Buchenwald

Today we went to Buchenwald, a concentration camp located in Weimar. It was a different experience than I expected. I think I expected to want to go look at all the museums and memorials they have located on the grounds (4 museums and several memorials). But after our tour I really just wanted to leave as soon as I could.

Our tour was educational, but for the most part it was stuff I already have learned elsewhere. But just being where all these awful crimes against humanity occurred was sickening. Auschwitz is another quite infamous camp, which I'm sure everyone's heard of, and it's infamous because millions were burned there in the crematoriums. The Soviets (I think the Soviets) blew the crematoriums up that were located there, but the manufacturer was the same for the ones at Buchenwald, so seeing those crematoriums today was also like seeing the ones that burned millions of others.

The crematorium was the last thing on our guided tour of the camp, and it was definitely emotional. Below are some pictures of the camp.

In other news...mom finally got the cell phone figured out on how to call me. So please see her for instructions if you so wish, and yes I fully expect no one other than her to call because it's freakin' expensive but I did think I would just throw that out there. Also, talking on cell phones sucks here for some reason. Reception is crappy or something, I don't know.

I would also like to say Granny and Papa get my Blog read to them by Mom and they call it my Glob. Precious. :-)

Tomorrow we go to Dresden and Amy and I will be there for one night in a sweet hotel (Hilton baby, right on the river and located conveniently by all the hot spots in Dresden!).




Prisoners were brought in via the train right into the camp for about the last two years of the war. Before that they were brought to the town of Weimar by train and then walked a ways to the camp.
A zoo was built (by prisoners) for the SS's entertainment. The living conditions for the bears were better than the living conditions for the Jews and others in the camp.
This is the crematorium. For many relatives of those who died in the camp they see the crematorium as a place to pay their respects since their loved ones never received a proper burial elsewhere.
This was a plaque in the holding cell for Dietrich Bonhoeffer (see explanation of him in the previous post if you need info on who he was).
Bonhoeffer was held in the basement of this building, which once was the barracks for the SS. The SS are the Nazis who ran the camp, by the way.
This is Amanda on the train ride back to Leipzig from Weimar. There were no seats on the train so we sat on the floor. Apparently this is common or something.

Okay. Love you all!