From a Laboratory of Power to a Laboratory of Violence: The Panoptic Layout of the Nazi Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen and the Diverging Intentions of Disciplinary and Absolute Power

Abstract

Drawing on the theories of Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism and Wolfgang Sofsky’s The Order of Terror, this article takes the panoptic layout of Sachsenhausen concentration camp as a case study to explore the diverging intentions of disciplinary and absolute power. Research into the history, architectural layout and social hierarchies of Sachsenhausen can help us to understand the psychological impacts of the built environment and the social structure of the camp on its inmates. The article is based not only on scientific literature but also on eyewitness reports of survivors in the form of written accounts and visual history. Moreover, archaeological material of excavations carried out at Sachsenhausen offers insights into – otherwise undocumented – aspects of daily life, strategies of survival and ways of resistance of the prisoners.