The Persistence Of Loss

The Sachsenhausen concentration camp was built in July 1936. Prisoners would go into the Doctors Room where a gramophone was playing loudly. There SS men in white coats would examine them, and mark any prisoners with gold teeth or filings. Prisoners would then be led, one at a time, by an SS man into a room, there he would be stood in front of a measuring rod fixed to the wall, as if his height was being measured. An SS man on the other side of the wall behind a screen (so they could not see the prisoner), would then shoot the prisoner in the back of the neck, through a slit in the wall. Then two men from the crematorium detail would open the door from the mortuary and drag the corpse into the mortuary. I have captured what moved me, I hope it moves you.