[Music] [Music] I also want a very difficult chapter... I want to mention it here to you in all honesty. It should be said between us and yet we will never talk about it in public. I mean the evacuation of Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people. Most of you will know what it means when 100 corpses lie together, when 500 lie there or when 1000 lie there. And having endured this and remaining decent, apart from exceptional human weaknesses, has made us tough and is a glory that has never been mentioned and will never be named. Hello and welcome to a new video from me, I'm Stefan aka OneEyeBlind. Today I am on the site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp. This camp existed from July 1937 to April 1945. Around 277,800 prisoners passed through this camp, of which around 50,000 did not survive this ordeal. I'll just take you with me, I don't want to overwhelm you with too many facts and figures today, and I'll show you a little bit about the area. Short note on the side: of course this all involves a bit of time, effort and costs, so if you liked the video, just leave me a like, write me a comment if you have something to say about it or you would like to discuss it with me would like and subscribe to my channel, that's very important! I would be happy about it. Click on the bell so that you will always be notified when a new video comes out and now let's just get started. I am now here in front of the former crematorium of the Buchenwald concentration camp. On April 16, 1945, the US troops brought around 1,000 citizens of Weimar into the concentration camp and took them through here to confront them with the horror that the Nazi regime had caused here, and there are also video recordings of them and the majority of citizens, of course, claim to have known nothing about it. I won't comment on anything here when I walk through the crematorium with you, simply out of respect for it, I already know the place but I just want to leave the respect to this place, I don't want to go into much detail here about what happened where and how just let the pictures have an effect on you. I'm not there yet, so I can tell you a little more... well, this is the courtyard area of the crematorium, there are also video recordings and photos here that may be familiar to some people from when the Americans liberated the camp here There are still a lot of dead people here in front of the outer wall here, which the SS simply didn't manage to burn in that time and this is the outside area of the crematorium, so there are common photos where this could be seen here... Before I get here I enter the building behind me without comment - behind me is the pathology department, which is attached to the crematorium. These two buildings were built around 1940 . Here in pathology, dissections were already carried out, here specimens were made from human skin, here shrunken heads were made that were shrunk to the size of a fist. Some of the preparations were distributed among the SS as gifts - you have to imagine that - so when I go in here now , as I said, I'll leave it all uncommented and just let it sink in for you. There was a mortuary beneath the crematorium, where the bodies were simply thrown or slid down a slide and were later taken up to the crematorium in the elevator. And below prisoners were also hung on hooks to be strangled, so even down below there were killings and I will leave that uncommented when I film down there. Here behind the crematorium there was still a doctor's room, which of course has now been reconstructed here. Latrines were actually housed here, a few of the few that existed here... and reconstructed here - and it wasn't in this place, it was outside the camp fence - but a neck firing system was reconstructed here, so executions also took place here . Here the prisoners undressed themselves unsuspectingly, were measured here or were left in the belief that they were being measured here in terms of size, and I'll show you here from behind - and when they stood here to "measure" someone shot them in the neck from behind - you have to imagine. .. A bit windy, I hope you can still understand it to some extent... These are the dimensions, I'll show you them again from above. The Soviet military administration actually recommended building a memorial here from the start , but the SED party leadership was of the opinion that a Thälmann memorial should be built in 1950 and had all the barracks that still stood here torn down. So there's actually only one original barrack left, which is back there and we'll take a look at it again. Behind me is the effects building, the chamber building. It was built in 1939/1940. The clothing of the arriving prisoners and their belongings were stored here, as was the prisoner's clothing. Disinfection also took place here, which means everyone had to go from the camp gate into this building and be disinfected. Also one of the few surviving buildings still standing. It's not exactly small, as you can see, today the building houses a permanent exhibition, I wouldn't show you too much of it now, you'll just have to see it for yourself when you visit the memorial. Unfortunately the weather has changed a bit, but that won't stop me now. Behind me is the small camp in Buchenwald, which is Camp 2. From 1942 onwards, this camp served primarily as accommodation for Jews when transports arrived with increasing numbers. Horse stables were set up here and these horse stables were actually supposed to provide shelter for 50 horses, they were later used for the prisoners and these barracks or these horse stables had no floor, which means that this camp was completely covered by mud and there were up to 2000 prisoners per horse stable housed here, which means that mortality was also highest here. Mainly Jews were housed here until the liberation of the Buchenwald camp, and from 1942 onwards, as already mentioned, the number increased here in Camp 2. As I said, mortality was highest here. Here behind me is the only latrine that was intended for this purpose and the conditions here were the worst because in the Buchenwald main camp there were barracks with foundations etc. Here, as I said, the hygienic conditions were the worst because they were just horse stables. There was no water here, no electricity anyway, no heating, etc. As a result, most people died here and here too, shortly before the camp was liberated, most of the people here were selected to be sent on death marches . After the liberation, at some point when the memorial was built, more attention was paid to the main camp during the GDR era; this area was simply allowed to grow over. It was only from the 90s onwards on the initiative of survivors, most of whom emigrated to the USA, that it was taken care of here and you can see it a bit behind me, and then the memorial was erected. Before, as I said, it was just overgrown and no one cared about it anymore. As I said, I didn't intend to give too many numbers and dates today, but just to give you a little bit of the hard facts again: the prison camp itself had 400,000 square meters and was surrounded by 3,500 m of electric barbed wire fence , Buchenwald had 139 satellite camps and it is estimated that there were around 277,800 prisoners. According to the figures recorded, around 56,000 died who did not survive the camp. The youngest prisoner housed here was 2 years old, the oldest was 86 years old. Of the 9,000 SS guards who served here, I believe, only 79 were convicted afterwards. Like in Nordhausen in Mittelbau-Dora, where I've already filmed, and also in Bergen-Belsen... oh now I don't know I wonder if I'm talking rubbish right now, whether that also existed in Bergen-Belsen - but I 've definitely seen it in Mittelbau-Dora - there was also a camp brothel here that stood in this spot. Of course that was also removed. From mid-July 1943, 19 women from the Ravensbrück concentration camp “performed their service” here. That sounds a bit very macabre, but they were forced into prostitution here. Jews, Sinti, Roma and Russians, or inmates of the small camp that I just mentioned, were of course excluded from the start. Here only the other prisoners from the large camp were allowed to "use" the brothel (in quotation marks). They also had to pay for it and of course the income from the brothel went to the SS, so of course nobody was allowed to keep any of it. You can see the perversion that this entails... running a brothel for prisoners who turn themselves out... well, well... it's actually impossible to put into words, something like that, I think it's crass . Here in the area like the barracks that I am about to enter was also the sick area or area for the sick barracks/medical barracks. Among other things, a lot of human experiments took place in Buchenwald, i.e. typhus and tuberculosis were experimentally injected into prisoners here... and a lot of human experiments were carried out here, for example, human skin that was tattooed was removed from the dead and sent to the Reich for preparation and exhibition purposes - you have to imagine that. The weather is getting worse and worse, but I'm still giving it my all! Here I am now in the former operating room 2, the building was two floors. Operations in that sense were carried out here... but I believe that the building mainly served completely different purposes ... namely, prisoners were selected here for Aktion Reinhardt, i.e. for euthanasia, and brought to Sonnenstein or Bernburg. Euthanasia is, for those who don't know, to give a rough idea - I'll definitely make another video about it about a euthanasia center - but: life unworthy of life was segregated in the National Socialist regime, which meant that people became disabled or mentally ill yes, they were spent in so-called euthanasia centers and imprisoned there and mostly simply killed in the Reinhardt operation. Partly in gas chambers, partly with injections... here too, injections were administered to carry out killings and these are the remains of operating room 2. Here you can still see the stairs down here, there are some connections down there but the building was then also blown up, demolished, whatever. Here too there was a prison hospital, in this case it was the tuberculosis isolation barracks. Of course, tuberculosis was relatively rampant here in the camp at the time and the prisoners were isolated here so that it didn't spread any further. There was even a dental clinic here that was roughly at this point. Then next to it was the hospital room, which was the largest area and of course there were also duty rooms for the SS. Even a bathroom and a toilet, which of course wasn't the normal standard for most buildings here in the camp . A prisoner's kitchen and a nurse's room were located in the back corner. Unfortunately, this building was also demolished, I always think it's a shame when such buildings are demolished, in this case I don't think it was because of the risk of epidemics but simply because they wanted to get rid of it, the way it reads to me. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to read it exactly, but as I mentioned before, the SED leadership probably had most of the buildings demolished here. I just always think it's a shame, nowadays people really try to remember something like that and to preserve a lot of it and uncover it or reconstruct it, but that was the case in the post-war period up until the 80s I would just say from my gut, there was a lot of attempt - not to cover it up, but - to let grass grow over it and that a bit... "It's in the past, we don't want to have anything to do with it anymore !"... I think it's a bit of a shame. At this point was Block 46; the Waffen-SS had a typhus testing station here. Here the prisoners were injected with pathogens for experiments, for medical pseudo-research purposes , of course most of whom did not survive or became seriously ill. One of the original watchtowers can be seen in front, I am now just outside the fence and here are splinter protection trenches for the SS in case the nearby Willhelm Gustloff works, which were located here for weapons production right next to the Buchenwald camp, are attacked or bombed there were real splinter protection trenches for the guards. These are the ruins of the SS-Waffenmeisterei and the music train. The Waffen-SS was “taken care of” here . Up ahead you can see the ruins of the music train just a little bit to the left of the picture... At least there were sanitary facilities in here too... well, at least that means... it was of course outside the camp and is therefore only for them SS was planned! Here I am now at the former quarry that belonged to the Buchenwald concentration camp . A number of prisoners also died here. A sketch was found, the origin of which is still unknown. Eight tunnel entrances were noted. The Americans opened or discovered two tunnel entrances, took valuables out of there and brought them to the armed forces headquarters. What happened to the Soviet armed forces afterwards is not exactly documented. In any case, in 2019, after research by the MDR, tunnel entrances were found here again using ground radar, of which four entrances to three chambers were opened, of which the chambers were empty, so nothing was found in there and the remaining four tunnel entrances that are still there supposed to exist, they weren't even opened. So there must definitely still be tunnel entrances here in the quarry. To this day, no one knows exactly what's in there. Now I'll just show you the area of the quarry. Up here I think I remember it from the documentary - you can see it a little bit, it's a little brighter or the area looks a little newer - this is an area that has been opened up. You can see a bit of quarry back there , so I'm just guessing that there was one tunnel entrance and there were others back there. And maybe just right underneath me, where I'm standing right now - I don't know if you can see it exactly right now... no, not exactly here - there could also be tunnels hidden under me, but I don't know that for sure myself. Now I have to go down here to the quarry because I saw from afar that somehow... I thought it was an excavator shovel or something, but somehow it seems to be from the tunnel. I'm just wondering right now why this is lying in the open air, rotting away. So here at the front, there seems to me to be this one tunnel that was once opened. And there's so much rubble lying around here, scrap metal, scrap metal and when I look at this... can anyone see what's there? But this is old German writing! Well, to me it looks like it's coming out of the tunnel. That makes me a bit puzzled by what all this junk is lying around here, especially with that old German writing on top... I find that a bit crazy. Especially this one, where I thought it was an excavator shovel, this is a lorry / a tipping lorry and here is the frame... it seems to be from the tunnel! Honestly, I'll ask about that straight away! I'd be interested to know, if it's out of the tunnel, why it's just lying around here. Behind me you can now see the train station of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and also the partially exposed tracks that are here. So there were a lot of rails here. In 1943, prisoners had to move the rail system towards Weimar in just two months - that 's about 10 km - they had to lay the tracks so that the prisoners who had arrived in Weimar could be transported up here. From here, a number of transports went to the Auschwitz concentration camp for the extermination of the prisoners and here at this train station alone hundreds of thousands of prisoners arrived from all over Europe to be imprisoned here in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Here behind me, where I'm walking towards it, you can see that this area right here, where this sign is and where these two junctions are - so this is a junction here, there was a junction - but this is exactly the entrance area to the Buchenwald camp . Here in the middle of the access road stood a stone imperial eagle. It was in the middle, so you could go past it to the right to go in and to the left to go out - for staff or visitors. There is a gas station here - I think you can see it quite clearly behind me - there is a gas station for the SS vehicles. There are the - can you tell? Yes! - here were the garages for the SS, for the vehicles... and yes, that was the route to the Buchenwald camp. Quite a lot of it was obviously blown up or demolished after the war, which means that the look as it is today can of course no longer be compared with 1945, but it's nice that you can still see a lot of buildings here. In Bergen-Belsen for example, if you know my video, this is of course no longer the case. You can no longer see any of the buildings except for the foundations, which are gradually being uncovered again, but here you at least have a small idea of what it used to be like, even if the camp barracks themselves are no longer standing. There are the larger buildings behind me - they are arranged in a bit of a semicircle here - there are relatively many and larger buildings, these were the residential buildings for the SS personnel. What I find very, very macabre... this area here or this area here is located right next to the fence... so here is the crematorium, here is the watchtower... right next to the camp fence, the SS built a zoo especially for themselves let! I think it goes back to the initiative of Karl-Otto Koch, the first camp commandant. And there was a zoo area right next to the camp fence! This, for example, is the bear enclosure, so some of it was actually... not some of it, but here there were bears on display! So we have other enclosures for animals up front... In fact, you can really see the bear cave here... it's unbelievable! Well, of course it's now closed with the chain... I don't even want to go in there... but it is ... so it's unbelievable. A zoo was built here for the amusement of the security guards. And there is in the exhibition - I found it frightening and interesting at the same time - there is a relic in the exhibition - although in the exhibition there are very many relics from the time of the Buchenwald concentration camp, it is definitely worth a visit, including the exhibition itself take a look! In any case, there is a photo album up there that was created for or at the direction of Commander Koch, where he and his son, who must have been 2 or 3 years old at the time, were created with photos of him and his Son with the caption “With daddy at the zoo”! And I have to imagine... thousands of prisoners are starving and dying right next door! Well, I find that so macabre... unbelievable! I don't know exactly what other enclosures are here . Whether this is here... I almost said penguin pool... you can still see a bit of remnants back there... but I think that's crazy, visiting a zoo here and next door... no! This is real... this is awesome! Yes, and so that the bears don't run away, some of the protective devices are actually attached here... really with spikes and stuff... that's awesome! There are even photos of where the bears were in here... that's awesome, you can even still see them in there... in the breakthrough you can even still see the grid! Probably got separated in there... That was my little tour of the Buchenwald concentration camp. I didn't want to overwhelm you with facts and figures today, so not TOO much... of course I've already told you a little bit, but if I could tell you everything about this camp, what happened here... what it is was still available for recording... only about the first camp commandant Karl-Otto Koch and his wife Ilse Koch, who was also relatively well known and who also stood trial - her husband was arrested shortly before the camp was liberated, i.e. shortly before Executed at the end of the war because he was simply corrupt. He was so corrupt that even the SS had him arrested and he was executed shortly before the camp was liberated. Ilse Koch himself, i.e. his wife, was then put on trial and, as I said, one could have talked for hours about this time alone or the subsequent commander Pister and what other suffering happened here and what facts and data there were just about that A lot could have been said about the Gustloff works that were adjacent here ... but that would completely go beyond the scope. So I would say I'll end my tour for today and I hope you enjoyed the tour a bit. If so, please give me a thumbs up, write me a comment and I'll see you in the next video. Until then, take care! music]
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