Sachsenhausen

Hans is posted to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg, which is familiar territory for him, and settles down easily. The camp was rebuilt and reopened the previous year, during the Berlin Olympic Games.
The normality outside is surreal, with the tree lined avenue leading up to the entrance, hiding the bazaar madness in the midst of the normality surrounding it, with children playing on their swings and see saws in the nearby gardens, as the villagers go about their everyday business.
Hans is unaware of these oddities, as he has become conditioned to normality and insanity being side by side. He’s pleased that he’s only a ten-minute stroll to the railway station, which will take him to Berlin in about thirty minutes, so he can strut around the capital getting envious looks from the porters, doormen, tram drivers and postmen.
He now has a licence to kill, and intends to use his authority whenever he wishes. He exudes power and senses a feeling of fear and awe from the other male predators, who are afraid to get in his way. The SS have a fearsome reputation and he enjoys every minute of it. He demands and expects respect in large doses, and is determined to make up for his lost years as a nobody.
The days of being a bastard orphan farm boy and a trolley pushing porter are history, and now he represents the right arm of the Third Reich with the might of the SS behind him. He knows that he’s above the law and can kill, torture and execute at will. His days of opening doors are over and he’s welcome in whatever nightclubs he chooses. Crossing Hans is a dangerous practice, as he becomes well connected with the Berlin Gestapo, who have expanded their interrogation. He checks the Totenbuch (death book), which records the details of those who have been executed, and is delighted to find Victoria Snyder and the rest of her family’s names entered in the register.
(L.Hellmann, When the lights went out, 2006)