The Evils of War

A few days ago, we went to the Holocaust Museum in Berlin. It was extremely tragic to hear all the stories of those who were taken to concentration camps. One room was dark in the museum. The only light in the room were lighted floor panels. On the panels were stories that were tragic. Some were stories of families broken up. Some were final goodbyes. Some stories were completely oblivious to the pain that would inevitably enter their life. These stories were not shocking, but just deeply saddening. The thing that hit me harder were the numbers on the walls. Each listed an approximate number of deaths from each country killed in concentration camps. The number of people who lost their lives over almost nothing is terrible. We must take this history and learn from it. That is the point of history. Next stop Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

Yesterday, (which may not actually be yesterday by the time this is posted) the group went to Gedenkstatte Sachsenhausen. This is a memorial to the prisoners who were interned at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp near Oranienburg, which is 33 km north of Berlin. I had no idea what to expect in the days leading up to our visit.

We arrived in Oranienburg after probably about an hour on the S-bahn. From the train station, we had to walk probably about 2 miles to the camp. Before we got to the camp we stopped for lunch at a grocery store. After lunch, we approached the camp. There were 2-meter-high walls with gaps so that you could walk through. We continued down a road on the other side of the courtyard from where we entered after we received audio guides. The road was once where prisoners were lead into the camp. Observers of the procession into the camp often were invited to throw things at the prisoners. At the end of the road there was a gate. The gate lead into the Kommandant’s court yard. Across from the gate, was a white building. Beneath the building was the gate into the camp itself. On the gate was a phrase “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” or Work makes free. If only that statement would have been true for those in the camp. After walking through the gate, you see the expanse that is the camp. Shaped as an equilateral triangle, the camp was designed so that if a prisoner tried to escape through the gate, they would be killed because of the line of sight on the camp. I was astonished at the size of the camp. It was nothing like I had ever seen before. Trying to comprehend how it felt to be imprisoned in the camp was constantly on my mind. Listening to the conditions in the camp put the war in perspective. There were usually around 300 people in a building designed for 130 people. There were triple bunks, and two people usually shared a bed. It was said that you don’t get up to use the bathroom in the night because you would lose your space on a bed. It was hard to fathom.

Additionally, hard to fathom was how many people died or were imprisoned. The execution trench was not a place I wanted to be for very long. There was also the morgue. Before it was built, the SS stacked dead bodies in a tunnel between the infirmaries. The morgue was once of the worst places in the camp. It was huge, which may tell a thing or two about what happened there. In the infirmaries, they purposely infected children with a strain of Hepatitis to see what the effects were.

As I have probably already said twice, this visit puts the war into perspective. I had been interested in WWII for a long time, mostly in the machinery of battle, such as tanks, ships, submarines, and planes. I never really stopped to consider the concentration camps. Sure, I knew about them and vaguely what happened there, but until you are there experiencing where the prisoners lived and learned stories from them, you don’t know. There is nothing that compare to being in a camp like that.

In Germany there is acknowledgement of the evil that had been done there at Sachsenhausen and at other concentration camps. However, they don’t like to dwell on the actions of WWII, but instead focus on how to improve the lives now of those less fortunate. I see this in the government, as their constitution has clauses to protect them.

A visit to a concentration camp is definitely worth the time. Perhaps, on your visit, something will be changed in you. Perhaps you can change your world with the help of God.

1 thought on “The Evils of War”

  1. Andrew, nice reflections. May we find in our Lord the strength and courage to struggle against the mystery of evil in the world!

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