Walking through the entrance gates of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp is a harrowing experience.

At first glance, it is innocent enough. As you walk up to it, there are paved cobblestones, trees, benches in an idyllic forest setting. A quiet, peaceful summer day with birds in the background.

And then you reach the gates. On the front entrance gates to Sachsenhausen lies the infamous slogan seen at Auschwitz, Arbeit Macht Frei – “Work Will Set You Free”.

It hits you. Mentally, you rewind the clock. You imagine all the people who walked through, the fear, the soldiers, the sounds.

This feeling persists as you explore the camp and read the documentation. Walking through the remains, there is a mixture of camp areas, from the kitchens to the morgues, set in a concentric pattern.

As an artist, I found it interesting that the artists were put to work as counterfeiters. A huge amount entered into circulation and were used to purchase goods for the German armies.

Following the aftermath of World War 2, it was taken over by the Russian army and continued to be used as a concentration camp until 1950, renamed as “Special Camp 1”.

It has a morbid history but it is beneficial to experience it. I hope it can continue to be preserved as a monument to the people during that time as well as reminder for future generations.

I made two drawings in my moleskine sketchbook to share with you. These were created on site, but I couldn’t get the darkness I wanted so I added with ink embellishing at home.

Want to know more about Sachsenhausen?

Wikipedia has a good article on it, which you can read here.