Sachsenhausenlied
The ‘Sachsenhausenlied’ (Sachsenhausen song) was created in the winter of 1936 by the German political prisoner Karl Wloch, along with his communist friends Bernhard Bästlein and Karl Fischer. They based the song on the well-known workers’ melody ‘Die Bauern wollten freie sein’ (The peasants want to be free), and agreed that it should be used as a means of strengthening the prisoners’ unity and to reflect an anti-fascist spirit. As was the case with many commissioned camp songs, it was originally approved by the SS, and prisoners were frequently ordered to sing it. Later, however, the song was forbidden, although it made the transition from forced to voluntary music and continued to be sung in secret.