration camps. It is also disturbing how they would inject people with diseases as a method to find a cure. It is also ironic how the Nazis were then imprisoned in their own concentration camps. It was also terrifying how the Jews would go to the “doctor” and think about getting treated but just end up getting shot as a way to get rid of the Jews.
ReplyDelete-Sebastian Zarta
My first thought was why did this camp only consist of men? Something that stood out to me was the fact that the camp was shaped like a triangle. It was logical to have a watch tower at one of the points because then the guards are able to look over all the prisoners. Sachsenhausen was very large, so when many Jews were captured, a large majority of them would be forced to this concentration camp. I found it surprising that the percentage of foreign prisoners was a lot higher than the percentage of Jews in the camp. It is shocking how the camps were well known about among the citizens, but still nothing was done to address the obvious issue.What I find to be the most cruel actions taken by the Nazis, is the fact that they would experiment on innocent humans for their personal benefit. This was very dangerous and often deadly towards these prisoners.
ReplyDeleteEmary Gordon
The part that resonated with me the most was that the camp was literally in the middle of the town! How could a German living in that town see it every day without feeling guilty or empathetic for the Jews? Imagine the children looking at this place, thinking that it was a park when in reality this “park” was a place hundreds of Jews were being gassed to death. The part about the hospital made me sick. How could you experiment on children and young adults? The children being experimented on didn’t even have minds that were fully developed yet. I can’t imagine a worse slow death. I almost shed a tear looking at the skeletons of the victims. Their bodies look crumpled together and the sad thing about it is that when you’re a skeleton, you can’t see your individual story so they could never get the remembrance they deserved.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t know there were concentration camps for only men or only women. It is insane to think about how many different types of people were targeted by the Nazis. Before this class I knew other groups were killed as well but not this many. I understand why the Nazis targeted political opponents first. They didn’t want anyone trying to stop them or overrule them. I think this is the same reason they put Sachsenhausen in the middle of a town. Fear was something that kept the Nazis in power. Being a prisoner as part of a zoo seems like some of the worst psychological terror. It constantly reminds you that you are less than human; you are considered an animal. When I read about this hospital I immediately thought of Mengele, but he worked at Auschwitz. The fact that they would use medicine, something that is supposed to help people, to harm people disgusts me. I am so glad that the prisoners stopped the Soviets from destroying all of the evidence.
ReplyDelete- Ashley Szymonski
The treatment of Sachsenhausen as a park is sickening. It was a place of death and horror, not a petting zoo. The people who suffered there were not meant to serve as entertainment. They were not meant to be theatric. The only way in which they were supposed to be eye-catching was as an example. The only note that anyone was supposed to take of the prisoners was that they could share the cruel fate. The prisoners were a warning, not a spectacle, and it was horrifying to see them treated like show ponies. I showed my mother the image of skeletal remains lining the ground, and she almost threw up. The idea of so much cruelty and death is unimaginable to us.
ReplyDeleteSophie Thrasher
Similar to Ravensbruck, it caught me by surprise that the percentage of Jews was less than the percentage of other people in the concentration camps. I found it amazing that Sachenhausen was in the middle of town, yet people were numb to the terrors going on right next to them. The fact that there was a zoo and lake right in front of the prisoners, and I cannot imagine the physcological torture they must have experienced. Not only was it incredible that townspeople were so oblivious to what occurred, but it was pure torture for prisoners to look out and see the normal life they used to have. A life where they weren’t trapped and could live freely. Also, in relation to the pictures, it is disgusting to think that 400 men may have been in a tiny area at once. Having no personal space for anything, even just to clean themselves, would have been very traumatic.
ReplyDelete-Gillian Morano
This blog was very shocking. The fact that the camp was in the middle of the town and the German citizens still did nothing is saddening. They knew about the camps and we already knew that they knew and did nothing. But the camps were not only known about, but they were also in the middle of the town! The picture that was included that had lots of human skeletons shook me. How could the Nazis do such a thing and have it SO noticeable that those skeletons looked the exact same as theirs! We are all humans and equal to one another. That picture really got me thinking. How could they not even be acknowledging what they were amidst? I just don’t understand how humans could ever do such a thing.
ReplyDeleteLillian Smith
I learned that this camp was located very close to Berlin. I was extremely surprised to learn that this camp was located in the center of the city. This made it very hard on the prisoners because they were treated like zoo animals. This camp was a mens only camp. This camp mainly consisted of non Jews. this was because the Nazis did not want any Jews in Germany. Most of the Jews from the city were transported to a larger camp where they were killed. Most of the prisoners in the camp were non Jews. They were political opponents from other countries. These people were considered enemies of Germany during the war. The camp was very large and it was located in the city center to scare people away from helping the Jews.
ReplyDeleteAnn Slegelmilch
ReplyDeleteOne thing that really stood out to me while reading this blog post was the way this camp was presented. The fact that the camp looked like a park and included petting zoos and a lake horrifies me because of the sinister thought behind this decision. The Nazi’s knew that if they almost teased the prisoners, the prisoners would go insane. This form of psychological torture is never fun to hear about but in this case, it is absolutely horrifying. While reading anything about the Holocaust I am overwhelmed with a feeling of sadness and pity for these prisoners, but this topic hit a nerve. I can not believe that the SS officers treated the murder and torture of human beings as a fun game. The fact that events like these happened in the world’s past are even scarier than reading about them.
-Lexi Amedio
One thing that stood out to me the most was the presentation of the camp. I am shocked that the concentration camp was made to look like a park in the middle of a town. Since the camp was in the middle of a town, I would expect someone to notice and help the people. They make the camp seem very innocent when it is really filled with torture. The picture of the skeletons made me think if the Germans still did not think that this was cruel. I feel like they would have noticed sooner. I just don’t understand how humans can be so inhumane towards one another, Also, it is crazy that they were killing prisoners while other things were happening around them. I was surprised that the concentration camp was filled with mostly foreigners, I have never heard of that before.
ReplyDelete-Emma Grace Parker
What in the world. What in the world. How could there be a “petting zoo” for Jews! For Humans! The answer would be that they didn’t view them as human but still! The Nazis were sadistic brutes. Actual sadistic creepy brutes. “Oh, let me just go and feed my pet Jew, oh ho.” WHAT! What is wrong with them! How could they have done that? How could the town not have tried to help! What is wrong with the world.
ReplyDelete-Ethan Fronapfel
I am unfamiliar with Sachsenhausen. It is hard to imagine 30,000 people being arrested in a short period of time, but it is even harder to imagine a concentration camp being erected in the center of town. They were clearly not trying to hide anything, and I imagine its presence was a very effective way to convince the people of the town to accept the Nazi ideology. I knew they did medical experiments on the prisoners, but I did not think that some of those experiments would include trying to find cures for diseases. It is inhumane and awful. I wonder if there were any legitimate medical discoveries that resulted from their unethical experimentation. Of course, this would in no way make it acceptable. It still shocks me that the Nazis continued their search for faster and more efficient ways of killing people. What's worse is that they figured out ways to be more and more evil.
ReplyDeleteStanton Bryson
Sachsenhausen
ReplyDeleteTo be reminded that political opponents of Hitler were placed in concentration camps by Hitler emphasized my confusion as to why no bystanders, who saw these acts as an attempt to silence all opposition, took any action. Sure, there were some individuals, but there were never any mass movements were large groups of society revolted against Hitler. I’m still shocked as to why no one took action, and I still fear that this could be the case today. It was ironic to hear that Nazis were imprisoned here by the Soviets after the war and as it came to an end. It wasn’t anything new to me to hear of more of the disgusting treatments and experiments which “prisoners” (not guilty) underwent. This familiarity with the horrific ways that Nazis killed was the most disturbing part. To hear of more and more terrible ways the Nazis killed and to still be disturbed, but not surprised, is terrible. To know that human beings are capable of continually carrying out such acts without a second thought is the most appalling realization, in my opinion. The normalized appearance of the brutal death camp as a park was sickening, and this adds to my question earlier; how could the citizens of the town not lend a hand?
- Leo O'Neill
Berlin is huge. How this huge concentration camp not noticed or called out, I don’t know, but it seems crazy. So many bystanders. Hitler’s main goal was to annihilate Jews, but yet his concentration camp was filled with so many other people that weren’t Jews. The karma the Soviet Union gave the Nazis is amazing. Hopefully they understood the torture they put people through in the concentrations camps and enjoyed their stay. I would imagine Sachenhausen as an unbelievably scary and horrible place, but yet the Nazis built a petting zoo and had lake near the camp. I wonder if people actually visited it. It disgusts me that the Nazis used their prisoners almost like rats. They injected diseases into them and tried all kinds of crazy experiments to cure them. Mixing the gas in the chambers with water is awful. I can only imagine how painful the burning water was on the prisoners. Seeing the small room that 400 people were squeezed into really makes me feel upset. I can’t imagine even 30 people fitting in that room. And to hear that the SS men would sometimes drown the prisoners while they were just trying to wash their face makes me extremely heartbroken. I love how even though so many atrocities and horrible events occurred at Sachsenhausen and it would be thought to give past prisoners PTSD, the prisoners wanted to still preserve it for memories and to remind future generations.
ReplyDelete- Emma Groves
I find it crazy that these camps were established in 1936. We’re in the year of 2019. That means that this concentration camp was built less than 100 years ago. One would think that in the 1900s, they should know how inhumane this genocide would be. Not only was this bigger than Ravensbueck, but it also only consisted of men. If everyone noticed it, how were there so many bystanders? I would hope that someone would stick up for them and say something. It’s remarkable to me that no one cared enough to help out these innocent people. This shows human’s nature of self-preservation. In order to avoid being shunned, they were willing to watch all of these people die. The townspeople knew what was happening, but they all refrained from making their voices heard. This saddens me greatly.
ReplyDeleteSofia Christofaro
Makayla Gathers
ReplyDeleteThe thing that bewildered me the most about this article was the fact that the camp was in the center of town. Civilians of Berlin were able to walk past this, and they were able to see the people suffering. This upsets me because even though the camp was meant to instill fear into the people of the town, the people didn’t think about the fear of the Jews who were trapped like animals. It absolutely perplexes me that there was a petting zoo and a lake. This was not only inhumane, but it’s demeaning. This makes me think about what we’re discussing in class about who’s responsible. The people are just as responsible because they were bystanders and maybe upstanders in some cases. The pictures bring about gloomy emotions because they tell the story of concentration camp life, and I can’t imagine how scary that could’ve been. I’m glad they weren’t completely destroyed because more people need to see this.
I think it’s ironic how after the war, the same camp was then used to hold the Nazis. This makes me happy that they got to suffer the same pain as their victims. I can’t believe the camp was in the middle of the city unlike the others. It's disturbing the Nazis treated them like zoo animals just for display and other’s entertainment. People literally knew and saw the horrors of the prison and still didn’t stand up for them. It’s very scary that Nazis would inject prisoners with hepatitis; I can’t even imagine something like that being acceptable now.
ReplyDeleteJordan Browning
Chidimma Umerah
ReplyDeleteTo me, it's scary and unsettling how humbling this camp was. Political opponents became prisoners of war. Anyone was susceptible to the Nazi Regime regardless of your previous socio-economic background.
Also the amount of people who simply didn't care about the camp being in the middle of the town is mindboggling. It just makes me think: Back then, they didn't have cell phones, but if this happened today, how many people would just stop and take a picture?
Chidimma Umerah