Buchenwald

Tuesday, October 22nd

After driving for hours we spent the night in Weimar, which is only about a ten minute drive to the Buchenwald war memorial, site of a Nazi concentration camp. Our room was the smallest yet with two beds narrower than twin beds which we pushed together. Zero frills, no shampoo, Kleenex or a place to stow our luggage. Surprisingly, it did have air conditioning. Something very rare in our travels. 

  • The teeny tiny room
  • Other part of room
  • Snack at our teeny tiny table

Wednesday, October 23rd

Since we paid for breakfast at check in, we went down to eat. NO BLACK COFFEE! Only a choice of fuzzy hot drinks via a fuzzy hot drink machine. The hostess pointed out twice that there was black coffee available, and twice she pointed out “black coffee with cream”. We left the hotel snarling.

Leaving our teeny tiny room after a sorrowful breakfast, the thick fog was to match our mood as we headed for Buchenwald, a concentration camp outside of Weimar. It was quite cold when we arrived requiring sweaters, jackets and hats. We rented a couple of iPods for touring the camp on our own. One of the written guides advised that it would not be possible to view the entire camp in one day. But it only took a few hours to become too depressed at how human beings can mistreat each other to stay any longer than that. 

The camp is huge. As we walked up to the main gate of the concentration camp, we read the motto on the gate, “To each their own” or “Everyone gets what he deserves”. While the barracks are gone except for foundations, there are other buildings to visit including the crematorium, execution room, cells of special prisoners, museum and others. The Depot where new prisoners were “welcomed” still thinking they were going to be okay, is now a museum of Violence and Ostracism.

  • Photo from Wikipedia
  • Foggy day at Buchenwald
  • Where the prisoner barracks were. Acres of them.
  • Looking back at the main gate
  • Walking to the crematorium
  • Crematory furnaces
  • Torture room
  • Hooks used to strangle
  • From inside the museum at “The Depot”.

It is overwhelming to think of the way human beings suffered such atrocities at the hands of other human beings. Having visited many historic sites in both Ireland and Germany, it is astounding that this is history of our lifetime. We have lived seeing concentration camp survivors and hearing their stories, hearing news of the Nazi trials and the news of artwork and other valuables being returned to their rightful owners after WWII.

After touring the camp, we finally got our cup of black coffee at the cafeteria, a bright spot in a still very foggy day.

Back to the car and headed to Quedlinburg.