Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten Gedenkstätte Todesmarsch im Belower Wald

On 21 April 1945 the SS forced more than 30,000 inmates of Sachsenhausen concentration camp, some of them women and children, to leave the camp on foot on a death march towards the north-west. Hundreds died on the way or were shot by the SS. From 23 to 29 April more than 16,000 inmates were corralled together in the Below Forest near Wittstock, where they camped in the open air without food and water, fenced in by barbed wire and guarded by a chain of SS guards.
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Already in 1945 a commemorative stone was erected in the nearby cemetery in Grabow for 132 concentration camp inmates who died in Below Forest. The first commemorative stone at the historic site of the forest camp followed in 1965. Ten years later, the memorial that still exists today was inaugurated. Since 1976 120 uniform commemorative tablets have marked the routes of the Death March between Oranienburg and Schwerin.
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In 1981 the Museum of the Death March was opened as an external site of the Sachsenhausen National Memorial. In 1993 it became part of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation. In early September 2002 a fire attack by neo-Nazis destroyed one of the two exhibition rooms. After this, a process of redesigning started.
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The Death March Memorial in Below Forest was reopened in April 2010, following an extensive redesign, for the 65th anniversary of the Liberation. Its central focus is the historic site in the forest, covering some 20,000 m². On a raised platform next to this is the open-air exhibition "April 1945: the Death March by the Inmates of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp".
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  • April 1945 Death March and forest camp
  • 1945-1981 Commemorating the Death March
  • 1981-2010 Museum of the Death March
  • since 2010 Death March Memorial in Below Forest

News

Opening hours Christmas and New Year

12. December 2025

The open-air exhibition and the historical forest encampment can be visited at any time during daylight hours. The office is temporarily closed. more

Foto: SBG, Lars Wendt

Note: Train cancellations for the anniversary weekend

11. April 2024

Due to an accident and the line closure near Birkenwerder, all trains between Berlin and Oranienburg are temporarily cancelled. The RE5, RB20 and RB32 lines are affected. more

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Death March Memorial in Below Forest

Head of Charge: Carmen Lange
Belower Damm1
16909 Wittstock
Telephon: +49 (0)39925-2478/+49 (0)173-4354091
gehrmanngedenkstaette-sachsenhausende

 

DONATION ACCOUNT

Account holder: Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten
IBAN: DE75 1207 0024 0633 4007 02
BIC: DEUTDEDB160

Intended use: Below

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