Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp: History, Visiting and Getting There from Berlin

Key Dates

The table lists the dated events of the camp and the memorial that the sources give. The camp ran from July 1936 until the liberation on 22 April 1945, and the ground then served a second, Soviet purpose until 1950. The national memorial opened on 22 April 1961. Remember the two death figures together: the commandant acknowledged 42,000 deaths during his own tenure from 1942 to 1945, while the standard figure for wartime victims is at least 30,000, so treat every number as a minimum.

Those imprisoned here included Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti, Roma and Jewish prisoners, and about 20,000 women. Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin's son, was held here, as were the French former prime minister Paul Reynaud and the Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera. Over 600 homosexual prisoners were killed at Sachsenhausen between 1939 and 1943.

The Triangle Layout, Tower A and Station Z

Sachsenhausen was designed as an isosceles triangle with sides about 600 m long. Tower A was the central control point of the camp, linked along the central axis to the SS troop camp. Between the perimeter wall and the prisoner barracks lay a neutral zone with a trip wire and an electrified barbed-wire fence.

The camp began at 18 hectares and grew to about 400 hectares. Between 6,000 and 8,000 prisoners worked on Heinkel He 177 bombers. Prisoners also took part in Operation Bernhard, the scheme that forged British £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes.

Station Z, completed in May 1942, held the killing rooms, four crematoria and, after 1943, a gas chamber. Today a memorial marks the site.

The Soviet Special Camp, 1945-1950

After the liberation the Soviet military administration used the camp as Special Camp No. 1 from 1945 to 1950. About 12,000 prisoners died there.

This second history is part of the site, and a dedicated museum on the special camp opened on the grounds with 350 square metres of exhibition space. The memorial itself belongs to the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation, funded jointly by the federal government and the state of Brandenburg, and presents 13 exhibitions at authentic locations. The 1961 national memorial originally covered about five percent of the camp area. A police college has stood on part of the former grounds since 2006. The satellite site Gedenkstätte Todesmarsch im Belower Wald, along the death march route, is attached to the memorial.

Admission and Hours

Entry costs nothing. The visitor information centre is open daily 8:30 to 17:00 per Berlin.de. The outdoor area hours have two published versions and both are given here. Berlin.de lists the outdoor area as 8:30 to 18:00 in summer and 8:30 to 16:30 in winter. A secondary source, visitBerlin's day trip page, gives the changeover dates as 15 March to 14 October for the longer hours and 15 October to 14 March for the shorter ones, and adds that the site closes on 24 December. The official site did not confirm the changeover dates, so arrive with the shorter end of the day in mind in the winter months.

Guided visits at the memorial itself can be arranged on +49 (0)3301 200 200.

What to See, and in What Order

Most visitors follow the same arc. Start at the visitor information centre for orientation and an audio guide if you want one. Then walk down the central axis toward Tower A. From there the route runs past the original barracks, the cell block built in 1937, and the infirmary and prisoner kitchen, and on to Station Z.

Barracks 38 and 39 hold permanent exhibitions, including a museum on Sinti, Roma and Jewish prisoners. Barracks 38 was destroyed by arson on 26 September 1992, ten days after a visit by the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, and two perpetrators were sentenced in 1995. The 'Medicine and Crime' exhibition covers 800 square metres with about 100 exhibits on the medical crimes carried out at the camp. The special camp museum documents the Soviet years from 1945 to 1950. Allow plenty of time on the grounds if you read the exhibitions in full. A secondary source suggests allowing 4.5 to 6 hours door to door from central Berlin, which is a realistic minimum once you add the journey.

Conduct, Photography and Children

This is a cemetery and a place of remembrance as much as a museum. No age recommendation is confirmed here, so the decision is yours as a parent. The exhibitions deal plainly with killing and medical crimes.

Keep your behaviour dignified and never pose or play at the sites of killing. Barrier-free access is limited because of heritage preservation, which matters if anyone in your group uses a wheelchair. The booking line given above can arrange tours.

If you would rather have the history carried by a professional guide for the whole day, the comparison of Berlin WW2 tours on the homepage covers the memorial tours alongside the city walks.

Step by Step

The route below is the standard self-guided journey from central Berlin. Every fare and time comes from Berlin.de and the visitBerlin day trip page. The single ABC ticket at €5 covers one direction.

The 24-hour ABC ticket is €12.90 and runs 24 hours from validation. Tickets are sold at machines and via the BVG app. Bus 804 from Oranienburg station runs about every 30 minutes and takes about 5 minutes toward the memorial, bus 821 also serves the site, and the walk is about 20 minutes.

On Your Own or With a Guide

Going alone costs only the train ticket, gives you full control over your time, and lets you sit with the exhibitions as long as you need. The trade-off is that nobody narrates the story of the camp layout and Station Z in sequence.

The guided options handle the transport and the narration for you. The 5.5-hour tour in English from Insider Tour Berlin costs $27.39, takes up to 28 guests from Friedrichstraße by train, includes memorial entry, and the operator donates €3 per guest to the memorial. The ABC train ticket is extra and you buy it yourself. The six-hour small group tour from Original Berlin Walks costs $37.79, caps the group at 15 and starts from Hackescher Markt. If you want the memorial combined with sightseeing, the Sachsenhausen and Potsdam bus day tour costs $44 and runs 9.5 hours with private transport, so no ABC ticket is needed.

What the Table Covers

All the tours take you from central Berlin to the Sachsenhausen Memorial and back with a guide. None of them includes hotel pickup. The ABC zone train ticket is your own cost on three of the listings, because Oranienburg sits outside zone AB, so a single ABC ticket costs €5 or €3.50 reduced, and a 24-hour ABC ticket is €12.90 or €8 reduced.

Only the bus day tour includes transport. Admission to the memorial itself is free, and three of the listings mention a €3 memorial fee or donation in the price. Prices are quoted in US dollars exactly as the listings give them.

Memorial Tour from Alexanderplatz

From Berlin: Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial Tour costs $28 and runs 5 hours with the operator buendía. The meeting point is the World Time Clock on Alexanderplatz. The €3 memorial fee is included in the price, and the listing names skip-the-line access through a separate entrance.

The tour covers Tower A, Barracks 38 and 39, the punishment cells, the infirmary, the prisoner kitchen, Station Z and the Soviet memorial. You buy the ABC train ticket yourself before boarding. Free cancellation is 24 hours.

It is the second-lowest price of the four and suits visitors already staying near Alexanderplatz.

Licensed Guide from Friedrichstraße

Berlin: Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Tour in English costs $27.39 and runs 5.5 hours with Insider Tour Berlin. The meeting point is outside Friedrichstraße station on the square beside the Tränenpalast at Reichstagufer 17. Groups are capped at 28.

The guide is licensed and trained by the memorial authority, and the operator donates €3 per guest to the memorial. Entry into the memorial is included. The ABC transport ticket for the round trip is listed under exclusions, as are hotel pickup, gratuities and food.

Note that the booking platform shows a from-price of $48.68 with a $21.29 extra charge that the listing does not itemise, so check the total at booking.

Small Group of 15

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial Tour (Max. 15 Guests) costs $37.79 and runs 6 hours with Original Berlin Walks, starting in front of the Starbucks across from Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station. The group cap of 15 is the smallest on any scheduled Sachsenhausen tour here, which helps when the barracks and Station Z are busy. The guide is licensed and trained by the Memorial Authority, and the operator donates €3 per guest to the memorial.

The listing prices the ABC ticket at about €3.30 each way and says to buy it at the station next to the meeting point. The platform's from-price shows $43.10 with a $5.31 extra charge, so confirm the final figure.

Sachsenhausen Plus Potsdam by Bus

Berlin: Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and Potsdam Day Tour by Bus costs $44 and runs 9.5 hours with buendía, meeting at the Neptune Fountain on Rathausstrasse 1. Travel is by private air-conditioned bus, so no ABC train ticket and no platform changes are needed. The memorial fee is included, and a licensed guide at Sachsenhausen and a guided Potsdam walk are available depending on the option selected.

The Potsdam part covers Sanssouci Park, the Peace Church, the Dutch Quarter, Glienicke Bridge and Checkpoint Bravo, with free time in Potsdam. Food and drinks are not included. This is the choice if one long day must cover both the memorial and Potsdam, and the guided Sachsenhausen part is listed at 2.25 hours.

The WW2 tours in Berlin comparison lists every option in one table.