Bad News, good news. Unfortunately we have to postpone our planned trip to Sachsenhausen from Sunday 14^th August to Sunday 28^th. But this is because we can now confirm that on the 28^th we will be accompanied by a historian who works at Sachsenhausen, who will be there to take us round and answer any of your questions.

The memorial centre at Sachsenhausen tells the story of one of the biggest concentration camps on German territory from 1936 to 1945. The T Building housed the central administration office for all the concentration camps. The part of the camp known as the “Zone of Interest”, along with many auxiliary camps, housed around 200,000 inmates who were enslaved and exploited as forced labour by local industry. Several tens of thousands of prisoners died as a result the inhumane working and living conditions and the brutal treatment, or were gassed, shot or subjected to medical experiments.

From 1945 to 1950 the site was used as a special camp by the NKVD, the Soviet secret service. It was what was known as a silent camp, and around 60,000 internees lived there under the most miserable conditions. Around 12,000 of them died due to conditions in the camp, hunger and disease.

On Sunday, 28th August, the LINKE Berlin Internationals and Berlin DSA are organising our fourth trip using  the €9 monthly train ticket to visit undiscovered Germany. Costs are free if you have a travel ticket. A historian who works at Sachsenhausen will be providing us with a guided tour.

Meet at Gesundbrunnen station at 11.40 at platform 9. We will be taking the 11.49 train towards Stralsund, and getting off 20 minutes later in Oranienberg.