The first new camp to be established by SS Heinrich Himmler as Chief of the German Police in 1936. It is located about 45 minutes from the center of Berlin. The complex was a model for all the future concentration camps.
More than 200,000 people were imprisoned here from 1936 to 1945. The Nazi regime first imprisoned political dissidents and then people they felt were racially or biologically inferior. Tens of thousands were put to death here by firing squads, gas chambers, an unethical medical research. And many died of malnutrition and decease.
And as they say the rest is history.
This excursion for us was a 4 hour history lesson. A very sobering history lesson! Much of the camp was destroyed after the Russians liberated the prisoners on April 22, 1945.
From 1961 to 1993 the camp was turned into a memorial and museum.
We as mankind, should never forget the atrocities of these times.
If we don’t study history and pass these lessons down to future generations we may be doomed to repeat the past! May this never happen again.
MAY WE NEVER FORGET!
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