Sachsenhausen

Here is day two: the most action-packed day in our itinerary. The plan was always to do this day in a couple of parts. It is definitely worth keeping Sachsenhausen separate.

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Sachsenhausen was built by inmates at nearby Oranienburg in 1936, when the camp there could no longer hold the required number of prisoners. A total of 200,000 prisoners were detained here at some point during the Nazi regime. An estimated 100,000 never left.

Just opposite, metres away from where the prisoners were detained, sits the provocative 'Green Monster Building' where SS officers would go to relax and have a good time after a day's worth of atrocities. Walking into the camp, the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' (Work sets you free) sign is there on the gate, like at Auschwitz.

Prisoners had to assemble for roll call three times a day, standing out in all weathers for up to an hour. During that time, disease could spread very readily and many prisoners would be killed off by the cold.

This is the defence against escaping - there would have been a 'no-man's land' just in front of it, filled with mines. There is no record of a successful escape from Sachsenhausen. A single SS officer could stand on the balcony nearby, armed with a machine gun, and mow down every prisoner in the camp with very little effort.

These barracks would have held 400 prisoners each....

During the day, prisoners went to work in factories (often making bricks) or for electrical firms such as Siemens. Alternatively, they would walk 30 miles a day in a pair of army boots on the terrain shown here, just to make sure the boots were as sturdy as they had to be.

The SS were brutal - in this innocent looking wash room they were known for drowning their prisoners.

Once a year, a Christmas tree was put up in the centre of the camp to give prisoners hope. Unfortunately, this was false hope, as in January the tree was taken down and the wood was used to make a set of gallows, so that the SS could carry out ceremonial hangings.

There was also a 'Special Prison' where the most 'dangerous' political prisoners (such as Martin Niemoller) were detained. They would not have to carry out work like the others but were kept in solitary cells. Here is Niemoller's:

The famous 'Sachsenhausen Salute' would often be performed here by a prisoner of the SS' choice, who would dangle by their arms on this pole and effectively be crucified.

Leaving the 'Special Prison', we see a Soviet Memorial to all of the prisoners killed. It is quite controversial as it features only red triangles: political prisoners had to wear red triangles on their uniform, and these prisoners would have been Communists or Socialists. Many people thought that the Soviets were deliberately neglecting the Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and other minority groups in constructing this monument. What do you think?

Although Sachsenhausen was not intended as a death camp, by 1943 prisoners were being gassed in the small chamber in the far corner of this photograph. 

This room is a  memorial to all the victims at Sachsenhausen, so it was fitting to stop here for a few minutes, listen to an extract from the trial of Anton Kaindl, who ordered the gas chambers to be built, and think about the inhumanity that went on here.

When the Soviets liberated the camp in 1945, this was not the end of the story! A further 60,000 were detained under the Communist government, until the camp closed in 1950. This place is full of human suffering, and a visit makes this suffering far more immediate: standing here makes it much easier to imagine exactly what these people were subjected to.

Hopefully that was a provocative summary of the camp. There are still bits missing - I thought it best not to mention the laboratory and its many uses. Instead, I will talk about our jolly afternoon in the next post - the Olympic stadium, the German Resistance Museum, and the evening walk in the Jewish Quarter.

Bye!

Day the first!!!!!

Eugh! 3 AM starts are harder than they sound, even with several doses of coffee!

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However, skipping forward a few hours (thankfully) we had all had a restful and relatively painless flight and were ready to explore Berlin! We took theS-Bahn into the city proper and began our tour of Berlin with lunch: currywurst being the most popular choice, although a few stragglers in our group were ensnared by the golden arches. Unfortunately, the likes of McDonalds and Starbucks are just as prosperous in Germany!

Potsdamerplatz was our next destination: this square is the beating heart of Berlin and is (excitingly) home to Europe's first set of traffic lights! Less importantly, what is now the Sony Centre was once the headquarters of the SA, which Hitler stormed in 1934 as a step towards consolidating his power. Even less importantly (!), there is a small section of the Berlin Wall here, the dividing line between East and West Berlin, the boundary erected in a single night by 40,000 officers to prevent oppressed East Germans accessing the wealth and freedom available on the west side.

Further up, we had a look at Hitler's Chancellory Palace, which he had ordered to be 150m long (twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors, at Versailles where that humiliating treaty was signed!) and made of marble, to make his 'guests' unsure and edgy before they even reached his office! Next was the area over thr Fuhrer Bunker, where Hitler spent his last days. 'Downfall', which we are currently watching, encapsulates these days very nicely, so go and watch it! 

After a brief look at one of the watchtowers, situated in the 'no-man's land' that lay beside the wall, we proceeded to Checkpoint Charlie to learn about the most tense point in the Cold War: it was here that the Americans and Soviets had their tanks aimed at each other, each with a nuclear arsenal sufficient to destroy the world sitting at home. We agreed that although the American soldier by the checkpoint collecting 2€ for everyone who had a photo with him, none of us were that desperate to pay for the privilege!

Mr Dickens then deployed his collection of disturbing stories as we looked at the excavated Gestapo headquarters, including Communist party leader Ernst Thalmann's account of an 'intensive interrogation' that left him within an inch of his life.

We also saw the French and German Cathedrals, and the huge Concert Hall that lay between them, which reminded us that not all of German history is depressing! However, this was only after the group has split up, mainly due to Dr Coke-Woods, though apparently a joint effort by all of our highly responsible staff!

Thankfully, Mr Dickens made it up to us by playing (very loudly) a Conrad Schumann song. Which was really appreciated.... thank you....

I will very quickly gloss over Jack Connolly's attempts to take a 'stranger selfie' at this point.

We visited the 'Platz des Volksaufstandes' next, with its colourful depiction of the benefits of socialism on one wall, contrasting starkly with its story of how a peaceful strike in 1953 led to thousands of arrests by the Soviet Government.

On our way back, we passed through the Bebelplatz, the site of book burning under the Nazis. This horrific act is commemorated by an underground room full of empty white shelves. What makes it even worse is that students of Humboldt University, an intellectual powerhouse in which Einstein and Karl Marx both studied, were forced to burn the books!

This led us onto Unter den Linden (Under the Lime Trees) - Berlin's main thoroughfare. It was here that a bunch of angry ex-soldiers (Freikorps) organised the Kapp Putsch in 1920, which led to Dr Wolfgang Kapp having control over Berlin until he was defeated by a general strike several days later. It was also a place for Hitler to show off - his Potsdam Day, a celebration after he became Chancellor in 1933, is a good example. We finished our tour at the Neue Wache - originally used as a guardhouse for Prussian troops but not used as a war memorial to remember all victims of violent conflict.

We came to the hotel with pretty full heads, some tired feet and (in some cases) high on sugar and liable to burst out laughing for no obvious reason. And so, having checked into our basic, but comfortable hotel rooms, had a nourishing buffet dinner and finally found out how to connect to the wi-fi.... here we are watching 'Downfall' in the games room... the secret underground bunker of our hotel. I just had to say that....

Hopefully tomorrow you'll get a few shorter stories, but there's a (very detailed) idea of today's adventures!!! Also, if you can figure out who the blogger is, there may be a special mystery prize....

Goodnight!

Afternoon England!

Hello everyone, we're back and waiting for the coach, been a great trip and many thanks to the teachers.

Bye from everyone and Delara and Ben(The bloggers below:)

Day 7

Yes, all good things do come to an end. Yesterday was our last full day and just as packed as the others, so on we go:

Our day started with a stop at Finland Station to see the sealed train carriage that Lenin arrived in, when he returned to Russia 1917 from Switzerland. Then, we all went to a massive statue of Lenin doing a rather interesting pose, and the keen eyed among us spotted that Ethan Stacey looked uncannily like the Communist leader himself in the photo.

Another short journey on the coach took us to the Russian WW2 memorial for those who died in the 900 day German siege of St Petersburg. Once again Mr Dickens was there to give his blend of intensity and respect which had us all stunned, especially when we saw the kilometre wide park of mass graves full of just some of the 670,000 that died during the two and half years.

Very frantic lunchtime with everyone running around Nevsky Prospect looking for souvenirs to take back to England. The Winter Palace was next on the agenda with its massive, spectacular golden visuals and its fantastic Hermitage museum of art was a wondrous sight to behold. Spanning three building - every single exhibit that was there would have taken someone seven years to view all of it.

On our way to the Folklore show, we made a quick stop at a statue of Peter the Great, the founder of St Petersburg. The show was great fun with a Russian version of a barbershop Quartet. Much to the delight of everyone, Dickens' recommendation of sitting on the front row because 'that was where our seats were' lead to three of our boys, Harrison Costi, Elliot Ward and Lucas Crumb, going on stage and strutting their stuff with some Russian women.

To end a great trip, a classy five course dinner at the Palace where the show was held had been organised for us with live music, decorated chairs, the works! The food wasn't quite to everyone's taste but it was the experience that counted. The coach back was full of high spirits with sing-a-long chants such as 'One Pint Wardy' just as earlier in the week when we were singing Jerusalem.

Drinks back at the hotel finished a good day, along with Rob Parker, Jacob Sparrow, Ethan Stacey and Sam Grants own makeshift rendition of a ballet back at the hotel. And now we have half a day left then journey to England, see you there! We are going to miss you Russia!

Day 6

Day 6 was pretty awesome, nice and relaxed tours for the day were just as much fun as they were insightful.

To start off, our school group was split in half and taken to two different locations for tours. First stop, museum of Political history. A very important building to our school course as it was the Bolshevik headquarters for a time including 1917. As well as this, we went inside and saw the offices of Lenin and the balcony from which he gave speeches to all his devoted followers. Dr Coke-Woods underestimated the delicacy of the rooms, setting off the 'do not touch' alarm a few too many times.

Meanwhile, the other group boarded the battle ship Aurora, and soaked up the enormity of both the ship and it's significance in Russian history. It managed to be one of the only surviving battleships from the Russo-Japanese war, which played a big role in the 1905 revolution - and also fired the warning shot in October 1917 to signify the beginning of the Bolshevik takeover of the Winter Palace and Petrograd (St Petersburg).

We had some free time at lunch which was expertly used for some Russian pancakes and souvenir shopping to give to the parents. Unfortunately for Lucas, it was too late before he realised that his 'traditional' Russian vinegar that he wanted to give to his mum was, at a second glance, italian  balsamic vinegar.

After this, the building which hosted the murder of Ra-ra-Rasputin in its basement, Yusupov Palace. Much to everyone's surprise, there were freeze-frames in some rooms of plastic dummy's depicting scenes from the night of the murder which were particularly unnerving.

Once it got dark, we headed to Nevsky prospect, the main street in the city for a very well told story telling tour from Mr Dickens and Dr Coke-Woods. With as much passion and vigour as Lenin in 1917, the Doctor's words rang in our ears, raising spirits and saying 'All power to the Soviets!', which at one point had us convinced that Lenin had been reborn. In sharp contrast, Mr Dickens spoke softly and intensely about the tragic affairs of Bloody Sunday, which took place outside the Winter Palace which we were in. We thank both teachers for their awesome tours and also to Mrs P and Miss Morris for our pleasant wake up calls every morning.

Off for a folklore show tonight, exciting stuff, see you tomorrow.

Day Chitri (4) & 5

Hello again! Long time no see, lots of stuff to get through so here we go...

Bowling in the evening of Monday was great fun, special mention to Ed Palmer for the highest score out of everyone over the hour. Split into teams of roughly six, everyone liked the slower pace of the bowling to the intensity of the holiday so far.

Then came the overnight train. And it was definitely just as cramped as everyone had anticipated. The corridors for each room were half a human wide - especially coupled with the distinct aroma (stench) of many boys in the same area... Luckily, sleep came easier than expected and no one was left in the train.

Then, a drowsy 40 students had their first breakfast in St Petersburg and to everyone's delight the city was slightly colder yet just as spectacular visually. Although as much as he wanted to say this, Josh Lloyd's voice cracks and lost voice rendered him incapable of such a thing.

After breakfast, a relaxing sightseeing tour followed with our new guide. We even got to see 9 bridges in one spot! (-.-). A much rushed lunch meant that we could have some time at the hotel after stopping by the Smolny Institute.

Showers at the hotels were a welcome relief compared to those at the Cosmos in Moscow. At dinner time everyone was in much higher spirits and some pretty classy clothing as we were off to the ballet. The storyline wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but no one could deny that the music and dancing were amazing.

Looking forward to our first full day in St Petersburg! Sorry it was a bit rushed - breakfast is a very important meal!

Ben and Delara signing out

The last supper... (In Moscow)

Last dinner in Moscow, off bowling in a few minutes too!