Things to do in

Oranienburg

Travel north of Berlin by train and take a poignant guided tour of Sachsenhausen Memorial. See the remaining structures, learn of the site’s dark history, and take in emotive memorials dedicated to the camp’s victims. Witness what remains of the facilities that housed the guards, staff, and the prisoners. Enter at guard tower “A” and stand on the registration compound, before seeing the Jewish barracks, boot testing track, and gallows. Continue to the camp’s hospital and pathology laboratory before arriving at the grizzly Station Z building, which contained a crematorium and killing facilities Learn how the camp came to be during Nazi Germany, what conditions were like inside the camp during World War II, and how at last prisoners were liberated at the end of the war. While many of the camp’s stories are grim and heartbreaking, you will also hear inspiring tales of resistance and survival as you walk past commemorative monuments and plaques paying tribute to the camp’s victims and survivors.

Take a trip to the Sachsenhausen Memorial and learn about a somber but important chapter in Germany's history. Constructed in 1936 by the SS, it was built to detain all opposition to the Nazi regime. After meeting your guide in Berlin, hop on a train to Oranienburg, approximately 25 minutes outside of Berlin. Arrive at Sachsenhausen Memorial Site after a 30-minute stroll from the train station.  Start your guided experience at the Camp Administration Center, now an on-site museum, but formerly the base for overseeing the Third Reich’s 32 main camps and 1000+ satellite camps.  As you tour the site, find out from your guide about what conditions were like inside the camp, the infamous ‘Death March’ ahead of the camp’s liberation in 1945, and how the camp was used by the Soviets afterward.  Listen to stories of revolt by Jewish prisoners in 1942, defiance by British prisoners of war, and sabotage by Soviet and Polish prisoners.  Hear first-hand about the people there: different prisoner groups, their fates, and familiar names imprisoned in the camp, including Stalin’s son.  After the tour, be accompanied by your guide back to the center of Berlin.  Sites that might be visited on the tour include the following:  • Camp Administration Center (formerly the Concentration Camps Inspectorate) • Station Z • Watchtower • Commandant's House • Jewish Barracks • Punishment Cells • Pathology Laboratory • Infirmary • Special Camp 1/7 • SS Training Camp • Gallows

Travel north of Berlin by train and take a poignant guided tour of Sachsenhausen Memorial. See the remaining structures, learn of the site’s dark history, and take in emotive memorials dedicated to the camp’s victims. Witness what remains of the facilities that housed the guards, staff, and the prisoners. Enter at guard tower “A” and stand on the registration compound, before seeing the Jewish barracks, boot testing track, and gallows. Continue to the camp’s hospital and pathology laboratory before arriving at the grizzly Station Z building, which contained a crematorium and killing facilities Learn how the camp came to be during Nazi Germany, what conditions were like inside the camp during World War II, and how at last prisoners were liberated at the end of the war. While many of the camp’s stories are grim and heartbreaking, you will also hear inspiring tales of resistance and survival as you walk past commemorative monuments and plaques paying tribute to the camp’s victims and survivors.

Meet your tour guide at the an agreed upon starting point and get ready to delve into the complex and tragic history German Jews in the city. Take advantage of the option to tour by bike from stop to stop or choose to travel by private car.  Start your ride through Berlin's Jewish past and come across landmarks, both visible and hidden. Visit the site where the first Jews were deported from Berlin at the beginning of the Holocaust. Be struck by the scale of the Holocaust Memorial and ponder its unique layout. Learn about the significance of the Stolpersteine, small brass plates inscribed with the names of victims of Nazi persecution. Visit other important sites like Hitler's bunker and the Reichstag. Explore the Scheunenviertel, the historic Jewish neighborhood, and visit the Old and New Synagogues to admire the unique architectural style. Then head to the site where Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was located or the former Wannsee Villa, a lakeside palace where the Nazis planned the annihilation of European Jews.  You will be returned to the starting point at the end of the tour or dropped off at a location of your choosing.

After meeting at the Berlin Zoologsicher Garten station, you will board a hired coach to reach Oranienburg. Along the way, your guide will introduce Sachsenhausen, showing you where the inmates would have worked in Oranienburg. You will also learn more about what the local populations knew about the realities of this immense camp system. Sachsenhausen was the first concentration camp that was built from the ground up to be a camp, planned and designed for maximum control. You can enter the old barracks and learn about daily life for the inmates of the camp, as well as how hard labor, starvation, disease, torture and death were a part of daily life. You will also see the harrowing areas where people were gassed, shot by firing squad, or hanged. With your guide, you'll walk around the interior of Heinrich Himmmler's new, modern, and always expandable concentration camp. You can visit the commandants house, before walking through Tower A, where the iconic words "Arbeit Macht Frei" can still be seen on the gate today. The East Germans memorialized Sachsenhausen in 1961, and today you can experience the location where atrocities were committed, as well as discover how the Germans deal with their history and how they come to terms with their past today. Once the tour has concluded, you will be picked up and brought back to Berlin in an air-conditioned bus to the meeting point at Zoologischer Garten station. Once your tour has concluded, your guide will be happy to answer any and all questions you may have about your stay in Berlin.

Go on a poignant private guided walk around the Sachsenhausen Memorial with a tour that includes a private pickup service and transportation from Berlin. See the remaining structures, learn of the site’s dark history, and take in emotive memorials dedicated to the camp’s victims. Witness what remains of the facilities that housed the guards, staff, and the prisoners. Enter at guard tower “A” and stand on the registration compound, before seeing the Jewish barracks, boot testing track, and gallows. Continue to the camp’s hospital and pathology laboratory before arriving at the grizzly Station Z building, which contained a crematorium and killing facilities Learn how the camp came to be during Nazi Germany, what conditions were like inside the camp during World War II, and how at last prisoners were liberated at the end of the war. While many of the camp’s stories are grim and heartbreaking, you will also hear inspiring tales of resistance and survival as you walk past commemorative monuments and plaques paying tribute to the camp’s victims and survivors.

Explore Sachsenhausen Memorial on the outskirts of Berlin on a half-day walking tour. Though the camp was vast, the 5.5-hour excursion will focus on the prison camp proper. You will see the external SS training camp, where Kommandant Hoss from Auschwitz was trained and explore the interior of the camp grounds. The tour starts with a 50-minute train ride through the lovely forests of the northern suburbs. Upon arrival at Sachsenhausen, explore the history of the camp, which goes beyond the devastations of World War II. Enter at Tower A and stand on the registration compound, before seeing the Jewish Barracks, boot testing track, gallows, East German memorial, Station Z killing center, gas chamber, and industrial yard. Finally you will visit the hospital and pathology building. An expert guide will tell you of the bleak existence inside the Gestapo prison and of the laborers who were forced to build it just as the world’s eyes were diverted by the 1936 Olympic Games. You will also learn how the camp was kept in use after the Soviet liberation in 1945, by both the Soviets and East Germans.

The meeting point for the tour is at the front of the Alexanderplatz TV Tower. From here the tour makes its way to the Northern outskirts of Berlin. The train ride takes 50 minutes. This is a poignant tour of one of the most important concentration camps of both the Nazi Regime and Soviet era, told in Spanish. This 6-hour tour explores the origins of the camp, what life would have been like in the camp and the type of work performed by prisoners. With access to personal accounts of survivors, photographs, and official documents, you can understand the stark realities of Sachsenhausen. Features of the tour are the A Tower and Station Z. The A Tower was the roll-call location of the camp, and Station Z was added in 1942 with the purpose of killing victims quickly and clinically. Both of these locations are extremely sobering. Sachsenhausen also contains a very informative museum and various exhibits. Because of its close proximity to Berlin, Sachsenhausen was intended as a model camp. It was also the center for administration of all other Nazi concentration camps. Over 200,000 people passed through Sachsenhausen. At least 50,000 of these people died. After the fall of Hitler, the Soviets transformed Sachsenhausen into a gulag for their own prisoners. Today the camp is preserved for educational purposes and as a memorial site for all who were killed.

Take a tour of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp on this half-day tour from Berlin. Learn about the history of the facility that was once used for political prisoners but also served as the administrative center of the Nazi concentration camp system. You’ll take a short train ride to the outskirts of Berlin to this desolate reminder of one of the worst eras in human history. Walk through the camp as your guide describes the daily life of prisoners and explains the tactics of control used by the Nazis. Hear stories of tragedy and triumph, and learn about everyday life in the camp and some of the tactics used by the Nazis. Although this is a very sobering and somber tour you will also have a chance to remember the strong personalities of victims and survivors, whose actions still provide inspiration today.

Experience a tour of the memorial site at Sachsenhausen, one of the main concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Built in 1936 by the SS - the second major camp to be constructed after Dachau - it was set up to detain all opposition to the Nazi regime. Traveling from Berlin, transfer to Sachsenhausen by public transport, approximately 20 miles north of the city center. Upon arrival, you will learn why Sachsenhausen was created and why the Nazis developed the concentration camp system. Learn what conditions were like inside the camp, and how they worsened after the outbreak of World War II. Your guide will describe who was present in the camp, some acts of defiance by British Prisoners or War, as well acts of sabotage by Soviet and Polish prisoners.  Inside the grounds you will see memorial statues and plaques, as well as the remains of the watchtowers, barrack blocks, and execution areas. The tour also includes inspiring stories of resistance. Learn about the revolt of Jewish prisoners in 1942, and how some Jewish prisoners survived by counterfeiting millions of pounds sterling in the forgery workshop.  Hear about different prisoner groups and notable escapes, including the tunnel dug by “Jimmy” James, and the history of the ‘death march’ ahead of the camp’s liberation in 1945. At the end of the tour your guide will take you back to Berlin via train, arriving in a centrally located station such as Hauptbahnhof, Friedrichstraße, or Gesundbrunnen.