Buchenwald

Nestled in the woods, overlooking the peaceful, rolling German countryside is Buchenwald. It seems a location more appropriate for a children's summer camp or a family retreat/resort than the site of a former concentration camp in which torture and mass murder took place.

We drove from Weimar (which still contains buildings that served the Nazis), north toward Buchenwald, not sure what would be left of this awful place - we wondered if the GDR preserved the site, did they erect a memorial, what would we see? It was a really gray, cold day - any other weather would have seemed out of place during this sobering afternoon. You won't see many pictures of us in this set - it didn't really seem appropriate most of the time. We turned onto Blutstrasse (Blood Road), named because it was constructed by the prisoners of Buchenwald. As we drove along Blutstrasse we saw some of what is left of the railway track that was used to move people in and out of the camp.


We parked near a series of gold-colored, multi-storied buildings which we later learned were former SS training and administrative buildings. This was an important site for SS training. It quickly became clear that this was an enormous complex - much bigger than we imagined and it had been carefully preserved by the GDR. They also constructed a huge, impressive and moving memorial to those that were imprisoned and/or lost their lives in Buchenwald. (We visited that as we were leaving.)




The entrance to the concentration camp itself consisted of a gate flanked by low-rise cement buildings. The buildings were the location of cells for "special" prisoners - political prisoners, etc.












This is the inside of one of the low-rise wings of the entrance gate. Cell number 1 was where an inmate spent the night before s/he was to be killed. These buildings were also the places where horrible torture of prisoners occurred. Many of the cells had photos, brief bios and memorials (flowers, candles, etc.) in memory of those known to have occupied a certain cell (see example below).




















The gate itself bears the phrase "Jedem das Seine" or "To each his own or Everyone gets what they deserve."






This is a view of the fence line extending from the gate buildings. You can see a guard house at the corner. The building with the red roof was where prisoners could trade what little they could bring with them for things of greater necessity. In the basement some prisoners were put to work making soap. Members of the resistance bravely made Molotov cocktails in the basement which they smuggled out to the resistance. Outside the fence, all around the camp is a paved walkway used by the SS to patrol the perimeter. The women you see are standing at a small memorial. These kinds of memorials are scattered throughout the camp to honor specific groups of people or nationalities and even individuals that were imprisoned here. They are covered with flowers, stones, wreaths, candles, notes...



The inmates' barracks were no longer there but the foundations are and the foundations were "filled" with black stone. Row after row after row after row, what was left of the barracks were laid out. It was eerie. Many of the barracks were marked with plaques indicating that a certain barrack was for children or for prisoners from a particular country or for gypsies, etc.











This is a memorial at the site of the "Little Camp", a particularly horrible addition late in the war. Prisoners were brought here from other concentration camps. Overcrowding, famine, disease, lack of sanitation ran rampant. Very few of those who spent much time in "Little Camp" survived. Many of those sent on death marches near liberation came from "Little Camp."

The crematorium...












and the ovens inside...













Scores of urns filled with the ashes of those who died were found in cellars of various buildings, some unearthed as late as the '90s. The ashes are no longer in these urns. They were buried in the cemetery part of the Buchenwald memorial.













The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Memorial site in the exposed basement of an SS casern. The basement contained detention cells. Bonhoeffer, although executed in Flossenburg, was held here, in these basement cells, in Buchenwald.



















Some prisoners worked (often to death) in this ammunition factory just outside the camp's fences...













others in a nearby quarry. Notice the beautiful view of the German countryside and quaint towns from what remains of the quarry.





As we walked and explored the region surrounding the camp we came across the remains of several buildings like this one. Unmarked. We wondered what we would hear if these walls could talk. We wondered if we would want to hear.





Buchenwald was built in 1937. After 1943 the inmates (which after 1944 included women) were severely exploited in work sites around the camp. Medical experiments, especially associated with typhoid, were conducted here by the SS. A short time before liberation the SS tried to evacuate Buchenwald and sent 28,000 inmates on death marches. 21,000 inmates (including 900 children and teens) remained in the camp. The camp was liberated by units of the Third US Army on April 11, 1945. From its opening in 1937 to its liberation in 1945 250,000 people were imprisoned in Buchenwald. More than 50,000 of them died there. Many others were sent from Buchenwald to extermination camps. They included people from many countries, Jewish and non-Jewish. From 1945 to 1950 the camp was occupied by the Soviets who used it as an internment camp for those who had served the Nazis in an official capacity. Of the ~28,000 internees, more than 7,000 died.

I don't have words to describe for you how emotionally draining this afternoon was for all of us. We found ourselves walking mostly in silence, whispering when communication was necessary because talking seemed inappropriate. I think all of us shed silent tears at some points(s) during our visit.

On our way out of Buchenwald we stopped at the enormous, impressive, deeply moving Buchenwald Memorial. We were glad that we saw things in this order. It seemed appropriate to end with something that honored those who lost their lives rather than the camp itself. Here are some pictures from the Buchenwald Memorial.



The bell tower and monument on the left.

















Graves of those who died after liberation because disease and/or malnutrition had gone too far.



















The circular structure in the background is one of three naturally occurring depressions that the Nazis used as mass graves. All three are now incorporated into the Memorial.








A boardwalk with individual huge structures (left side) recognizing 18 countries - representing the homelands of most of the inmates.







A walkway leading toward the boardwalk of nations lined with huge stone reliefs representing what life was like at this camp.