The establishment of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg 90 years ago

In July 1936, the first 50 prisoners from the Esterwegen concentration camp arrived in Oranienburg, where they were forced to work on the construction of the new Sachsenhausen camp. On September 5, 1936, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp officially opened, and from then on it played a central role in the Nazi concentration camp system.

Due to the dissolution of other concentration camps and the transfer of their inmates, the number of prisoners rose to over 1,600 as early as the beginning of 1937. Under the most severe conditions, they built a sprawling camp complex that, in addition to the actual prisoner camp, also included SS troop areas, residential settlements, and numerous infrastructural and economic facilities.

By the end of World War II in 1945, more than 200,000 people from numerous European countries had been imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. More than 50,000 of them did not survive their imprisonment.

PROGRAM

Welcome: Dr. Andrea Riedle, Director of the Topography of Terror Foundation

Panel Discussion:

• Dr. Andrea Kaltofen, former Director of the Esterwegen Memorial
• Dr. Astrid Ley, Chair of the Standing Conference (2026) and Director of the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum
• Prof. Dr. Johannes Tuchel, former Director of the German Resistance Memorial Center
• Moderator: Prof. Dr. Günter Morsch, former Director of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation

IN GERMAN