Leseprobe

1 3 4 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 placed in the triangular barracks area in what was referred to as Zone I. By the end of 1945, more than 11,000 people had been imprisoned in Sachsenhausen. A total of 30,000 people were brought to Sachsenhausen as detainees pursuant to order No. 00315. These prisoners had been pre-emp- tively arrested in accordance with the provi- sions of the Potsdam Agreement and remained imprisoned under inhumane conditions for years without a formal court ruling. Among them were mainly lower and middle NSDAP functionaries such as “Blockleiter” and “Zellen­ leiter”. The internment lists also include mem­ bers of the SS, Gestapo and concentration camp guards, employees of Nazi ministries and autho­ rities, young people, ordinary members of Nazi youth organisations, political opponents and arbitrarily arrested persons. At the beginning of 1946, a new group of prisoners arrived in the camp. These were housed in zone II, a separate area of the camp away from the other internees, and were 6,000 “fit to march”. They were liberated on 22/23 April 1945 by Soviet and Polish units. More than 35,000 prisoners had been forced to leave the barracks two days earlier but were liberated by units of American and Soviet troops on their “death march” to Schwerin. Many, however, did not survive the march. From August 1945, the former concentra- tion camp was used as “Special Camp No. 7” by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD. The first transport, with 150 prisoners of the so-called “Vorkommando” (advance party), arrived in Sachsenhausen on 10 August to prepare the accommodation barracks to receive further prisoners, in particular to repair the damage to the security systems. On the morning of 16 August, 5,000 prisoners started their march 40 kilometres away in Weesow. They arrived in Sachsenhausen in the evening and were Entrance to the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen