Buchenwald was established in 1937 on the Ettersberg ridge, eight kilometres north of Weimar. Over 250,000 people were imprisoned here; around 56,000 died. The memorial site includes the preserved remains of the camp — roll-call square, the crematorium, the gatehouse with its clock stopped at 3:15, the time of liberation — and a substantial exhibition in the former storehouse. The bus from Weimar (line 6) runs regularly. It is not an easy visit, but it is an important one, and the way Weimar sits in its shadow is part of what makes the city worth understanding.
Buchenwald Memorial
Sobering Nazi concentration camp memorial on the ridge above Weimar
A story
After the war, the Soviet occupiers used the site as Special Camp No. 2, imprisoning former Nazis and political opponents. Around 7,000 people died there between 1945 and 1950. The memorial addresses both periods honestly, which makes it unusual among sites of this kind in Germany.