The Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum stands on the site of the former concentration camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, less than an hour by train from the city centre. Built by prisoners in the summer of 1936, the camp was designed by the SS as a model camp, right next to the capital of the Reich; some 200,000 people were imprisoned there until its liberation on 22 April 1945. From 1945 to 1950, the Soviet secret service then held around 60,000 people on the site, 12,000 of whom died of hunger and disease. Admission is free and the site opens every day at 8:30am; several permanent exhibitions are shown in the original buildings.
Highlights
Tower A and the roll-call square
Tower A, the entrance building of the prisoners' camp, housed the SS department that wielded direct power over the prisoners; an exhibition is devoted to it. It overlooks the semicircular roll-call square, around which prisoners of a punishment detail had to march for days on end to test shoe soles.
The "Arbeit macht frei" gate
The wrought-iron inscription is set in the gate of Tower A, which prisoners passed through on arrival. Walking from outside into the camp helps you grasp its triangular layout, through which the SS displayed its total domination over the prisoners.
The Jewish barracks 38 and 39
The SS crowded all Jewish prisoners together here between November 1938 and October 1942. Damaged in an antisemitic arson attack in 1992, they now house the "Museum Barrack 38", devoted to the Jewish prisoners, and an exhibition on the prisoners' daily life based on twenty personal accounts.
Station Z
This was the SS name for the building that served both as an execution site and a crematorium, the last letter of the alphabet answering Tower A at the entrance. The remains and an open-air documentation recall the mass murders, including that of at least 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war in the autumn of 1941.
The Soviet Special Camp museum
From 1945 to 1950, Special Camp No. 7, later No. 1, occupied the core of the former concentration camp. Its history is presented in a building erected in 2001 and in two original stone barracks.
The camp prison and the former prisoners' kitchen
Only one wing remains of the camp prison, which was also used by the Gestapo; six cells hold an exhibition. The former prisoners' kitchen presents a chronology of the camp from 1936 to 1945 and a film of about 30 minutes shown in German, English, French and Spanish.
Infos pratiques
Tips
Prices checked in October 2026: admission to the memorial and museums is free. The audio guide can be hired for €3.50 at the visitor information centre, in eight languages including English, with no booking needed. A public guided tour of about two hours runs every Saturday, at 11am in English and 2pm in German, for €3 (€2 reduced): registration is on site only. Group tours must be booked at least four months ahead. The free berlinHistory.app offers a self-guided route in German. The memorial considers the exhibition content unsuitable for children under 12 and recommends the guided tour from age 14. Most of the site is outdoors: dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes. Lockers only take medium-sized bags, animals are not allowed and cycling is forbidden on the site. Dress and behave respectfully: this is a place of remembrance. For another site linked to this history, see the [House of the Wannsee Conference](/fr/attractions/maison-de-la-conference-de-wannsee) or the [Topography of Terror](/fr/attractions/topographie-de-la-terreur).
How to get there
Straße der Nationen 22, 16515 Oranienburg. By S-Bahn: line S1 to Oranienburg, 45 minutes from Friedrichstraße, every 20 minutes. By regional train: RE5 from Berlin Hauptbahnhof (about 25 minutes, hourly) or RB12 from Ostkreuz and Lichtenberg (about 25 minutes, hourly); get off at Oranienburg station, not at Sachsenhausen station. Oranienburg is in zone C: from the centre you need a Berlin ABC ticket (€5 single, €5.20 from 1 January 2027, €12.90 for the 24-hour ticket in October 2026), also valid on Oranienburg's buses. From the station, allow about 20 minutes on foot, or take bus 804 (towards Malz) or 821 to the Gedenkstätte stop. More details in our guide to [getting around Berlin](/fr/articles/transports-berlin).
Opening hours
Nearby
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