Sachsenhausen concentration camp

By order of Heinrich Himmler, the camp was built from summer 1936 by prisoners from dissolved camps. It was the first large concentration camp complex planned by an SS architect, with the aim of creating a “completely modern, contemporary, and expandable” camp. Bernhard Kuiper's design envisioned an equilateral triangle that included the prisoner camp, the commandant's office, and the SS troop camp. The architecture of the prisoner camp was oriented towards Watchtower A to ensure maximum surveillance. Although conceived as a model camp, this panoptic model was not continued in any other camp due to its lack of expandability. Between 1936 and 1945, over 200,000 people from some 40 nations were imprisoned in Sachsenhausen. Tens of thousands died from hunger, disease, forced labor, and mistreatment, or were victims of systematic extermination and medical experiments. From August 1945, the Soviet Military Administration used the site as Special Camp No. 7, which was closed in 1950. In 1961, the national memorial and museum Sachsenhausen was opened, which has been part of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation since 1993.

The former Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is located in Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen in the Oberhavel district, Brandenburg, Germany, at an elevation of approx. 44 meters above sea level.

Today, the site is a memorial and can be visited.

• Oranienburg Palace (Palace), approx. 2.2 km away
• Sommerswalde Palace (Schwante) (Palace), approx. 10.7 km away
• Stolpe Manor House (Manor House), approx. 11.6 km away
• Vehlefanz Ruin (Ruin), approx. 12.5 km away