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Post by onlyMark on Jan 28, 2015 20:15:00 GMT
Due to the recent anniversary at Auschwitz I thought I’d visit, for me at least, a rather closer camp. Buchenwald (beech forest) was one of the numerous German WWII concentration camps. By the end of the war it was the biggest on German soil. First opened in 1937 it lasted to 1945 when it was eventually liberated by American troops. However, as it fell in the Russian sector from 1945 onwards they decided they had a ready made camp for their own purposes until 1950. An estimate of over 56,000 died there during the war. Around 1 in 4 of those committed. In 1937 a clearing was made on a wooded hill, this expanding over time. My visit was made at a time of thick snow whereas only a couple of kilometres away, at a lower altitude, there was none. This impressed upon me the harsh conditions suffered by the inmates. The location of the camp was chosen because of the armament factories nearby at which the inmates were forced to work. The deaths were caused by torture, medical experiments, execution (over 8000 Soviet prisoners were shot at a specially constructed facility), malnutrition, disease and worked to death under the ‘Vernichtung durch Arbeit’ policy (extermination through labour). This was not a prisoner of war camp where allied personnel were interned though at one time there were several hundred there on their way elsewhere. This was a camp where the undesirables were kept. That meant Jews, Poles and other Slavs, the mentally ill and physically-disabled from birth defects, religious and political prisoners, Roma and Sinti, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses (then called Bible Students), criminals and homosexuals. The camp was originally built by the prisoners, as was the access road to it – The car/bus parking area is now where the accommodation blocks for the guards were. These have also been turned into office, information and youth accommodation. Walking from there to the main camp area. What at one time was a pleasantly wooded hill – A little further away are the rail yards where the prisoners would have arrived. They would have walked along here. There are small administrative buildings either side of the road as we are not yet inside the secure camp – Eventually they would have come to the main entrance. Not as imposing as, say, Auschwitz but nevertheless I’m sure the prisoners weren’t bothered about that. One Canadian airman afterwards said, “As we got close to the camp and saw what was inside... a terrible, terrible fear and horror entered our hearts. We thought, what is this? Where are we going? Why are we here? And as you got closer to the camp and started to enter [it] and saw these human skeletons walking around—old men, young men, boys, just skin and bone, we thought, what are we getting into?”
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 28, 2015 20:16:09 GMT
The time on the clock stays the same now. It shows the time on April 11th 1945, 3.15pm. The date and time of liberation – The gate into the camp reads, “Jedem das Seine”, translated as ‘to each his own’ but figuratively as ‘everyone gets what he deserves’. Ironically the designer of the entrance and the gates, Franz Ehrlich, was eventually a prisoner here – Close to the entrance were the cells, referred to as the ‘Bunker’. Many were to stay here for months at a time, tortured and eventually executed – Through the window at the end of the corridor there was a tantalising glimpse of the outside – No doubt for some this would be the last they ever saw after they were thrown inside the cell – There was even the ghost of a photographer – The electrified fence stretched around the compound, 380 volts, with twenty three watchtowers. You can see one in the distance – In through the gates and there were a remarkable amount of school trips. I asked if this was normal. I was told in no uncertain terms that yes, it is. It is an important part of their education –
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 28, 2015 20:16:32 GMT
Once inside there were still several buildings but as this panorama shot shows, there is little left. Actually there are a lot of concrete hut bases but they are buried in the snow – There was one block reconstructed but it was locked up and in peering through the windows I saw that it was completely empty. Possibly a missed opportunity to show what the insides were really like – However, I did find out that this hut was the location of the “Typhus experimentation centre of the Hygiene Institute of the Armed SS between 1942 – 1945.” Across from it you could just make out the base of further huts – This area of the camp was called the Little Camp. It turned out to be the worst area of the lot – I mentioned earlier how the designer of the gates ended up being a prisoner. There was another irony. If you are of a certain age you may recall a TV series at all called ‘Hogan’s Heroes’. One of the characters was Corporal LeBeau who was called ‘Frenchie’. This was played by Robert Wideman who was another inmate here. The first Commandant was Karl Otto Koch. He was, in a strange turn of fate, imprisoned at the camp by the Nazi authorities for various offences at the camp including embezzlement and was shot in 1945 a week before the liberation. More infamous though was his second wife Isle Koch. She became known as the Witch of Buchenwald (Die Hexe von Buchenwald) and was known for her brutality and cruelty to the female prisoners. She was tried after the war, sentenced to four years, that was reduced to two years and then she was released. Unfortunately for her the later German authorities re-arrested her, sentenced her to life and she eventually committed suicide in prison in 1967. The second Commandant, Herman Pister, was later tried, found guilty and sentenced to death after the war. But he died of a heart attack in 1948 before it could be carried out. I then had a walk inside a museum building. To be honest it wasn’t as informative as I had hoped. Though the main signs outside were in German and English, no displays had an English translation. For me, with my functional German that was fine enough, but for many international visitors, either from English speaking countries or actually more likely from France and Russia, I felt they’d leave wanting more information. Also there were a number of exhibits that had no commentary whatsoever, for example –
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 28, 2015 20:16:56 GMT
These may seem obvious but there was a large machine also nearby that I could identify as a generator, but there were questions unanswered about it and other items. This was labelled. A road roller, man powered, used by the prisoners – At first I couldn’t identify what this was. But a nearby photo showed it to be a set of gallows (with one leg missing) – The information in the museum was heavy on the lead up to the setting up of the camp and with rightfully photos of inmates, though I’d have wanted more info on things like their diet, working hours, running of the camp, hierarchy amongst the prisoners, day to day routine etc etc. So, moving on – around 8000 Soviet prisoners were killed by a shot to the back of the neck (called: Genickschuss). These were then transported to the crematorium in this type of galvanised cart – However, it wasn’t at this camp where they had a set of the infamous gas chambers. The camp was a site of large-scale trials for vaccines against typhus in 1942 and 1943. In all 729 inmates were used as test subjects, of whom 154 died. Many other experiments were conducted on the prisoners such as having poison administered to determine what the correct fatal dose was. Also phosphorous burns were inflicted to test the effectiveness of certain balms. Hanging was also a major cause of death, often by their wrists tied behind their backs. The area became known as the ‘singing woods’ because of their screams. Two Austrian priests were ordered to be crucified upside down. SS guards killed others for no good reason other than for sport or on a whim. In 1940, because of all the deaths a crematorium, was built. It was so successful it was extended in 1942. A cellar was underneath and an estimated 1000 were just strangled there as they’d not died for any other reason. The entrance of the crematorium led to a dissection/autopsy area. This was used initially to determine the cause of death, usually of those who were experimented on, but then to issue false formal records to cover up the real cause. From 1940 onwards the gold teeth were removed from the corpses and soon after articles were made from human skin and even human heads shrunk to fist sized curios to be distributed as gifts to the SS. The skeletons and other items were used in anatomical collections – A photo of when the camp was liberated taken in 1945 showing one of many piles of corpses, bodies estimated in the hundreds, dumped in the crematorium courtyard awaiting burning –
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 28, 2015 20:17:23 GMT
Originally ashes were kept and could at one time be claimed by relatives. Of course as ‘production was ramped up’ there weren’t enough urns and ashes were just strewn around in the woods – The heart of crematorium – The rear of the ovens – Note the device for sliding the bodies inside – For all too many, this was the end of their existence – Bye. www.buchenwald.de/en/69/
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2015 20:33:58 GMT
Thanks for this report, even though it is always a difficult subject. I guess that all of these places look alike even if they are in variable sizes. The Struthof-Natzwiller concentration camp that I have visited more than once in eastern France contains all of the same elements, just much smaller in size. While the sheer size of such a camp has total horror value, when you see an individual cell or oven or torture rack, it hurts just as much, no matter what the camp.
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Post by htmb on Jan 28, 2015 20:37:13 GMT
Thank you, Mark. I imagine it was a tough visit for you to make.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 29, 2015 8:42:12 GMT
Unbelievably chilling.
But thanks. We should never forget. In the scheme of things this happened 5 minutes ago..........
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Post by bjd on Jan 29, 2015 17:28:12 GMT
Years ago I was told that one of my father's brothers survived Buchenwald because he was in the camp orchestra, playing trumpet. Unfortunately, I have never been able to verify this, even though I met him in the 1970s when I went to Poland for the first time. It wasn't something I thought to ask, or perhaps hadn't been told yet then.
I just had a look for photos on the net, and it's always the same picture that comes up, but nobody is recognizable.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 29, 2015 18:37:32 GMT
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Post by bjd on Jan 29, 2015 18:47:56 GMT
Thanks, but no help, Mark. The first Wiki list is only of well-known people and the two other links are Jewish. My uncle was neither well-known nor Jewish.
Actually, I found some of that same information when looking yesterday.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 18:47:54 GMT
Those are amazing links, Mark.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 29, 2015 18:56:41 GMT
No problem.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 29, 2015 19:27:09 GMT
I've also tried to find a list of survivors who weren't Jewish but to no avail. It could be that due to German thoroughness someone does have a historical list of all the inmates ever at the camp, but nothing online. Depending on how curious/determined I was, and I'm not saying you should do this, but my next step would be to contact Buchenwald directly or the Polish genealogy site where someone has already asked about the camp - genealodzy.pl/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=3426&highlight= My uncle was killed when the ship he was travelling on was torpedoed. That was about all I was told but never had any details. Eventually I found the full story after a bit of research. It was quite satisfying to know about it.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 29, 2015 20:23:39 GMT
Well, the Nazis murdered millions of Poles who weren't Jewish or Roma-Sinti, but most of them were murdered in camps located in Poland, of course.
My uncle had an older co-worker in Ottawa who had been among the few survivors of the Great Escape. As I'm sure you know, many were recaptured and executed. This fellow never really got over his survivor guilt.
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Post by bjd on Jan 30, 2015 8:37:41 GMT
Well, I actually met that uncle when I went to Poland in the 1970s so I know he survived. Another of their brothers was in a different camp after being captured during the Warsaw uprising in 1944. It was called Oflag II C Woldenberg. He also survived and died in 1973.
I just followed up the genealogy page lists you gave, Mark, but with no luck.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 30, 2015 9:36:11 GMT
Worth a try.
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Post by bjd on Jan 30, 2015 10:36:14 GMT
Yes, it was. Thanks.
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