Buchenwald Concentration Camp

JulieHolm
JulieHolm
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Buchenwald Concentration Camp

  • October 11, 2005
  • Rated 5 of 5 by USMA1991 from Los Angeles, California
The concentration camp at Buchenwald, on the northern outskirts of Weimar, is a very sobering experience. Many of its buildings have been torn down, but a few have been left standing to give you an idea of what the camp looked like and to house exhibitions of life there and its history, from its origins to its liberation by the Americans. Some of the exhibits, through personal letters and accounts, show how much the captors here believed in what they were doing; other exhibits display how cruelly those beliefs manifested themselves in the treatment of the prisoners. Yet others show how the human spirit endured in the harshest of conditions as each individual struggled to survive. This is not a place for the feint of heart or joy seekers; this is a place for remembrance and examination of truth. Admission is free and it can be reached in about 15 minutes from Weimar.

From journal Weekend in Weimar

Buchenwald Concentation Camp

  • February 7, 2003
  • Rated 4 of 5 by JulieHolm from Vienna, Virginia
Buchenwald Concentation Camp

In some ways Buchenwald was more movnig than Auschwitz. Auschwitz is green, with lots of grass, while in Buchenwald a certain bleakness has been preserved.

The experience was self-guided, but the information for self-guiding was somewhat confusing. Despite several attempts we were never able to find our way to the memorial itself. It was not on any of the maps, and we walked, based on a post card, the wrong way.

Most of the buildings at Buchenwald are gone now, their positions delineated and their space filled with memorials to many different groups who died in the Holocaust. Two exceptions are the storage facility which has become a museum chronicalling the history of the camp, and the creamatorium which you can walk through.

One interesting juxtaposition is shown in the picture below. The crematorium in Buchenwald is right next to a zoo where the officers kept a number of animals. The zoo is a relatively modern thing showing a clear concern for the treatment of the animals. By the same people, of course, who were sending millions of people to their deaths.

After visiting the museum, the grounds, and trying to find the memorial, we got on a late bus back to the train station and headed on to Erfurt.

From journal Nazi history at Buchenwald

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