ESC: VJF/ESC 6.3 Never forget: Buchenwald

Buchenwald Concentration Camp was established on Ettersberg Mountain, ten kilometres from Weimar, Thuringia, in 1937. Some 277,000 persons from all over Europe were imprisoned here and in the 139 Buchenwald subcamps. Approximately 56,000 of them did not survive the terror. From 1945 to 1950, parts of the camp grounds were used by the Soviet occupying power as an internment camp. Of the 28,000 internees of this so-called Special Camp No. 2, more then 7,000 died as a result of hunger, cold and disease. Beginning in 1951, in conjunction with the establishment of a memorial to anti-fascist resistance, the majority of the camp was demolished; in 1958 the camp and the commemorative monument on the south slope of the Ettersberg were together inaugurated as the “Nationale Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Buchenwald” (“National Buchenwald Memorial” of the German Democratic Republic). Today, Buchenwald Memorial is a place of commemoration and learning. Of central importance here are historical research, education and (international) encounter. With its various programmes, the memorial accordingly offers a wide range of different means of examining and exploring various aspects of the site’s history. One major focus is the educational work. The memorial’s educational programmes are geared primarily to the needs and interests of school classes (fifteen years and older), youth groups and young adults visiting Buchenwald Memorial within the framework of school and historical-political education. Aside from conveying the history of the site, the memorial education work is also – and above all – concerned with how the site is perceived, the various meanings of which the site has been robbed or, conversely, which have been and are assigned this site on the collective level (political exploitation) as well the individual level, and the relevance of the site’s history for dealing with racism, right-wing tendencies and anti-Semitism today. Further important emphases of the memorial work are the documentation and research of the history of the concentration camp and the Soviet special camp (data research), the support of international remembrance events, and the cultivation of contact with the various associations of former inmates and their descendants. (One aspect of the last-named point is the provision of support in researching information about camp imprisonment.)