Once the future of the concentration camps was secure, the SS embarked on a revamp. Older camps were closed down, and their place was taken by purpose-built new ones. Such “modern” camps, as SS leader Himmler called them, were designed to be expandable. They were quick and cheap to build, with rows of prefabricated barracks. Between 1936 and 1938, the SS built four such camps for male prisoners: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Flossenbürg and Mauthausen (in annexed Austria); Himmler’s old model camp Dachau was rebuilt, too. The following song, composed by Communist prisoners, commemorates their transfer from the abandoned Esterwegen camp to Sachsenhausen. It also shows the prisoners’ resilience.
We march along with steady step,
defying need and sorrow;
and marching with us is the hope
of freedom and tomorrow.
What lies behind us is the past,
we won’t drag it along;
the future needs a real man,
to it we sing our song.
From Esterwegen we set out,
away from moor and mud,
and Sachsenhausen was soon reached,
the gates were once more shut.
Behind barbed wire is our work,
our backs are sore from bending,
we’re turning hard, we’re turning tough,
our work is never ending.
A lot arrive but no one leaves,
the years just slip away,
before the camp is fully built
we will be old and gray.
Life lures beyond the wire fence:
it tempts us with its wonders,
the thought makes our throats go dry
and our minds will wander.
We march along with steady step,
defying need and sorrow;
and marching with us is the hope
of freedom and tomorrow.
Source: H. Naujoks, Mein Leben im KZ Sachsenhausen (Cologne, 1987), pp. 51–2
Translation: Ewald Osers