Buchenwald Victory

Last November I blogged about my visit to Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar Germany. It was a downer post. What I had intended to do back then, but never got around to it, was to post the other side of the story. The monuments that were erected as memorials to those who died as well as to commemorate the courage of those who suffered, died or ultimately were liberated, in this case by the American armies.

And so here is that post with pictures of the monuments and some thoughts. The concentration camp was situated on the side of a mountain. It’s no longer visible from the valley, but it once would have been because it was bigger than it is now, more trees were cleared and it would have been laid bare for all to see across the entire expanse of the Weimar valley. That’s telling in and of itself.

What is visible now is this monument. From across the valley I didn’t know what it was. It was obviously no common building being in the middle of the woods and shaped that way. I was looking for Buchenwald, but what I didn’t realize is that I was looking at the monument to the courage of those who suffered, bled, died, were liberated and ultimately survived and moved on with their lives. This was the most moving and emotional part of the visit for me. I could hardly contain my emotions. It is a place of significance and I thought it appropriate that the monuments to the courage of those that suffered will long outlast the wooden and rotting remains of the torturers and murderers.

In the panoramic shot above, you can see pillars on the left side of the stairs going down. Each one of the pillars has a relief carving depicting some stage of the concentration camp leading to eventual victory. The theme that was impressed upon my mind was victory over untold brutality with little hope. It tells of the abuse of the guards, the support the inmates provided to each other, the different ways the prisoners were beaten, tortured and killed, and ultimately the liberation.

Each of these pillars has a name of one of the countries from which prisoners originated including France, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and many others.