The day promised to be sunnier than yesterday, which was a blessing since we were visiting a concentration camp. The sunrise was pretty as we drove toward Weimar. The camp was located outside the town in the countryside.
This memorial tower was built in the 1950s after the holocaust. A previous tower stood here, but was destroyed and this new one built.
Below the tower was a wide walk with steps leading down to mass burial sites that were established after the liberation. The site is quite haunting. It has a beautiful view of the whole valley. Ashes from victims that were cremated by the regime, as well as those that died at the very end were all placed here. What few markers there were got worn away in several years and all records were lost until the 1990s when an archive in Poland was discovered where someone had recorded the victims. These are now provided in a brochure, but I did not seem them in any permanent marker on the site.
These reliefs were all along the walkway and showed the various hardships faced in the camp. These were very hard to see.
When we arrived at the main campus. We met our tour guide. An older gentleman named Roland who was a retired science professor from East Germany. He told us that he volunteered to share this history with new generations because it should never be forgotten. He provided a lot of very good information and provided a very appropriate seriousness to the entire morning.
This is the entrance to the camp. The clock is set at the time of the liberation.
On the gate: Jedem das seine - To each his own - loosely understood as: You get what you deserve.
The crematorium. These were specially modified to handle human remains instead of cattle remains. They would hold several bodies at a time. Toward the end of the war there was not enough fuel to fire the ovens, so bodies were disposed in the mass graves. It took about 45 mins to cremate each body. With hundreds dying a day, the bodies stacked up in a cellar.
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