Which Concentration Camps Should You Visit When Travelling Germany & Europe?

For many travellers, visiting a former concentration camp is one of the most meaningful — and difficult — experiences of a trip to Europe. These memorial sites are not tourist attractions, but places of remembrance that document how Nazi persecution, forced labour, and genocide were organised and carried out.

Visitors often ask:

• Which concentration camp should I visit?

• Is Sachsenhausen or Dachau better to visit?

• Are all concentration camps more or less the same?

• How do other camps compare to Auschwitz?

  
  

The answer depends on where you are travelling, how much time you have, and what historical perspective you want to gain. Below is an overview of the most visited and historically significant memorial sites — all described in the same structure to help you compare them properly.

Also check out my posts on the best WWII itinerary in Europe and the best private tour guides across the continent.

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (near Berlin)

Location: Oranienburg, 35 minutes north of Berlin

Type: Concentration camp, SS model & administrative centre

Victims: Over 200,000 prisoners, up to 70,000 murdered

Brief History

Established in 1936, Sachsenhausen was designed as the model camp for the Nazi system. It later became the administrative headquarters for all concentration camps, meaning policies tested here were exported across Europe. Prisoners included political opponents, Jews, Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Soviet POWs.

What You See Today

Sachsenhausen is one of the most spatially understandable memorial sites in Europe:

• Original triangular camp layout and roll-call square

• Guard towers, perimeter walls, and watchtower “A”

• Prisoner barracks with permanent exhibitions

• Punishment cells, execution trench, and crematorium

• Exhibitions explaining daily routines, forced labour, and SS hierarchy

  
  

Why Sachsenhausen Is Unique

Unlike Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen focuses less on industrial mass murder and more on how terror was organised and enforced. Its clarity makes it especially powerful when visited with a guide who explains what is no longer visible. For visitors based in Berlin, Sachsenhausen is the most comprehensive and accessible camp to visit on a day trip. I offer respectful walking tours there!

Dachau Concentration Camp (near Munich)

Location: Near Munich, Southern Germany

Type: Concentration camp

Victims: About 200,000 prisoners, at least 41,500 murdered

Brief History

Dachau, opened in 1933, was the first Nazi concentration camp. It served as a testing ground for repression and as a training site for SS guards who later staffed other camps.

What You See Today

• Reconstructed prisoner barracks

• Large museum in the former maintenance building

• Crematorium area (not used for mass gassing)

• Religious memorials added after the war

  
  

Sachsenhausen vs Dachau – Which Should You Visit?

This depends almost entirely on geography:

• From Berlin → Sachsenhausen

• From Munich → Dachau

Historically, Dachau represents the beginning of the camp system, while Sachsenhausen represents its fully developed form. They are similar in purpose but not identical in story. For most travellers, one well-explained visit is enough. My colleague Steve offers excellent tours there!

Ravensbrück Concentration Camp (north of Berlin)

Location: Brandenburg

Type: Women’s concentration camp

Victims: Around 130,000 prisoners, approx. 30,000–40,000 murdered

Brief History

Ravensbrück was the largest camp for women in Nazi Germany. Prisoners came from more than 30 countries and were subjected to forced labour, starvation, executions, and medical experiments.

What You See Today

Ravensbrück looks very different from Sachsenhausen:

• Large open memorial grounds by the lake

• Few reconstructed barracks

• Museum exhibitions focusing on women’s biographies

• Sculptural memorials rather than architecture

• hauntingly empty as one of the lesser visited memorial grounds

  
  

Why Ravensbrück Is Unique

Ravensbrück tells the gendered history of persecution. It is quieter, more abstract, and emotionally powerful in a different way. It works best as a second visit rather than a first introduction. I can arrange guided tours there!

Buchenwald Concentration Camp (near Weimar)

Location: Central Germany (Thuringia)

Type: Concentration camp

Victims: About 280,000 prisoners, over 56,000 murdered

Brief History

Established in 1937, Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps on German soil. Prisoners included political opponents, Jews, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and forced labourers from across Europe. Buchenwald also became known for organised prisoner resistance and underground networks, which played a role in the camp’s partial self-liberation shortly before U.S. troops arrived in April 1945.

What You See Today

Buchenwald is a large, layered memorial site that combines original remains with post-war memorial architecture:

• Remaining camp structures, including the gate and crematorium

• Monumental memorial tower and sculptural landscape from the GDR era

• Extensive museum exhibitions covering daily camp life, forced labour, and resistance

• Exhibitions addressing post-war memory, including how the camp was remembered in East and West Germany

  
  

Why Visit

Buchenwald offers a broad overview of the concentration camp system and is particularly valuable for visitors interested in resistance, political prisoners, and how memory evolved after 1945. Its location near Weimar adds historical contrast between German culture and Nazi terror.

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp (Germany)

Location: Lower Saxony, Northern Germany

Type: Concentration camp

Victims: About 120,000 prisoners, over 50,000 murdered

Brief History

Bergen-Belsen began as a prisoner-of-war camp and later became a concentration camp. Originally intended as an "exchange camp" where some Jewish prisoners were held for possible emigration or exchange for Germans abroad, Bergen-Belsen later became one of the Nazi regime's deadliest concentration camps, where tens of thousands perished from starvation, disease, and neglect. It was never designed as an extermination camp, but catastrophic overcrowding, starvation, and disease — especially typhus — led to mass death, particularly in the final months of the war. Anne Frank and her sister Margot died here in early 1945.

What You See Today

Bergen-Belsen looks very different from camps with preserved barracks:

• Vast open memorial grounds marking mass graves

• Minimal remaining structures (most were destroyed after liberation due to disease)

• A modern documentation centre with photographs, testimonies, and film material

• Individual grave markers and symbolic remembrance stones

  
  

Why Visit

Bergen-Belsen powerfully illustrates how neglect, collapse, and indifference can be just as deadly as systematic killing. Its openness and silence make it one of the most emotionally confronting memorial sites in Germany.

Theresienstadt (Terezín) Ghetto and Camp (Czech Republic)

Location: Northern Czech Republic (between Prague and Dresden)

Type: Ghetto and transit camp

Victims: About 140,000 prisoners; over 33,000 died in the ghetto, most others deported to extermination camps

Brief History

Theresienstadt was established in 1941 as a Jewish ghetto and transit camp. The Nazis used it as a propaganda tool — presenting it as a “model settlement” to deceive international observers — while in reality it functioned as a waystation to Auschwitz, Treblinka, and other killing sites. Disease, overcrowding, and starvation caused tens of thousands of deaths.

What You See Today

Theresienstadt differs from concentration camps built outside cities:

• Preserved fortress town layout and streets

• Former barracks housing museum exhibitions

• The Small Fortress, used as a Gestapo prison

• Cemeteries, crematorium, and execution sites

• Exhibitions explaining Nazi propaganda and deception

  
  

Why Visit

Theresienstadt is essential for understanding how the Holocaust was disguised and administrated. It shows the role of bureaucracy, lies, and international manipulation — making it especially relevant for visitors travelling between Berlin, Dresden, and Prague. It is an ideal stop en route to Prague from Berlin or Dresden. My colleague Petra offers tours here!

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum (Poland)

Location: Southern Poland (Oświęcim)

Type: Concentration and extermination camp complex

Victims: Over 1.1 million murdered, the vast majority Jewish

Brief History

Auschwitz was the largest and deadliest camp complex created by Nazi Germany. Established in 1940, it expanded to include Auschwitz I (the original camp), Auschwitz II–Birkenau (the main extermination site), and numerous subcamps connected to forced labour and industry. Deportees arrived from across occupied Europe, with most murdered shortly after arrival.

What You See Today

Auschwitz is preserved on an unparalleled scale and consists of two main sites:

Auschwitz I

• Original brick barracks with museum exhibitions

• Prisoner belongings: shoes, suitcases, hair, personal items

• Execution wall and punishment cells

• Detailed documentation explaining deportation, selection, and daily camp life

Auschwitz II – Birkenau

• Vast open landscape of barracks ruins

• The railway ramp used during mass deportations

• Ruins of gas chambers and crematoria

• Memorial monuments at the killing sites

  
  

Why Visit

Auschwitz represents the industrialised murder at the centre of the Holocaust. It is unmatched in scale, documentation, and symbolism. However, because it shows the end point of Nazi policy, many visitors benefit from seeing Auschwitz in context — alongside camps that explain how the system developed and functioned before mass extermination. These private tour guides from Krakow can take you there!

How Other Camps Compare

Auschwitz represents the end point of Nazi policy. Camps like Sachsenhausen, Dachau, or Ravensbrück explain how the system evolved to that point. Visiting Auschwitz alone can feel overwhelming without context. It is one of the best preserved memorial sites.

Kraków-Płaszów Concentration Camp (Poland)

Location: Kraków, southern Poland

Type: Concentration and forced labour camp

Victims: Around 35,000 prisoners passed through the camp; thousands died from executions, forced labour, starvation, and disease.

Brief History

Established by the SS in 1942 on the site of two destroyed Jewish cemeteries, Płaszów initially served as a forced labour camp before becoming a concentration camp in 1944. Most prisoners were Polish Jews from the Kraków Ghetto, although political prisoners and Jews from across occupied Europe were also imprisoned there. Under the notorious commandant Amon Göth, the camp became infamous for its brutality, arbitrary executions, and harsh living conditions before being evacuated ahead of the Soviet advance in January 1945.

What You See Today

• The original camp grounds, now preserved as a memorial site

• Memorials marking the former camp and mass graves

• Remnants of roads, foundations, and camp infrastructure

• The Grey House (outside the memorial), used by the SS for imprisonment and interrogation

Why Visit

Płaszów offers a powerful reminder of the destruction of Kraków's Jewish community and the brutality of the Holocaust. Although few original structures survive, walking across the largely untouched landscape helps visitors grasp the immense scale of the camp and its tragic history—made widely known through Schindler's List.

Majdanek (Lublin, Poland)

Location: Lublin, Eastern Poland

Type: Concentration and extermination camp

Victims: About 78,000 murdered

Brief History

Majdanek functioned as both a labour camp and an extermination site. Unlike Auschwitz, it was not fully dismantled by the Nazis before liberation, leaving much of the original camp intact.

What You See Today

Majdanek is one of the best-preserved camps in Europe:

• Original wooden barracks across the camp grounds

• Gas chambers and crematoria still standing

• A vast ash mausoleum containing victims’ remains

• Museum exhibitions detailing deportations, labour, and mass murder

  
  

Why Visit

Majdanek provides one of the clearest physical impressions of how a Nazi camp functioned day to day — without reconstruction.

Treblinka Extermination Camp (Poland)

Location: Eastern Poland

Type: Extermination camp

Victims: Around 870,000 murdered

Brief History

Treblinka was built solely for mass murder as part of Operation Reinhard. Almost everyone deported there was killed within hours of arrival. The Nazis destroyed the camp in 1943 to erase evidence of their crimes.

What You See Today

Treblinka is a symbolic memorial rather than a preserved camp:

• A vast memorial field marked with thousands of stones

• No original barracks or buildings

• Central monument marking the killing site

• Minimal signage to encourage reflection rather than explanation

  
  

Why Visit

Treblinka confronts visitors with absence rather than structures. It represents genocide stripped of bureaucracy — a place designed only for killing.

Stutthof Concentration Camp (Poland)

Location: Sztutowo, near Gdańsk, northern Poland

Type: Concentration camp and forced labour camp

Victims: Around 110,000 prisoners passed through Stutthof and its subcamps; approximately 63,000–65,000 died, including around 28,000 Jews.

Brief History

Established on 2 September 1939, one day after Germany invaded Poland, Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp created outside Germany's pre-war borders. Initially used to imprison Polish intellectuals, resistance members, and community leaders, it later expanded to hold Jews and prisoners from across occupied Europe. Forced labour, starvation, disease, executions, and death marches claimed tens of thousands of lives before the camp was finally liberated in May 1945.

What You See Today

• Original wooden prisoner barracks and camp buildings

• The camp gate, watchtowers, and perimeter fencing

• Gas chamber and crematorium

• Memorials, exhibitions, and a museum documenting the camp's history and victims

  
  

Why Visit

As both the first Nazi concentration camp established outside pre-war Germany and the last to be liberated, Stutthof occupies a unique place in Holocaust history. Its well-preserved remains provide a powerful insight into the evolution of the Nazi camp system and the suffering endured by prisoners during the Second World War.

Mauthausen Concentration Camp (Austria)

Location: Upper Austria, near Linz

Type: Concentration camp (with extermination through labour)

Victims: About 190,000 prisoners, approximately 90,000 murdered

Brief History

Mauthausen was one of the most brutal camps in the Nazi system and classified as a punishment camp for those considered “incorrigible.” Prisoners were forced to work in nearby granite quarries under extreme conditions. The camp’s mortality rate was among the highest in the system.

What You See Today

Mauthausen is one of the most intact former camps in Europe:

• Original stone barracks and perimeter walls

• The infamous “Stairs of Death” leading from the quarry

• Gas chamber, crematorium, and execution sites

• National memorials erected by former prisoner groups from across Europe

  
  

Why Visit

Mauthausen shows the lethal combination of forced labour and ideology. Its physical remains make the brutality of daily life immediately tangible and unforgettable.

Flossenbürg Concentration Camp (Germany)

Location: Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, near the Czech border

Type: Concentration camp (forced labour camp)

Victims: Around 100,000 prisoners passed through the camp and its subcamps; approximately 30,000 died.

Brief History

Established by the SS in 1938, Flossenbürg was built to exploit forced prisoner labour in nearby granite quarries before becoming a major centre for armaments production, including Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft. Originally intended for German criminal and "asocial" prisoners, it later imprisoned political prisoners, resistance fighters, Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, and inmates from across Nazi-occupied Europe. By 1945, it had developed into a vast network of subcamps supporting Germany's war industry.

What You See Today

• Original camp buildings, foundations, and perimeter walls

• The former granite quarry, where prisoners performed brutal forced labour

• Crematorium and memorial cemetery

• Modern museum and exhibitions documenting the camp's history and victims

  
  

Why Visit

Flossenbürg illustrates how forced labour became central to the Nazi war economy. Less crowded than many other memorials, it offers a powerful and reflective experience while highlighting the persecution of political prisoners, resistance fighters, and the thousands exploited by the Nazi regime.

Neuengamme Concentration Camp (Germany)

Location: Hamburg, northern Germany

Type: Concentration camp and forced labour camp network

Victims: Over 100,000 prisoners passed through Neuengamme and its more than 85 subcamps; approximately 42,900 died.

Brief History

Established by the SS in 1938, Neuengamme grew into the largest concentration camp in northwestern Germany. Prisoners from across Europe were forced to work in brick production, construction projects, and later in armaments factories, shipyards, and other wartime industries. As the war progressed, the camp expanded into a vast network of satellite camps. Thousands died from starvation, disease, brutal treatment, forced labour, and the death marches during the final weeks of the war.

What You See Today

• The former brickworks and clay pits, central to the camp's forced labour system

• Original camp buildings, including parts of the prison and SS facilities

• Memorials, exhibitions, and preserved foundations of former barracks

• A comprehensive documentation centre and museum exploring the camp's history and victims

  
  

Why Visit

Neuengamme illustrates the immense scale of Nazi forced labour and the extensive concentration camp system that supported Germany's war economy. As one of the country's largest memorial sites, it provides a powerful and comprehensive insight into the experiences of prisoners from across Europe while commemorating the tens of thousands who lost their lives.

Should You Visit More Than One Camp?

For most travellers: one is enough.

The camps are not “the same,” but the emotional weight is significant. A single visit with good historical explanation is often more meaningful than visiting several without context.

Why Berlin Is One of the Best Places to Start

Berlin allows visitors to understand:

• Nazi decision-makers and institutions

• Jewish life, resistance, and remembrance

• Multiple concentration camps within short day trips

A guided Sachsenhausen walking tour from Berlin offers structure, historical clarity, and respectful storytelling — especially important for first-time visitors.