T
he Sachsenhausen concentration camp mainly held political prisoners throughout World War II. Prominent prisoners include Joseph Stalin's oldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili, murderer Herschel Grynszpan, Paul Reynaud the penultimate Prime Minister of France, the wife and children of the Crown Prince of Bavaria, and several enemy soldiers and political dissidents. Sachsenhausen was a labor camp outfitted with several subcamps, a gas chamber, and a medical experimentation area. Prisoners were treated harshly, fed sparingly, and killed openly. Those held captive in Sachsenhausen were the men and women which the Third Reich wanted dead, not just because of their religion, but because of their political beliefs and their power over those who listened to them. Today, Sachsenhausen is open to the public as a memorial for the atrocities committed within its walls.
Other: 6,000 Jews deported after Kristallnacht to camp
9/11/1938
Other: Germans transfer 50 prisoners to build camp
12/07/1936
Other: Jews living in Berlin arrested and sent to camp
Sept 1939
Other: 1,200 Czech students imprisoned
Nov 1939
Other: 1,200 Polish prisoners from Warsaw imprisoned
3/05/1940
Other: SS doctors begin selecting prisoners from the camp
Apr 1940
Other: First Soviet POWs arrive, most shot on arrival
Aug 1941
Other: 269 prisoners sent to killing center Sonnenstein
Jun 1941
Other: Prisoners unfit to work are sent to Dachau
Oct 1942
Other: 6,000 Polish civilians sent to the camp
Aug 1944
Other: Unfit prisoners are sent to Bergen-Belsen
1944
Other: SS guards begin camp evacuations
21/04/1945
Other: Soviet forces liberate Sachsenhausen
22/04/1945
Prisoners: 30-35,000
Estimated number of victims
Prisoners: Approx. 200,000
Total number of prisoners
Location: City
Oranienburg
Camp Commandants: SS Lieutenant Colonel Michael Johann Lippert
Jul 1936
Camp Commandants: SS Major Karl Otto Koch
Oct 1936
Camp Commandants: SS-Oberfuhrer Hans Loritz
1940
Camp Commandants: SS Lieutenant Colonel Anton Kaindl
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