Weimar, Thuringia, Germany: Open from 1937-1945, Buchenwald was a concentration camp operated by the Nazis. While it was not an extermination camp per se, thousands perished from disease, medical experimentations gone awry, overwork, hunger, dehydration and murder. Many of those killed had their organs harvested for experimentation before cremation. The majority of the prisoners were forced to work in a nearby armory, producing weaponry for Nazi forces. After liberation, Soviets used the camp as an internment center for German POW’s and other dissidents. It was eventually closed and began to be transformed into a memorial site in the 1950s. Though many of the original buildings were destroyed, much has been rebuilt and the museum facilities are extensive, featuring tours of cell blocks, medical laboratories, and crematoriums. Several different memorials stand at the sight, the first of which was erected by camp prisoners immediately following liberation.
9/16/06
Buchenwald- “Jedem das seine” (everyone gets what he deserves)
We visited Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar today. It was a serene and surreal place. An oddly inappropriate day for a visit too because the air was so soft, I cannot describe the physical beauty of this day. Much of the camp is still intact and, though well-maintained, for the most part uninterfered with. Including the examination room where Nazi doctors performed experiments on human prisoners and the crematorium where up to sixteen bodies at a time were burned. Everything looked very soft and old and surreal. I think this had mostly to do with the light there but also the physical structure and texture of the place. I felt sickened at times but also bored or just incredibly sad.
We walked to the GDR monument for the Russian victims of the genocide (?) which was an incredible thing to see. It’s purpose was to state communist victory in a grandiose way, I don’t think anything has made me feel so overwhelmed. It seems that it would be a much different and somehow more meaningful (if personal meaning is something to be taken away?) to visit this sort of place alone. Couldn’t get past the presence of the others in the group and the tourists.