Category Archives: society

Concentration Camp Weimar-Buchenwald

Almost exactly 14 years after I visited Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau, I visited Weimar-Buchenwald. A relative was there four years ago and coined this visit as »brutal erschütternd«. There are no other two words that can better express what I perceived during my visit. Incredible and brutally shocking.

What’s even more shocking is that contrast during the visit. I was there since I was visiting several pipe organ concerts, mainly Johann Sebastian Bach being played, one of the greatest composers ever. Furthermore, Weimar was the residence of Franz Liszt, Goethe and Schiller for several years. So, Weimar and the concentration camp Buchenwald are both nearby examples of what humans are capable of – extreme barbarism on the one, extreme cultural attainments on the other hand side.

So I wonder whether we can learn from Auschwitz-Birkenau and Weimar-Buchenwald for recent developments in 2022 and 2023? Yes, I’m pretty sure we can. Barbarism ends rather sooner than later. Culture luckily survives for a very long time.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Panorama

Here’s a panorama picture I took in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It’s far from being perfect, as I only used the automatisms of Hugin without further interaction or editing. The camera position was approximately here, with camera movement from east over south to west (left to right):

I took the images in auto mode, thus the variant exposures. I should have used the stitch assistant instead.

Eye-witness accounts of Sonderkommando survivors

The second book I just read about the mass extermination of jews during the second world war is called »We wept without tears« (»Wir weinten tränenlos…«) by Gideon Greif. It’s a compilation of various interviews he held with some survivors of the Sonderkommando of the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

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Anus Mundi

If you remember a little latin, you might know what »Anus Mundi« means (a vulgar german translation would read as »Arsch der Welt«). Still under the impression of my recent visit to O?wi?cim, Poland, I wanted to get a bit of a clue what life was like in those infamous german concentration camps.