Buchenwald Concentration Camp

We made our way to Buchenwald Concentration Camp a day before Christmas Eve. We have both always wanted to visit a camp because it is such a huge part in history that is very hard to imagine. Actually being there changed all of the things that I had heard before and made them personal and much more emotional. It is amazing to me that so many people were involved in the killing and that they thought it was ok. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9 

Buchenwald is just 6 miles outside the city of Weimar. It is a long a windy road through the woods. None of the people of Weimar knew of the horrors going on just a few miles out of their city. Driving that long road was so creepy because you knew why it was so long. You always feel like you have to hide when you are doing something wrong.

These windmills are typical in Germany. Just threw these pictures in here because they were on the drive to Buchenwald and the land is just so beautiful.

Above is the old picture and below is the same exact place today.

 Jedem Das Seine = "to each his own" meaning every man gets what he deserves

This was once filled with sleeping barracks for all the inmates. The sad thing is the beauty they had to stare at, rolling green hills of Germany. The camp was at the top of a hill with a great view that our camera didn't capture. 

Before and now below

The crematorium

This is where the dead bodies lay as the Nazi's searched their bodies for hidden gold or for gold fillings.

drains so the floor is easier to clean

I looked at this picture and then I looked out the window and saw the exact house. Count 4 windows over. 

Urns

This is upstairs and pay attention to the elevator to the right when I show you the downstairs part.

This is the downstairs and that is like a laundry shoot but for humans and see the hooks ? Those are for hanging mass groups at a time. In the corner of the room is the elevator. 

This room was set up like a doctors office so that the Jew would be called in and then measured and when they stand next to the wall to get measured a Nazi from behind opens a little door and shoots the back of their head through the slot.

An underground kitchen

Wooden shoes they were forced to wear because they are uncomfortable and they make noise.

A piece of one of the sleeping barracks.

A monument to remember those who died in Buchenwald...... a hand warming plate.

This is where all the Nazi's lived just 50 feet away from the camp. They even had a zoo so that their families could watch the inmates. 

The end of the train tracks

A monument just outside of Buchenwald..... You can read more about it if you like.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Cremer

We went to Weimar after to have some dinner and see the city. 

This is a famous hotel in Weimar and Hitler gave a speech from the balcony you see. 

A not so typical German house on Christmas to cheer you up!