Sachsenhausen. The concentration camp near the imperial capital Berlin

The Sachsenhausen concentration camp, built by prisoners in 1936, occupied a special position within the entire system of National Socialist concentration camps: as a central model and training camp for the SS, as the largest camp at the start of the Second World War and as an administrative center for all concentration camp terror. With his recently published book Sachsenhausen. Günter Morsch presents an overview of the concentration camp near the imperial capital Berlin (2026), from the beginnings of the concentration camp to the liberation of the prisoners in 1945. The chronological narrative is supplemented by special chapters on the “concentration camp SS in Oranienburg and Sachsenhausen,” the “prisoners,” and “murder and mass murder.” Numerous biographies of victims and perpetrators as well as reports from contemporary witnesses are also included. It is clear that the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was not only an internment and labor camp, but also the scene of numerous planned murder and mass murder operations carried out with extreme brutality, which killed the majority of the approximately 45,000 victims, including in particular Soviet prisoners of war and Jews.

Günter Morsch was director of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation from 1997 to 2018 and director of the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum from 1993 to 2018. As an honorary professor, he taught politics and history at Freie Universität Berlin. He has published numerous publications, including Das Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen. Events and developments 1936—1945 (2008, ed. with Astrid Ley), Sachsenhausen. The “concentration camp near the imperial capital.” Founding and Expansion (2014) and The Headquarters of Concentration Camp Terror. The Inspection of Concentration Camps 1934—1945. An exhibition at a historic site (2015, edited with Agnes Ohm).

Axel Drecoll is director of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation, director of the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum and honorary professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin.