Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps on German soil.
It operated as a forced labor camp on the Ettersberg near Weimar between July 1937 and April 1945, but there was also a gas chamber and a crematorium in Buchenwald.
A total of approximately 277,800 people from 50 countries were imprisoned in Buchenwald during this period.
The death toll is estimated at approximately 56,000, including 15,000 Soviet citizens, 7,000 Poles, 6,000 Hungarians, and 3,000 French.
Buchenwald is the third concentration camp I have seen with my own eyes. I visited this site on July 3, 2016, when I stopped in Weimar on my way to Saxony.
The entrance to the camp
electrically charged barbed wire
The fence around the camp
The fence of the camp
The camp gate from the inside
The camp gate seen from the barracks
Only the foundations of the barracks for the prisoners remain
The crematorium
The section table
The section table
Urns for the ashes of prisoners
The ovens in the crematorium
The basement where the bodies were collected before being cremated.
Containers for the prisoners‘ bodies
The zoo for the families of the SS, from the prisoners‘ perspective
SS torture instruments
Detention cells for recalcitrant prisoners