Main Info
- This guided tour is offered exclusively as a Private Tour.
- You choose the day and start time you prefer.
- The duration of the tour is 6 hours.
- There is no minimum number of participants, if the group is very numerous there will be a second guide to guarantee the quality of service.
- The meeting point with the guide can be your hotel or another place that you prefer.
- The tour is normally done on foot and by public transport. If you wish to take a tour by bicycle or bus with a private driver, please request this in the corresponding form.
- The cost of the tour depends on your preferences and the size of the group. Request a quote.
THIS TOUR INTERESTS YOU IF…
- You want to visit the Sachsenhausen concentration camp with a tour in mother tongue English with professional guides from ViveBerlin Tours (certified by the Department of Pedagogy of the Sachsenhausen Memorial – DPMS).
- You like history and want to see a concentration camp up close, an emblematic place of Nazi barbarism, with an English tour that starts in Berlin.
- You want to understand in detail the origins and functioning of the brutal system of control and political repression established by National Socialism.
- You would like to know more about the current historical memory and how Germany faces this terrible chapter of the twentieth century.
WHAT WE WILL SEE
- Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum
- Main entrance – Tower A
- Ruins of Station Z (gas chamber and crematoria)
- Hospital and Pathology Lab
- Baracke 38 -39: the “daily life” of the prisoners
- Casino of the SS Officers
- Appellplatz (roll call area)
- SS Cell Block
- Permanent exhibition in the ex-prisoners’ kitchen
DETAILED ROUTE
The Sachsenhausen concentration camp, located a few kilometers from Berlin, is one of those places that, although it represents a very intense experience, you can’t miss during your stay in the German capital.
Built by the National Socialist regime in 1936 to confine and physically eliminate political opponents, Gypsies, Jews, then prisoners of war, and finally Jehovah’s Witnesses, it became the tomb for more than 40,000 people. Subsequently, during the Soviet occupation, it remained in operation as a detention camp for thousands of prisoners, including political opponents, soldiers, and officials of the Third Reich: many of them died of malnutrition and disease.
With an expert guide certified by the Memorial you will discover all the main sites of the concentration camp: Tower A, Roll-call Square, the prisoners’ barracks, the medical experimentation room, the former kitchen that has now become a museum, and Station Z, where the crematoria and the gas chamber were located.
During the guided tour, we will discover the atrocities committed in this place, from its construction in 1936 until its closure in 1950. The tour will start from our meeting point at Potsdamer Platz No. 10 and we will travel with the S-Bahn (train) to Oranienburg, the closest station to the Memorial, about 35 km north of Berlin.
Once at the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum, we will begin the guided tour in English with an introduction to the historical context in which the Nazi concentration camps arose. The visit to the structures of the Memorial will last about 3 hours, during which the guide will deal with the following topics:
– the importance of Sachsenhausen as an “SS concentration camp model” and as a training center for SS guards, with the aim of supplying all other concentration camps with new torturers;
– the command line in the field and the control exercised by Tower A; the arrival of prisoners in the concentration camp and the methods of organizing forced labor and punishment; the terrible “everyday life” in the concentration camp, the ritual in the roll-call square, life in the barracks, and the hierarchies among the prisoners;
– the image of concentration camps in Nazi propaganda, as well as the role of private industry in the context of the system of exploitation, repression, and extermination.
WHERE IS THE MEETING POINT LOCATED?
The guide will pick you up at your hotel or in another place of your choice.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- You can extend the duration of the guided tour, personalize the tour or take a longer break in a restaurant that we will recommend based on your gastronomic preferences.
- We will be happy to suggest activities for your stay in Berlin, where and what to eat, and which museums or neighborhoods to visit. We are available to advise you as best as possible based on your needs.
Please do not hesitate to write in case of doubts or questions – we are here for you!
ViveBerlin Tours, the Tourist Guide Cooperative. Discover the different facets of Berlin with our Private Berlin Tours.
