Day 9
Today was somewhat of a somber day. We went to the Buchenwald Memorial to the concentration camp that was there from the mid '30's to about 1950 (liberated by allies in 1945, but the Russians later used it until '50 - so it is my understanding). Overall, there are only a couple of buildings still standing, and I'm sure those buildings took quite a bit of repair work after the war, or even more recently, in order to keep them in somewhat working order for years to come. It was a pretty depressing place to know that thousands upon thousands of people died there by either work exhaustion, being killed, or through medical experiments. One of the buildings was specifically dedicated to human experimentation dealing with Typhus. I don't want to imagine the types of experiments that were done on living people.
It was interesting to see the overall layout of the entire camp, from the offices of the SS to the barracks of the inmates. The posts for mounting the barbed wire and electrical wire around the entire camp were, for the most part, still there so you could actually see and envision the limits of life of an inmate. They even had some of the solitary confinement cells within the opening gate viewable to the public. These were about 4x6 foot cells with a bed that folded down from the wall. This is where they would torture people into "confessions." Confessions through force...how ironic. At some point, I would think that every person would tell them whatever they wanted to hear in order for the torture to stop. Why resist, because you know the end result anyway.
They had some of the photos that were taken during the life of the camp to better put some faces with the places. Showing people that are literally skin-and-bones in heaps within what used to be a horse barn for 5 horses; they said that at one point they had 2000 sick/disabled inmates within this building.
The final stop on our tour of the grounds was the crematorium. I decided not to go in there because I didn't need any further mental pictures of the horrors that took place there. What absolutely amazes me after seeing this place is that there are people that still believe that this never happened. After today, I have absolutely no doubt (not that I ever doubted it before).
The atmosphere around the entire camp while we were there was very respectful and reverant. Not very much talking going on. Really gives you a chance to take it all in without interruption of cell phones ringing or people talking loudly on the phones or cars going by and such. I think after seeing a couple of the pictures, everyone realizes the enormity of what they are about to see. Although there wasn't alot to see, per se, it's what you didn't see that left the biggest impression on me. It makes me wonder just how bad things can get for someone to think that this sort of facility is OK, and for others to support it as well.
Tomorrow begins our long trek of match-watching, so I'm sure my posts will be a bit happier.
-Rocco
It was interesting to see the overall layout of the entire camp, from the offices of the SS to the barracks of the inmates. The posts for mounting the barbed wire and electrical wire around the entire camp were, for the most part, still there so you could actually see and envision the limits of life of an inmate. They even had some of the solitary confinement cells within the opening gate viewable to the public. These were about 4x6 foot cells with a bed that folded down from the wall. This is where they would torture people into "confessions." Confessions through force...how ironic. At some point, I would think that every person would tell them whatever they wanted to hear in order for the torture to stop. Why resist, because you know the end result anyway.
They had some of the photos that were taken during the life of the camp to better put some faces with the places. Showing people that are literally skin-and-bones in heaps within what used to be a horse barn for 5 horses; they said that at one point they had 2000 sick/disabled inmates within this building.
The final stop on our tour of the grounds was the crematorium. I decided not to go in there because I didn't need any further mental pictures of the horrors that took place there. What absolutely amazes me after seeing this place is that there are people that still believe that this never happened. After today, I have absolutely no doubt (not that I ever doubted it before).
The atmosphere around the entire camp while we were there was very respectful and reverant. Not very much talking going on. Really gives you a chance to take it all in without interruption of cell phones ringing or people talking loudly on the phones or cars going by and such. I think after seeing a couple of the pictures, everyone realizes the enormity of what they are about to see. Although there wasn't alot to see, per se, it's what you didn't see that left the biggest impression on me. It makes me wonder just how bad things can get for someone to think that this sort of facility is OK, and for others to support it as well.
Tomorrow begins our long trek of match-watching, so I'm sure my posts will be a bit happier.
-Rocco
posted by Rocco at 3:26 PM
1 Comments:
Son...that was a beautiful commentary on a horrible time in our history....dad
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