Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Tag Dreiundzwanzig – 26 von Juli 2015: Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Coming soon...


The entrance gate to the Buchenwald concentration camp.  The German saying "Jedem Das Seine" translates to "To each what he deserves."

The gate around Buchenwald with the main guard tower in the distance.  The prison housed approximately 250,000 people from 1938 - 1945, of which it is estimated that as many as 56,000 people died or were murdered.  Buchenwald was not an "extermination" camp like Auschwitz; its purpose was mainly forced labor, although it was also used to conduct medical experiments on the prisoners.  In addition to the Jewish people imprisoned here, the camp was also used for political prisoners, homosexuals, gypsies (Roma and Sinti), Freemasons, criminals, religious prisoners, "anti-socials", the handicapped, and prisoners of war.

The footprints of the former inmates barracks with a reconstructed barracks behind and the muster grounds to the right.  there were approximately 70 of these barracks in the camp with up to 1,500 people living in each one.


The Jewish Memorial built in the footprint of one of the former prisoners' barracks (Block 22).  The memorial was built with stones from the Buchenwald quarry.  The inscription memorial is Psalm 78:6 written in English, Hebrew, and German which says, "So that the generation to come might know, the children, yet to be born, that they too might rise and declare to their children."  Of the 75,000 Jewish men, women, and children imprisoned in Buchenwald, it is estimated that 12,000 died or were murdered.     

The crematorium just inside Buchenwald's gates, with a guard tower behind.

The execution chamber inside Buchenwald, directly below the crematorium.  Prisoners were shot or hung using the hooks on the wall.  Their bodies were then put into an elevator and taken up to the crematorium where they were cremated. 

The ovens inside the crematorium.  Prisoners who dies from sickness or the conditions, as well as those who were murdered by the guards, were cremated here.  The ashes were then dumped in the moraines on the surrounding hillside. 

The Buchenwald Memorial, commemorating the liberation of the camp and the prisoners' struggle against their oppression.  The memorial towers over the town of Weimar, only a few kilometers below.  It seems to not only memorialize the terrible slaughter that happened in the camp, but also serve as a reminder to the people in the town below who turned their back on - or were complicit in - the horrendous acts happening right next to their homes. 


A stele, of which there are seven, telling the story of the oppression, slaughter, and eventual liberation of the camp.

A stele, of which there are seven, telling the story of the oppression, slaughter, and eventual liberation of the camp.

A stele, of which there are seven, telling the story of the oppression, slaughter, and eventual liberation of the camp.

A stele, of which there are seven, telling the story of the oppression, slaughter, and eventual liberation of the camp.

Memorial around one of the ash pits where the remains of the murdered were dumped.

No comments:

Post a Comment