Nazi Forced Labour Camp - Zwangsarbeit (Schöneweide)

When we think about Berlin and the relationship with the Nazi time, the first image is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas) or to some extent at KZ Sachsenhausen. But eality is that there were several small camps, subcamps and forced labour camps all over the city. Sometimes very small and not so 'strong' as moral impact as the very big ones. 
The last well-preserved former Nazi forced labor camp is located in Schöneweide. In the Second World War it served as one of the more than 3000 collective accommodations dispersed throughout the city for forced labourers. The Documentation Center on Nazi Forced Labor opened in the summer of 2006 on a part of historical grounds that once belonged to the camp and which are today protected as a monument.

More infos: Topographie des Terrors

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/30kzu

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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Maps: Jews & Shoah

Berlin has a long tradition with the Jewish community and unfortunately their story is also related with the tragedy of the Holocaust. Now in Berlin lives the biggest Jewish community of all Germany.

This is a new map of the city to help you to descover the old and the new places regarding it.

On the top-west part of the map there's one point which is not Berlin, but a place you need to visit, the KZ Sachsenhausen - Concentration camp (Oranienburg).

Full map: http://goo.gl/maps/meYMy

Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt

Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas

Example of "Stolpersteine"

First Jewish Cemetery - Große Hamburger Straße

Foundation New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum

Garbaty Zigarettenfabrik & Jüdisches Waisenhaus

Gleis 17 Memorial

Hackesches Höfe

House of the Wannsee Conference

Inside the Jüdisches Museum

Jewish cemetery - Jüdischer Friedhof (Weißensee)

Jüdische Mädchenschule

Jüdischer Friedhof Charlottenburg

Jüdisches Gemeindehaus mit Portal der ehem. Synagoge und Mahnsäule

Kindertransport (statue)

KZ Columbia Memorial

KZ Sachsenhausen - Concentration camp (Oranienburg)

Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism

Nazi book burnings - Bücherverbrennungen

Rosenstraße protest

Rykestrasse Synagogue

Soho Haus - Kaufhaus Jonaß

The Ullsteinhaus and the Tempelhofer Hafen/Harbour

Treblinka Sculpture

U-Bahn Wittenbergplatz

Zentrale Orthodoxe Synagoge zu Berlin

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Breaking the Circle: Buchenwald Concentration Camp (Weimar)

The white memorial tower with the text MCMXLV - 1945, is visible far away on the Ettersberg hill, surrounded by trees and vivid green. This is Buchenwald, one of the first and biggest concentration camps on the German ground and walking around it in the morning, with no so many visitors and the strong light, it's a very strong experience. Till now I've visited several concentration camps as well as extermination camps outside Germany and I have to say that Buchenwald is very well preserved and the documentation center is very well made.

"In 1958, in the vicinity of the concentration camp’s mass graves on the south slope of the Ettersberg, the GDR builds a memorial complex which is visible far and wide. Its monumentality is intended to reflect the extent of the crimes, but it serves first and foremost as a national memorial. Its chief focus is the German Communist members of the resistance. Their history is to serve as a legitimation of the SED’s (Socialist Unity Party’s) claim to leadership in the GDR. The "Nationale Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Buchenwald" ("National Buchenwald Memorial") is expanded to become the largest German concentration camp memorial, complete with exhibitions, an archive and a library." (from buchenwald.de)

A lot of the areas of the camp (with the exception of the barracks, made of wood) are very well preserved and original: the entrance, the crematorium, the disinfection station, the effects, clothing and equipment depot buildings, th and even the SS zoo, which was in the camp.

Prisoners from all over Europe and the Soviet Union—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and other Slavs, the mentally ill and physically-disabled from birth defects, religious and political prisoners, Roma and Sinti, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses (then called Bible Students), criminals, homosexuals, and prisoners of war — worked primarily as forced labor in local armaments factories. From 1945 to 1950, the camp was used by the Soviet occupation authorities as an internment camp, known as NKVD special camp number 2.

The camp was made free from the Americans, but then it was under the influence of the Soviet Union and as for the all area, in the DDR.

As long as this place is such a strong place, there's no need to be retorical about it and use too many words for a place that you just need to visit by yourself.

More infos: WIKI

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/vFcZw

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it ".

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