A century full of stories: Horst Kosin is 101 years old!
A century full of stories: Horst Kosin is 101 years old!
Reinickendorf, Deutschland - Horst Kosin celebrated his 101st birthday on June 11, 2025. On this special occasion, district mayor Emine Demirbüken-Wegner brought her congratulations on behalf of the Reinickendorf district office. Kosin looks back on a long and moving life with many hard stages of life.
Born in a family of Huguenot, the jubilee from West Pomerania fled. He learned early on the profession of blacksmith what long -term health consequences had for his back. After the war, Kosin was imprisoned by Soviet occupiers as a political prisoner in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. During this time he criticized the Stalinist power structures that appeared to him as parallels to the methods of the National Socialists.The story of Sachsenhausen
The Sachsenhausen concentration camp was built in the summer of 1936 and played a key role in the Nazi terror apparatus. Initially, the political persecuted were the largest prisoner group. From 1939 people from all over Europe were also deported to the camp. Inmates were forced to do forced labor in SS-owned companies. From 1942 they were also used in over a hundred outside camps, especially in Berlin.
The overall history of the camp is characterized by violence and persecution. Between 1936 and 1945, more than 200,000 people were detained in Sachsenhausen. The camp developed into a model and training camp, where the power of the SS was to be expressed architecturally. The prisoners came from different groups, including political opponents, Jews, Sinti, Roma and many others. The conditions were catastrophic, and numerous prisoners died due to hunger, illnesses and ill -treatment.
a life in old age
After his detention period, Kosin acquired a training qualification as an electrician and became the head of the repair team in the Reuter West heating power plant. He proved to be innovative and acquired two technical patents in order to be able to use expensive burners several times. He has lived in Reinickendorf since 1971 and independently masters many everyday work in his apartment. A supporting neighboring couple helps him to cope with his everyday life.
his hobbies belong to mountaineering, bowling and dancing, and he had a total of six dachshunds in his life. Kosin also drove to sea. Even without his own children, he lives well integrated in the neighborhood, where he receives support from his neighbors every day.
Kosin’s moving life stands in strong contrast to the dark story that the Sachsenhausen concentration camp has shaped. On April 22, 1945, Soviet and Polish soldiers freed around 3,000 sick prisoners who were still in the camp and put an end to a bloody chapter in history. Today the memorial and the Museum Sachsenhausen are reminiscent of this cruel past and offers extensive information about the events in the warehouse as well as pedagogical offers for memory culture.
The memorial is open every day from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for interested parties from March to October, from October to March to 4:30 p.m. On montages, however, museums as well as archive and library remain closed. To visit the memorial, the contact details can be called up at Stiftung-bg.de.
The impressive life stories of people like Horst Kosin show how important it is to preserve the memories of the past and to draw the lessons for the future.
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| Ort | Reinickendorf, Deutschland |
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