Neuengamme is tucked away away from the touristy hussle and bussle of Hamburg, surrounded by…read morebeautiful countryside. It's difficult to imagine the horrors that went on in such peaceful and beautiful countryside. This was once one of Germany's biggest concentration camps. A working camp, it focussed on the digging up of clay and the production of bricks. Towards the end of the war, this 'work camp' turned into just another death camp. Of the 100,000 inmates in the camp, about half of them died. AFter the war, it was turned into a prison camp and was home to German government civil service offices. The buildings are well preserved to give a true feel of what it must have been like and it is hard to go in and out of the buildings without shedding a tear or feeling a chill at the back of the spine. Entrance is free (donations boxes are scattered in the various museums) and buses run regularly to it from Bergedorf train station

This was a somber trip. The experience of walking through the site was intensely reflective, and we…read morewere continually struck by the immensity of what happened here. Well over 50,000 people were murdered at this camp. Many of the buildings were destroyed in the 1950s, but the larger ones remain, and the sites of everything are marked by monuments and signs in a number of languages including English, German, and Russian. The site is immense, it takes hours to explore everything. We rented a car and took the 20 minute drive from Hamburg, parking was available at the site and was free. No entrance fee, even for the inside exhibitions. It's one thing to grow up watching war movies and documentaries and reading about the camps, it's something else entirely to cross through the gates onto the original pavement, to see the foundation of the crematorium, to see the canal dug by prisoners as they were worked to death. I kept my composure throughout, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit having to hold back the emotions a few times. It's worth a day, or even a few hours if that's all you've got.