Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Bus Tour

We were so fortunate to have Joseph as our guide for two days in a row, and having him with us at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp made this deeply moving experience even more meaningful. Joseph handled such a difficult and emotional subject with incredible knowledge, passion, and sensitivity. He was thoughtful and considerate throughout the tour, understanding the importance of the history and the emotions that come with learning about it. His storytelling and knowledge brought the history to life while always remaining respectful of the people and events we were learning about. We are truly grateful to have had Joseph as our guide for both days. He is an exceptional guide, and we would highly recommend him.

We were so fortunate to have Joseph as our guide for two days in a row, and having him with us at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp made this deeply moving experience even more meaningful. Joseph handled such a difficult and emotional subject with incredible knowledge, passion, and sensitivity. He was thoughtful and considerate throughout the tour, understanding the importance of the history and the emotions that come with learning about it. His storytelling and knowledge brought the history to life while always remaining respectful of the people and events we were learning about. We are truly grateful to have had Joseph as our guide for both days. He is an exceptional guide, and we would highly recommend him

We intentionally took this tour after learning about Prussian history and before exploring Berlin’s Cold War history, and I am very glad we experienced these parts of German history in that order. Sachsenhausen provided an important, though incredibly difficult, piece of that historical journey. This was a larger group than some of our other tours, but we never felt as though we were competing to hear or understand what was being shared. A huge part of that was our guide, Rohan. He was absolutely amazing and extremely knowledgeable. He set exactly the right expectations from the beginning for such a solemn and emotionally difficult experience and was incredibly supportive throughout the tour. What stood out most was how passionate Rohan is about his work and how seriously he takes the responsibility of knowing this history. He did not simply share dates and facts. He helped us understand the complexity of what happened here, the people involved, and why it remains so important to learn about it. He approached difficult subjects with compassion and tremendous respect, while still giving us the information necessary to truly understand what we were seeing. We actually had the opportunity to spend another day with Rohan on a private tour covering a different period of Berlin’s history, and we cannot say enough good things about him. After experiencing both a group tour and a private tour with him, we found him to be an exceptionally knowledgeable, compassionate, engaging, and respectful guide. I was personally very grateful that selfies are not permitted at Sachsenhausen. It is unfortunate that such an expectation even needs to be established, but this is a place that demands respect for the people who suffered and died here. There were so many things I learned that I had either never known or never truly stopped to think about. Seeing an actual building where prisoners were held, walking through the camp layout, and seeing the imposing guard towers made something we all learn about in history books suddenly very real. The running track was particularly difficult for me. My husband had just completed the Berlin Marathon, so hearing how prisoners were forced to run under horrific conditions gave the word “running” an entirely different meaning that day. Learning more about the persecution of not only Jews, but also homosexuals and other groups targeted by the Nazi regime, was equally eye-opening. I had also heard the term “Kapo” before, but I had never really considered the complicated dynamics among prisoners or how the prisoner hierarchy was deliberately used as part of the camp system. Rohan’s explanations helped us understand aspects of daily life, power, and survival that I had never thought about before. For me, however, the most difficult part was seeing the extermination facilities and confronting the sheer amount of planning and thought that went into killing human beings. It is difficult to put into words what it feels like to stand there and understand what happened in that place. This is not an enjoyable tour in the traditional sense, nor should it be. It is an important one. Sachsenhausen represents a horrific chapter in history, but it is a history that everyone should learn, understand, and remember. Having a guide like Rohan, who understands both the facts and the responsibility that comes with sharing them, made an incredibly difficult experience also an incredibly meaningful one.

Rebecca, the tour guide, was outstanding. She knew her history inside and out and did an amazing job covering a sensitive topic in an engaging and meaningful way.

Interesting and informative tour. Maria really knows her stuff. Humbling experience! Something every person should see to totally understand.