Station Z-Sachsenhausen

“What was going on at that time with us all, withEurope, with the world, that there were camps like Sachsenhausen and its ilk?” (Andrzej Szczypiorski)

“Station Z,” as the crematorium at the concentration camp was referred to by the SS, is the central place of remembrance at the Sachsenhausen Holocaust memorial today. Architect HG Merz (*1947) designed an abstract structure, which was built between 1998 and 2005, to protect the remaining foundation and relicts of the former crematorium and provide visitors with a place for contemplation. Through its focus on the interior, this translucent “shell shape” exemplifies the hopeless situation of the prisoners.

Walter Niedermayr (*1952), most recently acclaimed for his subtle, unique interpretations of structures by the Japanese architectural firm SANAA, has produced the photographs in this publication, images that bring us closer to this site of sorrow and remembrance. A prologue by Polish author and former camp prisoner Andrzej Szczypiorski—his 1995 speech commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Sachsenhausen—and an epilogue by HG Merz on the history of the site and its award-winning architecture complete the volume.