Sachsenhausen Travel Guide

There is a MacDonalds and an inexpensive Vietnamese restaurant near the station which advertises “We use original spices and MSG”,just so you know you are getting your daily chemicals . On the way to the camp ( if you walk there) you come by a supermarket with a yellow and black sign called “Netto” where you can stock up on inexpensive foor and drink for your walk around the camp site. It’s huge! Otherwise, there is a cafeteria on the memorial compound. I felt funny drinking the tab water there—and also using their bathroom—as it’s also a burial place so to speak, with all those ashes and remains of prisoners about.

Favorite Dish: I didn't visit the restaurants.

Directions:

From Berlin, Sachsenhausen Concentration camp can be reached by two trains:
S1 from Friedrichstraße, (or other transit stations en route) to Oranienburg, which takes ca. 40 minutes and costs a little over 6 Euro for a round trip.

There is also an express train from Hauptbahnhof Berlin ( main station) going to Stralsund (the final station shown on the destination sign) which stops at Gesundbrunnen station and then only Sachsenhause.. It is much cleaner and in summer very cold due to heavy AC. This express train RE 5 leaves hourly and only takes only 20 minutes and costs the same as the other local train. The ticket for either train is valid for any trains going that direction.

However, I found it very difficult to buy the ticket from the RE vending machine as you have to enter the exact name of the station and it’s all very slow, and also to finally find the right platform for this express train as it’s not the same sale system as BVG (which means busses, subway and all) but a totally different vending machine. There must be a human ticket vendor somewhere but for that you have to go to a different area of the train station. Not good if your train leaves within the next 10 minutes. Check www.bvg-info.de for schedules.

Both trains are relatively well frequented, but I prefered the atmosphere in the express train .

Outside of Oranienburg station, you can try to catch one of the busses going there—just ask, or join the clusters of foreign tourists . The memorial is called “Gedenkstatte Sachsenhausen” in German. There are two busses that are headed that way, leaving from the platform farthest from the station, kind of in the middle of the road. Or you could walk which takes ca. 15 minutes. There are signs called “Gedenkstätte”. Depending on the day time, not many people are out and about, but all are happy to practice their English language skills and help. The last bus back to the train station leaves some time around 6 or 7 p.m, check when you get off to visit.

There is a bookstore with an elaborate collection in the lobby of the camp. You can sit down there and read most of the books, many survivors' autobiographies. It closes at 6, I believe.

Food and Drink for those on a budget: A supermarket is along the way, with a yellow and black sign called netto.

Hm, nightmares? Depression? Or indifference, after the 20th descripition of how to torture someone to death? Copycats? Political awareness and a stronger understanding of the necessity of human rights organizations and enforcement?

Public transportation at night:
A South Asian migrant from Berlin told me he would NEVER go to anyplace outside of Berlin in Brandenburg, meaning, to venture out into formerly East German territory . However, there are plenty of individual international tourists visiting Oranienburg’s memorial, and I haven’t heard of any incidents.

If an attacker is alone, you can even talk to those youngsters, challenge their philosophy and they are not all aggressive per se. But in groups, worse even if drunk, and especially if you are a dark-skinned guy, not a girl, skinheads or neonazis may attack you and kill you just for fun as has happened in Germany before. None to this extent, has, to my knowledge, and on this scale, ever (officially) happened in a daytime train full of commuters in this area, but keep this in mind.

What DID happen on this train line was that I got sexually harrassed in a pretty empty late night train departing near the camp by a really aggressive immigrant. A man working for the train company finally told the guy off. Something similar also happened in a Berlin train full of commuters and tourists, nobody spoke up for me and my friend, when these guys would keep bothering us 3ven physically and calling us Nazis when we told them off. The other people all just pretended not to see and hear, as usual.

You have to ask the people around you directlya nd tell them what exactly to do. You can also pretend you are calling police even if you don’t actually have a cell phone on you, , just describe where you are and what the offender looks like. All of those I had since took off at the next stop when they heard me make my pretense call.