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Take back the city for yourself tonight.

Not this time, sometimes knowing it is sufficient, even more so that the reality that comes along it is pretty terrifying and saddening, so very much more so when u step foot and actual lay eyes on 1 of the location where prisoners were placed during the Nazi days.

The weather in Berlin was nice for once, and ppl were smiling. Well.. before they step foot into where they were bout to step into and see wat they were bout to lay eyes on.

By name this concentration camp is called Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Before that i just have to share this, that tour was recommended upon the Berlin Free Tour which i extremely heavily suggest anyone to join. It gave great overview and intro to the city. Also to mention tat the guide was pretty cute and he really really does know stuffs around Berlin and presents it so well, cheers to Colin, oh and tat sweet Scottish accent he possesses.

Anyway let’s not get carried away. A concentration camp differs from an extermination camp, where the primary “given” purpose is to accommodate those that do not have combative threat to the ruler.. as it turned out, some concentration camps do more than accommodate these ppl, they actually die due to hunger, exhaustion, poor living condition etc.. Concentration in this context, IS Extermination. nah, won’t bore the text here with these, u know if u are interested and u know where to dig it..

We were actually walking on the same path all the prisoners entering the camp took those days. And upon arriving the main gate, we were welcomed by a slogan that translates to:

Work will set you free

Not so the case, as almost all tat went in, worked their asses off yet, did not get rewarded with the “free” mentioned on the gate.

Mary was our guide for the day, and her style was very suited to the tour. Portraying a more serious character as compared to Colin, she was very well fitted to guide us with ample loads of information sharing on the camp.

I will pick my words with real thoughts as i really feel a lot throughout my time there, even now when i think back on it, it’s the cruel reality and nothing much to be kidding about.

These are the barracks that the prisoners were staying in, the capacity was overloaded by fitting in 400 of them in a supposed ~130, and to accommodate this, these miniature beds, which is approximately 70% of our current single size bed, needs to sleep 3 person. Take a second to imagine that.

This will be the bathing area for the prisoners, yes tat’s right, these 2 tubs accommodates all in a single barrack of 400 ppl. It only sprinkles some water from the middle and with limited time every morning, one just know tat no matter how congested it is, u ought to clean up a lil’ as it is the only moment in the whole day one was allowed to. It’s a matter of survival as if one’s condition ain’t too hygienic, disease and sickness will just crawl up upon.

Initially, i hesitated putting this picture up, but i believe tat.. every1 shud know the conditions of those living here regardless of whether it is disgusting or not.

And again, it’s the same influx of ppl from the barrack that has to cherish the moment to use it every morning. Now of course we feel weird and pissed when some1 shares a toilet bowl with us at a same time, but there.. there just ain’t much option.

There were loads more regarding the camp. At times, i felt pretty terrible and gloomy knowing wat had terribly happened. The tour is 12 Euros and i felt really worth doing it, it took slightly more than 5 hours throughout, though not the most cheerful trip, it was truly 1 that no one visiting Berlin should miss. For what it’s worth, this was reality and for what tat happened, every1 should know about it and start loving every1 around u much more..

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 7:38 am and is filed under Been There Did It, Berlin, Emotional, Now I Know, Outing & Event, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.