GERMANY: REMAINS OF SEVERAL THOUSAND HOLOCAUST VICTIMS ARE LAID TO REST AFTER BEING DISCOVERED RECENTLY AT FORMER SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP

Record ID: 647887

  • Title: GERMANY: REMAINS OF SEVERAL THOUSAND HOLOCAUST VICTIMS ARE LAID TO REST AFTER BEING DISCOVERED RECENTLY AT FORMER SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP
  • Date: 29th March 2005
  • Summary: (BN14)SACHSENHAUSEN FORMER CONCENTRATION CAMP, ORANIANBURG, BRANDENBURG, GERMANY (MARCH 29, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE EXTERIOR OF GATE IN FRONT OF SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP WITH THE WORDS "FREEDOM THROUGH LABOUR" IN THE WROUGHT IRON GATE 0.06 2. CLOSE UP OF THE WORDS "FREEDOM THROUGH LABOUR" IN THE WROUGHT IRON GATE 0.13 3. WIDE SHOWING COURTYARD OF THE FORMER CONCENTRATION CAMP AND VISITORS 0.21 4. CLOSE UP OF SOLITARY VISITOR WALKING THROUGH THE FORMER CAMP 0.28 5. WIDE SHOWING A SYMBOLIC CHIMNEY ERECTED BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE FORMER EAST GERMAN STATE 0.34 6. CLOSE UP OF FIGURES ON THE MEMORIAL 0.41 7. WIDE SHOWING THE SITE WHERE THE REMAINS ARE TO BE BURIED; NEXT TO THE SITE OF THE CREMATORIUM WHERE THEY WERE FOUND 0.49 8. WIDE SHOWING THE CARDBOARD CARTONS CONTAINING THE REMAINS OF THE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS 0.56 9. WIDE SHOWING BUILDERS WORKING AT THE SITE WHERE THE REMAINS WERE FOUND 1.03 10. CLOSE UP OF BUILDERS WORKING AT THE SITE WHERE THE REMAINS WERE FOUND 1.10 11. WIDE OF BUILDING SITE ON THE FORMER CREMATORIUM OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMP WHERE THE REMAINS WERE FOUND 1.16 12. UNDERTAKERS PREPARING THE GRAVE SITE 1.22 13. SOUNDBITE (German) DIRECTOR OF THE FOUNDATION FOR THE CONCENTRATION CAMP MEMORIAL SITE AT SACHSENHAUSEN, GUENTER MORSCH SAYING: "We then found a further large mass grave under the concrete floor which the memorial foundation had laid then, upon which millions of visitors had walked. This shocked us to the extreme in fact, and whether they were historians or archeologists, those who saw this mountain of bones and human ashes and burnt human remains, even those who were used to the dimensions of National Socialism, they were simply lost for words." 1.51 14. CLOSE UP OF MEMBERS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY 1.57 15. WIDE OF MEMBERS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN DISCUSSION 2.00 16. SOUNDBITE (English) HEAD OF THE SURVIVORS ASSOCIATION OF SACHSENHAUSEN, ADAM KOENIG SAYING: "You have the feelings which happened here, and the people who didn't have the luck and the opportunity to survive. And those who survived they feel they have the responsibility to talk about it, that it shouldn't be forgotten." 2.30 17. CLOSE UP OF BOXES CONTAINING HUMAN REMAINS 2.35 18. SOUNDBITE (English) HEAD OF THE SURVIVORS ASSOCIATION OF SACHSENHAUSEN, ADAM KOENIG SAYING: "Well it's a kind, it's a possibility to remember those who died here, who were killed here and in a certain way give them back their human dignity." 2.56 19. WIDE OF DIRECTOR OF THE FOUNDATION FOR THE CONCENTRATION CAMP MEMORIAL SITE AT SACHSENHAUSEN, GUENTER MORSCH HOLDING A SPEECH 3.00 20. CLOSE UP OF MEMBER OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY 3.06 21. SCU: HEAD OF THE SURVIVORS ASSOCIATION OF SACHSENHAUSEN, ADAM KOENIG, SPEAKING WITH UNDERTAKERS IN THE BACKGROUND 3.15 22. CLOSE UP OF FLORAL WREATH 3.20 23. BOX OF HUMAN ASHES BEING CARRIED INTO THE GRAVE WHILE STUDENTS READ THE NAMES OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS OUT IN THE BACKGROUND SOUND 3.28 24. CLOSE UP OF ROWS OF BOXES OF HUMAN REMAINS IN THE GRAVE 3.32 25. MEMBERS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CARRYING A CARTON OF HUMAN ASHES INTO THE MASS GRAVE 3.47 26. WIDE OF RELIGIOUS MEMBER OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY THROWING SAND ONTO THE BOXES 3.54 27. CLOSE UP OF SAND LANDING ON THE CARTONS OF HUMAN ASHES 4.02 28. WIDE SHOWING ADAM KOENIG AND MEMBERS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY SHOVELING SAND ONTO THE BOXES IN THE MASS GRAVE 4.11 29. WIDE OF A MEMBER OF THE JEWISH RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY SINGING A PRAYER 4.19 30. CLOSE UP OF ADAM KOENIG WITH TEARS IN HIS EYES 4.32 31. WIDE OF ADAM KOENIG WIPING TEARS FROM HIS YEYES 4.38 32. WIDE OF SURVIVORS OF SACHSENHAUSEN AND GUESTS AT THE GRAVE SITE 4.48 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 13th April 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVADMETY4XSX187OBC56HY3UR1FC
  • Story Text: The remains of several thousand Holocaust victims
    have been laid to rest after being discovered recently in
    Sachsenhausen.


    The remains of tens of thousands of Holocaust
    vicitims were laid to rest in a ceremony in the the former
    Nazi concentration camp, Sachsenhausen on Tuesday (March
    29), almost 60 years after the camp was liberated by allied
    forces.

    The ashes and bones had been discovered during the
    renovation of the crematorium in the camp in Oranienburg in
    Brandenburg. The Director of the Foundation for the
    Concentration Camp memorial site at Sachsenhausen, Guenther
    Morsch said they had had to deduce from documentary
    evidence, and the fact that the Nazis had dumped nine
    tonnes of ashes into the nearby Hohenzollern canal, that
    there were no more remains to be found at the site.

    They found three smaller chambres containing human
    remains three years ago when they started renovating the
    crematorium, cynically named "Station Z" by the Nazis, but
    were astonished to discover the huge chamber under the
    cement floor which had been put in at the memorial site by
    the ruling Communist party of the former East Germany.

    Millions had visitors had walked over the floor, with
    little idea of the what was below.

    The management of the foundation themselves were
    shocked by the extent of the find, Morsch told Reuters. The
    layer of ashes, bones and burnt human remains was one and a
    half metres thick. "Whether they were historians or
    archeologists, those who saw this mountain of bones and
    human ashes and burnt human remains, even those who were
    used to the dimensions of National Socialism, they were
    simply lost for words."
    The exact numbers of dead can not be determined, nor
    can any names, said Morsch. The ashes and bones filled 150
    cartons, each weighing 30 kilogrammes, which were buried
    near the site at which they were found, and which will
    become part of the memorial site. Students read out a
    symbolic selection of the names of those who lost their
    lives in the camps while the ceremony took place.

    "You have feelings about what happened here and the
    people who didn't have the luck and the opportunity to
    survive," the head of the Survivors Association of
    Sachsenhausen, Adam Koenig told Reuters. "And those who
    survived they feel they have the responsibility to talk
    about it, that it shouldn't be forgotten."
    Adam Koenig spent years in Sachsenhausen and lost many
    close friends there he said in his speech. He wept as the
    cartons containing what were his comrades and perhaps close
    friends were buried. "It's a possibility to remember those
    who died here, who were killed here and in a certain way
    give them back their human dignity," he said.

    Russian and polish units of the Red Army liberated the
    roughly 3,000 survivors of Sachsenhause on April 22nd 1945.

    In the previous weeks the National Socialists had attempted
    to hide the extent of the concentration camps, sending many
    prisoners on death marches which killed thousands more just
    before the liberation of the camps. More than 200.000
    people were interned in Sachsenhausen up to 1945, and tens
    of thousands of them were killed.

    The anniversary of the liberation of the camp will be
    remembered the 14th and 18th of April with survivors and
    guests coming from all over the world to attend.


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