i had a week off in april and visited my parents ( as i often do - i have doctor's appointments to attend - a perfect excuse to travel to my homeland ). on the first day we made our way up to buchenwald. mainly because we wanted to pick wild garlic. but we remembered that the day we were visiting was the liberation day of kz buchenwald and since the garlic picking ground was right next to the camp we decided to extend our stay a bit ( i convinced my parents to stay, because i'm magnetized by historical places and am cruel to myself for wanting to remember past times, especially as difficult and terrible as these ). but i do feel it's important to commemorate the past, and take it to heart, the loss, the pain and the terror, so you don't forget. in times like ours at the present, i think it's even more important and pressing to look back, to show what might return if we let the wrong ones reign us.
the gate building. the areas that are narrowed down with stones highlight where the barracks stood once. in front of the gate building was the parade ground, which in itself is a bad word to describe a ground that was used for mustering up the prisoners. the day started on a very cold and foggy note and indicated perfectly how grey and dire the whole place must've been when the nazis incarcerated innocent people here.
no barracks were preserved, the whole area is an empty wide space. only a few buildings still stand. i think that's quite a bummer, because imagine how oppressive everything would feel if you still could see what they had built. what kind of impression that would leave on a visitor. maybe it'd be more memorable and therefore people wouldn't forget so easily. but at the same time, the vast condition also leaves a sour taste in your mouth. now it's open for imagination.
signs and explanations of various defunct buildings were scattered everywhere.
nature's reclaiming a lot of space as well, as seen here. a field of primroses.
old bunker entry somewhere on the plot.
we found some of these cut trees while we were circleing around the camp's outer borders. i found them quite strange, i've never seen tree stumps cut like this before. they reminded me of lego bricks.
former border fence around the camp.
a lot of the concrete stakes toppled over and you can witness how nature immediately works on overgrowing them.
the sun came out gradually and shone a light on blackthorn bushes.
reconstructed fence.
to commemorate the liberation of the prison camp, people and organizations put down flower arrangements.
buchenwald's camp slogan was 'to each their own'. for the imprisoners who could read it every day when they stood on the mustering ground this must've been incredibly bitter and staggering, degrading and humiliating.
the crematory. it was closed while we were there, but you can take a look inside on normal visiting days. together with the depot building on the other side the inside of this building is really upsetting and shattering.
a jewish man walked by us here and greeted us with a nod and a smile and the word 'shalom'. it was a moment i won't easily forget. it was as if he came to terms with everything that happened to his people. or at least tried to come to terms with it by sharing some kind of remission or forgiveness.
we made our way back soon, but stopped by a little pond before heading back home. from the buchenwald hills you can see far into the thuringian valley.
and the fog lifted and light illuminated everything in the end.
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