Buchenwald, 1937-1945

Nazi concentration camp, near Weimar

The view from the gatehouse cellblock (left and above), on the perimeter of the camp, where selected prisoners were housed for punishment and interrogation, including Paul Schneider (see "Keeping the Faith in Buchenwald").  The inscription on the gates of Buchenwald (right top) reads: "To Each His Own," sometimes translated, "Everyone Gets What They Deserve."  The prison had its own zoo (right below) for officers and their children, who lived on the site, to enjoy.  I took this picture from the location of a special 

holding pen inside the wire, where a few Polish prisoners were kept in an experiment to see how long it took people to die if they were naked, unfed, and unable to lie down. Presumably, children visiting the zoo could see these prisoners.  Most buildings in the camp were razed in GDR times, but the receiving center storage building (left) is one that remains.  During WWII, it stored all the Nazis took from their prisoners, like hair, shoes and clothes.  Now, it's a fine museum for camp artifacts and learning about Nazism.  Buchenwald wasn't intended as an extermination camp, but about 50,000 of the 250,000 who passed through the gates died from the harsh conditions and the cruelty of the SS guards.  The crematory ovens remain, now a place of remembrance for those who died at Buchenwald (below).