Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Buchenwald concentration camp was established in 1937 near Weimar, the cultural capital of Germany. Initially the camp was used to imprison political opponents of the National Socialists, jews, gypsies, homosexuals and anyone who did not fit the size of the real Aryan. Since the beginning of the Second World War people from all over Europe appeared in the camp. More then 250,000 people passed through it during 8 years of the camp's existence. It is one of the largest camps in the territory of Germany.

Entrance to the complex is free. This one and other memorials are financed by the Government and donations from visitors are welcome. Near the parking and bus stop take a guide for 1 euro in the tourist information office.

If you plan to visit also a memorial then it makes sense to get off at the stop by request "Memorial" (push Stop button in the bus). And then go to a concentration camp on foot. We walked from camp to memorial and back using two different ways.

Together with the memorial grounds the whole complex is quite large. Without a visit to the museum, we spent 2 hours and 30 minutes just to walk around all objects.

Bus brings you to a huge semicircle-concreted parking. The road on which you are traveling, called Bloode road. Many inmates had been working over its construction from 1938 to 1939. In some places original concrete road preserved.

Around the square stand SS barracks, now inside located directorate, library, archive,  tourist office and a youth hostel.

Passing the semicircle we turned right into the woods and found a place of mass burial of prisoners of 1944-1945. Terrible place. Beautiful forest around, birds are singing, nobody is here... and you're standing in front of a large pit... It's a shame that all this happened in such beautiful places.




Nearby is a SS falcon yard. It is worth saying that the buildings are not preserved in the forest, only the foundations and partially the walls. Since 1943 in this building was detained French Prime Minister Leon Blum.


Went ahead through the forest toward the Memorial. On the left side is a ruins of the SS village. Here lived the camp headquaters. You might even find a mini-pond in one of the courtyards.




We pass about a kilometer along a scenic road in the woods and come to a huge memorial, built in 1958. Its official name is "National Memorial to the victims of fascism Buchenwald."


Place and unusual shape are not randomly selected. In 1945 on this hillside of mount Ettersberg were buried about 3,000 corpses. Three of these round mass graves were found and now they are part of the memorial.




Between the graves passes "Street of all Nations" with stone pillars on which are written the names of 18 nations.


Upstairs is a huge bell tower, a symbol of freedom and light, as well as sculptural group of Fritz Kramer.




From the memorial we went to camp using the other way, towards the railway station. Prisoners came to this train station through Weimar.


From the train station to the gate prisoners were going on the "devil road". Some original buildings preserved here.






Near the enterance there was also SS zoo! Hard to beleive that this picture was made 5 meters from one of the worst concentration camps.


Came to the most famous object in the camp - gate. At the same time it is the main observation tower, torture chamber and a place where sat camp's headquaters.


Usuallu on the gates of the concentration camps were written different phrases. On these gates inscription are "To each his own", which symbolized the border between the prisoners and the SS.


Territory of the camp is huge but empty. Wooden barracks were not preserved, there is only one that stands in the left rear corner.






Earlier this huge area looked so


We turned left, there is buildig that served as a dining room for prisoners. Although not dining room, rather kiosk with substandard products for taking money that passed to prisoners by relatives.


In the same corner of the camp it is good idea to investigate tower and fence. Here they are best preserved. As seen on the old and new photographs, the fence is simple, with large holes.




But it was electic fence and around perimeter there were several dozens of watchtowers, so it was almost impossible to run away. There were also a 3 km trail around the fence which is accessible now.


Since barracks not preserved, there are memorial plates on their places.




On the plates are tens and hundreds of nations who died in the camp.


Few surviving buildings of the camp are now used as a museum and exhibition.




The worst thing is the camp is crematorium.


Or may be not, the worst buildings are not preserved. The camp doctors were conducting medical experiments on prisoners in an attempt to develop a vaccine for typhoid fever. In 1942 experiments were stopped, apparently because vaccine has already developed... by Soviet scientist Alexei Pshenichnov.

A few places we did not visit. In particular, nobody expect to hear that in 1945 camp moved to the Red Army and they continued to do the same but against Germans. For 5 years 7100 people were killed. In the GDR this was forgotten by force and remembered only after 1990. This road leads to places of mass graves that have made ​​by the Soviet soldiers .


After the end of the investigation of Buchenwald, we went along the so-called "time lane". The so-called Grünehausallee, a section of a hunting lane laid out in the eighteenth century, served in 1937 as an orientation line during the construction of the concentration camp. It has recently been expanded into a passable Zeitschneise, or time lane, connecting Ettersburg Castle with Buchenwald.


Bus number 6 on which you came to Buchenwald every two hours passes also near the Ettersburg castle. Attention! It does not pass through the stop which is located directly beside the castle and stop at one of the following: "Am Keßling, Ettersburg" or "Wohnheim, Ettersburg". Schedule to / from these stops, as always, check in advance on bahn.de.

Most of the area is open and you can enter at any time before sunset. Opening hours of the museums:
April to October: from 10 to 18
November to March: from 10 to 16


Getting there: By bus number 6 from the Weimar train station (stop Buchenwald / Gedenkstätte). Check out the schedule at bahn.de or here (PDF) or here.