Sachsenhausen

We arrived at the Stadthotel in Oranienburg which is a suburb of Berlin. The rooms were lovely and much bigger than our other German hotel rooms and the price was very reasonable. First we ate. I had tartare and, yes, it was delicious! The others had good food, but not as special as mine, although they looked like they wouldn't touch mine with a ten foot pole.

It was still early so we got the 3 day transportation pass and went into Berlin to take the upper decker bus and browse. But first we had to have our ticket validated. I saw a woman who was cleaning up and pointed to the "validate" part of the ticket and said, "How do we do this?" She indicated that she did not speak English so I said, "Auf Deutsch, bitte." And she did. In German she told me to go to the red box, stick the ticket in and it will be stamped with the date & time and then pull it out. Easy! And I understood every word. I wish I could recall the words to ask the questions. 2 people (Helga from Göttingen and Lesley the translator) told me that when I speak German I don't have an accent. Of course sentence structure and vocabulary need lots of work.

We had a pleasant evening in Berlin and a relaxing dinner. Bernd especially enjoyed the car dealerships ... very upscale. We liked what we saw of Berlin, a clean and vibrant city. Then back to the hotel for a good nights rest.

It was raining, an appropriate atmosphere for our plans for the day. Oranienburg is the town where Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is located. It's the camp where Dad was sent. Now it is a museum and memorial. The picture on the right is an diagram of the concentration camp and on the left is a memorial in stained glass.

There were several school groups going through with their guides. We rented tapes to educate us as we went through the facility. We sure got an education! This was an experimentation camp. Yes, many died here and some were executed, but most died because of the treatment they received.

We were told that the museum is 1/20th the original size of the camp. Bernd was wondering what the people of Oranienburg thought about the activities that were walking distance from their town. They must have known something. It certainly was a strange time and that's why I was so glad to see all the tour groups being educated.

These are 2 other memorials. The photo on the left is a photo of the synagoge that Opa supported in Oldenburg which we saw in an exhibit hall. The tall structure on the right with all symbols on the top is a reminder of all the people that died and represents the 18 countries they came from.

After a while I said to Chuck that I wasn't feeling up to par and he said it was probably the emotional impact on me. That's when I looked at my watch. Yes, it was very emotional, but we had been walking around for 5 hours without anything to eat or drink. We were drained. Bernd and Pat went through on there own and were patiently waiting for us. We went back to the hotel & I was going to put my feet up for 5 minutes before joining Pat & Bernd who wanted to go into Berlin. Luckily I realized that I was not up to Berlin and my 5 minute rest was considerably longer. Chuck and I enjoyed a quiet dinner at the hotel restaurant. When Pat & Bernd came back they brought some baked goodies and along with some wine it was a very good evening. Chuck didn't have a nap so he was asleep and missed the goodies.