Buchenwald concentration camp

WARNING DISTURBING CONTENT
I start by describing my day but then it's too gruesome to continue and I just explain the pictures. I'm still trying to digest this.

The other BYU students went to berlin this weekend but I'm going there on Tuesday to pick Tenery up from the airport! We're going to stay the night and go exploring on Wednesday. So yesterday I decided to go visit Buchenwald concentration camp.

I left early in the morning because I didn't want to be rushed and I wanted to have some free time in the afternoon. I looked at the train schedule in order to get to Weimar but I didn't look at the bus schedule before hand. Buchenwald is located on the outskirts of Weimar in a forest. I got to weimar just before 8 AM and the first bus left at 8:15 AM. However, this bus didn't go all the way to buchenwald since buchenwald doesn't open until 10 AM. It stopped at Ettersburg-siedlung which is about 6 kilometers away from the camp. Rather than wait for the next bus I just decided to walk through the forest. I wasn't worried about getting lost because A.) there were signs and B.) for some reason I get really good cell phone reception in the middle of forests. I decided to go with the signs because I didn't want to kill my phone battery. To get to Buchenwald I had to go straight through the whole forest. I decided to follow the signs and ended up making a wrong turn and ending up just outside of Ettersburg. I had veered too far to the right.

The real problem was that I came out in this long meadow and couldn't resist heading to the town. Right before I got to the town (like 50 yards away) I checked my phone and headed back into the forest.

The first thing that I saw when I got close to the camp was this old fence that was falling apart. 

This was the outside edge of the camp and formed a second border hemming in the camp.

I made my way to the visitor's center to get an audio guide (it's free to visit the camp) and started to check out the camp. First, I walked down the "caracho path" that prisoners were forced to march down when they got off the train in order to get to the camp.

The buildings on the sides are barracks and offices for the SS guards that ran the camp.

While walking down the path I noticed this strange structure which it turns out was a bear enclosure for the SS zoo.

The camp fence is just to the left. It is said that the bears here were a form of psychological degradation because the bears were treated better than the prisoners.

I then made my way through the camp gate. The time on the clock is permanently set at 3:15 P.M. which is the time that the camp was liberated by U.S. forces on April 11, 1945. In the left wing of this building is the jail's prison, where inmates were put into solitary confinement. On the gate is written "Jedem das Seine" which means "everyone gets what he deserves." It is written so that it can be read from the inside. 

Moving past the gate I came to the parade grounds where the prisoners were forced to stand for registration and inspections. To the right you can see the crematorium to the left of it the delousing station and storage depot and to the left is the prisoners canteen where cheap goods were for sale in order for the SS to skim more money from the prisoners. 

canteen

depot and to the right connected to it is the delousing station. Prisoners were first brought to the delousing station, then led through an underground tunnel to the storage depot to get clothes and wooden shoes.

the crematorium

All of the barracks are gone now but they were in the big open area in front of me. You can see the outlines marked on the ground in stone.

I headed to the crematorium which was chilling to say the least.

Table where they performed autopsies and removed gold teeth.

Picture of dead bodies on the day of liberation and the courtyard where it occurred.

At the beginning of the camp they would fill these urns with ashes and mail them to the families COD.

Hooks in the basement that they used to strangle thousands of prisoners.

Ovens. Notice the flowers on the floor. People left flowers everywhere.

This device was used to execute soviet soldiers. They would have the soldiers stand up to be measured and an SS officer would be in the room behind the scale. After the prisoner turned around, the officer would open the wooden door and shoot the prisoners in the back of the head.

A remnant of the "goethe oak." It is said that Goethe sat under this oak with his lover long before this camp was here.

Delousing station and depot with foundation of a barracks in foreground.

A memorial plaque with the countries that prisoners came from listed. This plaque is kept at constant human body temperature.

After world war II this camp was turned into a soviet run prison camp. Each of these posts signifies a grave where 5-10 people are buried.

Observations

So I've noticed a few things about Germany since I've been here for the past month and a half.

1. High latitude. Germany has a pretty high latitude, putting it as far north as southern Canada. This is most noticeable with how long the days last here. It starts getting dark around 9:30 PM and it's bright outside by 5 AM. It might get lighter sooner than that but I haven't been out of bed that early. I did wake up at 4 AM once and I almost couldn't go back to sleep because the birds were singing too loudly.

2. Air Conditioning. Germans don't believe in air conditioning. None of our apartments have it, the trains don't have it, and the research institute doesn't have it. Which is usually fine because with that high latitude comes lower temperatures. However, on the days that it reaches the mid 80's it gets pretty uncomfortable. Especially when you can't go inside to get away from it.

Apparently, Germans all believe the myth that if you have cold air blowing on you that it will make you sick. I've heard this most in relationship to getting kidney infections, you can't let your back get cold or you'll get a kidney infection. I didn't really know that kidney infections were a thing.

3. Alcohol free beers. They have all kinds of alcohol free beers here. I knew that Germans love their beer but I didn't realize that this extended to the alcohol free kind. In the U.S. there's one kind (that I'm aware of, I wouldn't say that I'm really in the know). Apparently, they love beer so much that they still want to drink it when their pregnant (or in other situations where you wouldn't want alcohol).

4. Pork and Potatoes. Germans love pork. In fact the only two traditional meat dishes I can think of are bratwurst (pork) and schnitzel (pork). Even though I've been here over a month I've had chicken maybe twice and beef maybe twice (and always at american style restaurants). It's been pork all the other times. With their pork they usually have potatoes, typically cubed and boiled.

5. Environmental awareness. Germans are very environmentally friendly. There are always three (or more) garbage cans to separate your trash into. I'm not very good at knowing which one to put my trash in so I usually just put it in the "restwaste" container and hope that nobody is looking. Also, here at the institute the lights in the hallways are motion sensor. They typically remain off unless somebody is walking down the hall. Several times I've stopped in the hallway to read something on the wall and had the lights turn off around me.

6. Pay bathrooms. I've mentioned this before but it's important to carry fifty cents around at all times in case of emergencies. Germany is pretty socialist as far as education goes so it's interesting that they are not socialist at all when it comes to bathrooms.

That's all I can think of right now. I'll let you know if I can think of anything else.

Dresden "Florence on the Elbe"

This week we went to Dresden, which is a pretty cool city here in east germany. During World War II Dresden was completely decimated by U.S. and British planes during the last months of the war. It's a controversial action since Dresden was not important to German wartime production nor a major industrial center. When the city rebuilt it tried to recreate all of the buildings as they were before the destruction.

We left Jena just after 7 AM for the 3 hour train ride that included 3 transfers. The transfers were nice though because we got off one train and the other one would arrive 2 minutes later. When we arrived in Jena I was surprised by the amount of tourists there. After we left the train station though it calmed down considerably.

We spent most of the day in museums which didn't allow us to take pictures, so I don't have a lot of pictures. 

Our first stop was the kreuzkirche which we thought was actually the frauenkirche. It had a unique interior complete with remnants of the bombing. 

We next visited the residenzschloss, or royal palace. This area is where the kings of saxony lived and reigned. It is also home to Europe's largest collection of treasure. It was insane. There was so much ivory, and gold, and jewels, just ridiculous stuff. All of it was just random knick knacks that were ridiculously opulent, and it just kept going. It was mind-blowing. We checked out a few other museums in the residenzschloss, one on turkish weapons and armor and then an area with medieval armor and weapons. The medieval armor and weapons were my favorite part of the residenzschloss. It showed armor that had been used in tournaments with dents in the armor from the jousting. It was like being at a medieval tournament complete with knights riding fake horses and suits of armor everywhere. 

We then made our way to the frauenkirche which is the main church in Dresden. We paid five euros to climb to the top of the dome and it was worth it the view of the city was astounding. Just as we arrived at the top a storm blew in that dumped rain on us with thunder and lightning. The platform we were standing on was partly covered by a spire but the wind was blowing so hard that the rain was drenching the entire platform. We ducked behind pillars and prayed to not get struck by lightning while we were on the platform. The wind and rain died down shortly afterwards and we were able to enjoy a few moments of relative calm.

We then made our way to the Zwinger, a group of 3 museums. We ended up going to the art museum where they had works by Raphael, Botticelli, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. It was really cool but for me it mostly turned into "find the famous artist's paintings."

We then went to the German National Hygiene museum. Everybody that I was with was super stoked about this, I was indifferent to it. I'm still indifferent to it. I just had fun pretending to be really grumpy about the whole thing.

To head home we were planning on getting on a train at 6:07, which would get us home around 9 PM. However, the train was about 20 minutes late (I thought German trains were supposed to run on time). We were worried that we would miss our connecting train which would make the trip 3 hours longer and we would get home about 1230. Luckily our connecting train waited for us and we were able to get home relatively early.

Here are some pictures of the day:

Inside the Kreuzkirche

Evidence of bombing damage in the kreuzkirche

Soviet realist art

The frauenkirche. Where the four columns rise from the top of the church is the platform that we stood on.

Me and the church

Street performer making bubbles

Inside the Frauenkirche. I like this altar, it shows Christ in the garden of gethsemane rather than the crucifixion like all the other churches.

The city from the top of the tower, notice the crazy rain.

Me on the tower. That girl is hiding from the wind and the rain. The rain was coming from my left.

Trying not to get soaked.

After this, I put my camera away so it wouldn't get soaked. The rain did clear up considerably after this but I never pulled my camera back out. I took some pictures with my phone but I'm too lazy to transfer them to the computer.

Tenery comes a week from Tuesday! I'm so excited to see her again and I'm sure she'll do a much better job at blogging.

Pictures!

Wartburg castle. This castle inspired Ludwig II to build Neuschwanstein, which in turn inspired Walt Disney's Cinderella Castle. Just doing some castle genealogy.

the castle

Me and the castle

Engraving of ludwig the leaper who started this castle.

Saint elizabeth's engagement (They're in the cradle)

The singer's hall, where lucky high school students get to have graduation.

The luther room. The inkstain is supposed to be by the stove.

Crazy looking pigeons with huge tails

The church where luther lectured and Bach was baptized.

Wartburg and Weimar

Yesterday we went and saw Wartburg castle in Eisenach, which is about a 2 hour train ride (on the slow trains) from Jena. It's the first time I've been on a train since I got to Germany. We got a group ticket which didn't allow us to ride the high speed trains, which we didn't know till the lady checking our ticket informed us while we were riding the high speed train. Luckily, she let us stay and didn't fine us. It probably helped that we were getting off at the first stop. We made sure to get on a slow train on the way back. It was really warm and the trains didn't have air conditioners so we opened the windows but it was still pretty stuffy.

Wartburg castle is old and has a storied past. Construction on the castle began around 1061 AD by Ludwig the Leaper (he jumped from a castle tower into a river to escape from prison). He found the sight for the castle as he was hunting. Unfortunately, the land was outside of his jurisdiction so he brought soil from his own land, spread it on the ground, and built his castle on it. That way when the emporer asked he could swear that he built it on his own land. 

It was also the site where Saint Elizabeth lived with several rooms devoted to her life. She came to Wartburg castle at the age of 4 years old. In one of the mosaics it shows her engagement to the duke which was put into effect by placing the two toddlers in the same cradle. She was later canonized a saint because of her work healing the sick. One of the miracles she performed was the rose miracle. She was taking some bread to a sick man even though in that time it was illegal to steal bread from the castle (even though she was married to the duke). As she was traveling she came across the duke who asked her what she had underneath her cloak. She claimed that the bread was roses, said a quick prayer, and alas! when she pulled out the bread it had turned into roses.

This is also the location of Sängerkrieg (minstrel contest) that was immortalized in Richard Wagner's opera, "Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg."

The castle is most famous for it's role in Martin Luther's life. When Martin Luther started the protestant reformation he was brought before the pope at the Diet of Worms and ordered to recant his beliefs. He refused and the pope declared him an outlaw, which in those days meant that anybody could kill him without being punished. Frederick the Wise, elector of saxony, took Martin Luther and protected him in Wartburg castle. While there, Luther translated the new testament from greek into german. When he left the castle, people asked him what he had been doing, to which he replied, "fighting the devil with ink." People took him literally and a legend became well known that one night as luther was working, the devil appeared to him on the wall. Luther threw his inkpot at the devil, making him disappear, and leaving an inkstain on the wall. People came from miles around to see the inkstain and the obliging stewards of the castle created an inkstain on the wall. Pilgrims would remove pieces of the wall while the stewards kept replacing it.

On the top floor of the castle is a large singer's hall (bigger than neuschwanstein) in which they still hold concerts and operas. In fact, the eisenach high school uses it for their graduation ceremonies.

Fun fact I just learned on Wikipedia: when the russians occupied east germany after world war 2 they carried away all of the art and artifacts from wartburg castle. Most of it is still missing.

On our way back to the train station, we stopped by the city church which just happened to be the church that Johann Sebastian Bach was baptized in. On our way home we stopped in Weimar which is the most visited city in this state (Thuringia; Eisenach is number 2, probably because of wartburg castle). However, Weimar was kind of lame. Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived there and it was the capitol of the Weimar Republic (the first democratic government in Germany). For us the town just seemed small and overpriced (to tour goethe's house would have cost 10 euro, wartburg was only 5 euro). I do want to go back to Weimar in order to see Buchenwald (a concentration camp, and later a russian gulag during occupation). We didn't have enough time to see it yesterday.

We got back to jena in time to watch the uefa champions league final at the american themed Cheers sports bar. It's modeled after the old tv show (you know, "sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and their always glad you came....). It was an exciting game, unfortunately I spilled my beer (alcohol free of course) when barcelona scored their first goal so I was wet for the rest of the game.

Anyways, that's it for now. I didn't bring my pictures to the institute so I'll have to upload those tomorrow. Tschüss