LIBERATION OF BUCHENWALD

CHAPTER 12 exhibits on their website. In my search, I actually did find some of the photos and thanks to technology and shared information, they have been used quite a bit on a lot of World War II historical sites and various research reports. They are always noted as “donated from anonymous”.

Also included in the letters and photos that my Uncle Mike had was that tourist map of the concentration camp of Dachau. Where the heck did that come from and why? My mom sent me photos of the map and images from the tour guide. She said it was from my grandparents when they traveled there when I was a kid. Then I had another flashback. I started to remember a trip that my grandparents took when I was about nine or ten years old, where they went to Europe. I will never forget it because my grandmother made me sit down and look at each and every picture. At that age, I was bored out of my mind and didn’t want to look at these photos of fields and buildings. My grandfather did however, make the endless picture torture a little better because he started to hand me European coins out of his pocket that he brought home for us to keep as souvenirs. I actually still have those coins framed and on my wall.

But why was I forced to look at all of these pictures of France, Belgium, and Germany anyway? I had a hunch why, but my mom confirmed it. She said that my grandfather took my grandmother to Europe to retrace his steps from the war. They went to Omaha Beach, France, Belgium, and Germany. He took her on a tour of one of the concentration camps that was still intact while in Germany. The tour map was of the Dachau concentration camp that they visited and that was why it was in my grandmother’s packet of letters and pictures. My mom said that while there, my grandfather became very ill and had to go wait in the car. I started to think about this. Why would he have a map of Dachau and not a map of Buchenwald? He liberated Buchenwald, but why visit Dachau way after the war? Why not visit Buchenwald? Something did not seem right here. I started to do some research and found that most of Buchenwald was torn down. Dachau did have most of its buildings still intact. Regardless, he could have still visited the site of Buchenwald if he was really retracing his steps to show my grandmother on their trip to Europe. I started to think that this visit to Dachau was intentional for my grandfather in some way. I started to think that maybe this was a means for him to complete some unfinished business in a way. In fact, while researching the history and information of both concentration camps, I came to a conclusion of why I believe it was so important for him to have visited Dachau specifically. I don’t think it was by mistake or only because it was one of the few that remain standing. I’ll explain once I give you an overview of Buchenwald.

Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites. The locations were used for forced labor, detention of people that were deemed to be “enemies of the state”, and mass murder. Buchenwald was one of the oldest and largest concentration camps established by the Nazis. The camp was constructed in 1937 and built by the prisoners themselves as part of their punishment.

Buchenwald first opened for male prisoners in July of 1937. Women were not part of the Buchenwald camp system until 1944. The main camp was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wire fence (380 volts), 23 watchtowers, and a chain of sentries outfitted with fully automatic machine guns.

Most of the early inmates at Buchenwald were political prisoners, however in 1938, German SS and police sent almost 10,000 Jews to Buchenwald where they were subjected to extraordinarily cruel treatment, especially while building Buchenwald itself. The official goal of Buchenwald was the destruction of the prisoners (both physical and mental) by forced labor. In building the camp, they were forced to carry huge stones from the local stone quarry to the camp. If they were too small or weak, they were immediately shot by the German SS. Later, dozens of prisoners were chained to huge four-wheel carts and had to pull enormous loads of stone to the camp while being forced to sing. The German SS used to call those prisoners the “Singing Horses”. There was also a road leading up the entry of the camp called “Blood Street” by the prisoners. Thousands of prisoners died constructing this road.

Shortly after, especially during World War II, the German SS began incarcerating Sinti and Roma, Jehovah’s witnesses, convicts, homosexuals, the homeless, Polish and Soviet POWs, and resistance fighters from many parts of Europe. During World War II, the prisoner population expanded rapidly, and for a camp that was only originally built to house only 8,000, it soon reached 110,000 by the end of 1945. Altogether, almost 280,000 persons are ultimately imprisoned