Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was the third Nazi concentration camp, established in 1936, initially for prisoners, at first primarily political, from the Berlin area. It was located near Oranienburg, north of Berlin.
Medical experiments
Nazi medical experiments conducted here include mustard gas and epidemic jaundice.
Counterfeiting
One of the best-known economic warfare attacks on a national currency was based there, targeting Bank of England notes, Operation Bernhard.[1], using skilled prisoners given a choice to forge or die. Some of the notes were found in Lake Toplitz. [2]
Allied Prisoners of War
A special operations party of the Royal Navy, led by Sublieutenant John Godwin, was imprisoned there after being captured while raiding shipping near Haugesund, north of Stavanger, Norway. At the camp, in violation of the Third Geneva Convention, they were forced to march thirty miles a day, on rough surfaces, to test army boots.
The Nazis decided to kill them on 2 February 1945, but, while being led to the execution site, Godwin managed to take the firing squad leader's pistol and kill him before being himself killed. [3]
References
- ↑ German Forgery: Operation Bernhard
- ↑ Harding, Luke (April 6, 2004), Last dive for Lake Toplitz's Nazi gold
- ↑ M.R.D. Foote (1979), MI9 - Escape and Evasion 1939 - 1945, pp. 154-155