From Darkness

Chapter 21: Broken

Arbeit Macht Frei was the first thing Kristian saw upon his arrival at the camp. Work Makes You Free, the slogan was etched on the front gates. A half hour ride away from Berlin, his new home wasn't far away from his old. He would be living inside the camp, although he had had a choice of living accommodations in the nearby town of Oranienburg.

An officer greeted him. "Welcome to Sachsenhausen, Officer Köhler. I am Senior Officer Carver, one of the camp administrators. I have heard great things about you."
"Pleased to meet you," said Kristian. "Come, let me show you around, give you a little tour." Carver told him.

They went inside the camp, which was surrounded by a scattered forest. The campgrounds were vast, it was all much larger than Kristian had imagined.
"This here is the courtyard," Carver said as they walked outside the camp's buildings. "The camp is shaped like a triangle, so that the guards in any of the three corner towers have a perfect view of the campgrounds."

As they walked further in, Kristian began to see the prisoners. Men of all ages who were cutting and carrying tree trunks around. They would walk by Kristian and Carver without looking at eye level. "These buildings over here are the prisoners' dormitories, and that large one over there is their eatery and toilet. Ours is over there, in the camp administration building. It's also known as 'guard tower A' and it's the most heavily guarded tower. Your dormitory is in there as well, I'll show you later, and don't worry, yours is much nicer." Carver said upon seeing the look on Kristian's face after peeking into one of the barracks. They walked onward.

Guards kept surveillance from the watchtowers with rifles and machine guns. There was an outer brick fence, an inner barbed wire fence which ran through tall, lit posts, and there was one final inner fence which was curled up, electrical barbed wire. An escape from there seemed impossible. As Carver explained the many protocols, Kristian noticed blood splattered everywhere on the edge. "What happened there?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, we used to throw more gravel over that, but there's no point anymore. This gravel strip you see all around the fence, we call it 'the death strip'. Thing is, prisoners who got this close to the fence were shot to death. They knew not to step out of the grass and onto the gravel. But soon enough, some started doing it on purpose, you know, to commit suicide. So now we don't shoot them to kill, we shoot them below the torso, to maim. Once they recover, they're back to work.

See, Köhler, here, those who want to die are forced to live. And those who want to live... well, if they put up a fight, they are the ones who end up dying," Carver said loud enough that some prisoners nearby heard. How motivational... Kristian thought.

"What kind of work do the prisoners do?" he asked.
"All kinds of work. Right now, they're working on supplying Berlin with wood. They'll go out into the forest, supervised of course, and cut down the trees, bring them back here, cut the wood, stuff like that. They're also working on an expansion for the camp."

The camp even had an infirmary, a kitchen, and a laundry. Kristian also saw the extension Carver told him about. They soon arrived at the administrative building. A group of officers sat outside playing cards and smoking. "Good afternoon, officers. This is our newcomer, Officer Köhler," Carver introduced him.

"Welcome, rookie," one of the men smiled.
"Look at him, he's got that frightened, first-time look on his face. It's kind of cute," one of them said and the others laughed.
"Let me guess, you just came from an office job for the Schutzstaffel in the capital?" one of the officers asked.

How does he know? "Yes," Kristian answered.
"Well, welcome to the  real men's league. This here is no office job. Your days babysitting the Führer and being his errand boy are over."
"Seriously though, make yourself at home, Officer. Anything you need or any questions you have, just come to one of us," a more serious-looking officer said.