Sachsenhausen

"Oranienburg"

    Concentration Camp      

The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was built in the summer of 1936 by concentration camp prisoners from the Emsland camps. Just north of Berlin, Sachsenhausen was one of the most notorious death camps of the Nazi empire and was liberated by Allied troops in 1945.

The camp is sometimes referred to as Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg. The name "Sachsen Hausen" means "Saxon's Houses" when translated to English.

Sachsenhausen was established in 1936 soon after Heinrich Himmler 'Reichsführer SS' was appointed to the post of 'head of the German police'.

The camp was located at the edge of Berlin, which gave it a position among the German concentration camps: the administrative centre of all concentration camps was located in Oranienburg, and Sachsenhausen became a training centre for SS officers (who would often be sent to oversee other camps afterwards).

The camp was commanded by a number of notable SS officers, some who later commanded Auschwitz and Majdanek in Poland, and some who were some of the most brutal and infamous killers, such as Kramer, Palitzsch, Schwarzhuber who were at Auschwitz, Suhren at Ravensbruck and Graetschus and Niemann who both served at both Belzec and Sobibor death camps: 

• Michael Lippert (1936)

• Hans Hellwig (1937 -1938)

• Karl Koch (1936 -1937)

• Herman Baranowski (1938 -1940)

• Hans Loritz (1940 -1942)

• Walter Eisfeld (1938 -1939)

• Rudolf Hoess (1938 -1940)

• Anton Kaindl  (1942)

Other notable SS men who also served at Sachsenhausen and other camps were: