Leseprobe

G E R M A N Y | O R A N I E N B U R G / S A C H S E N H A U S E N 1 3 3 built “Genickschussanlage”, a facility for shooting prisoners in the back of the neck. Another 3,000 died in transit or shortly after arrival at the camp. A crematorium with incin- erator had previously been installed in 1940; in 1942, the SS erected a new building in the industrial yard containing four incinerators, another facility for execution by bullet to the back of the neck and (from 1943) a gas chamber. Countless prisoners fell victim to “extermi- nation through labour”. The prisoners had to perform forced labour for the SS or the weapons industry in SS-owned factories and in around 100 subcamps. The large arms companies such as Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), Siemens & Halske, DEMAG-Panzerwerk, Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, Daimler-Benz-Werken, and IG Farben all benefited from the greater involve- ment of the concentration camps in war pro- duction from 1942 onwards. Several tens of thousands of people died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Shortly before the end of the war, the camp was evacuated, leaving behind about 3,000 prisoners who were not and Roma, and homosexuals. In March and June 1938, as part of the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt’s “Arbeitsscheu Reich” (“workshy Reich”) cam- paign, the SS brought 6,000 people classified as “anti-socials” into the camp. After the pogrom night of 9/10 November 1938, more than 6,000 Jews from Berlin and other parts of the German Reich were deported to Sachsen­ hausen. Following the beginning of the Second World War on 1 September 1939, an increasing number of prisoners from the German-occupied countries of Europe arrived in Sachsenhausen. Due to the constantly growing number of detainees, the conditions of detention deterio­ rated rapidly. Thousands died of malnutrition, illness, exhaustion or maltreatment or were murdered by the SS in special “operations”. In the late summer and autumn of 1941, more than 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war were killed by the SS within a few weeks in a specially Historical photo of Sachsenhausen concentration camp