Buchenwald Memorial
About This Site
The Buchenwald Memorial stands on the Ettersberg, the wooded hill above Weimar, on the ground of the concentration camp the SS ran here from July 1937 until its liberation on 11 April 1945: 277,800 people from more than fifty countries were held in it and its 141 satellite camps, and 56,000 of them died. The former prisoners' camp, the SS area, the GDR's monument of 1958 and the graves of the Soviet special camp are open every day until dusk; admission is free.
The camp, 15 July 1937 – 11 April 1945
The first transport of prisoners, from Sachsenhausen, arrived on the Ettersberg on 15 July 1937.[1] In the years to April 1945 the SS held 277,800 people from more than fifty countries here and in 141 satellite camps — 249,570 men, 28,230 women, 30,000 minors — and 56,000 of them died.[2] The camp gate carries the inscription Jedem das Seine, to each his own, legible from the roll-call square.[1] On 11 April 1945 units of the 3rd US Army reached the Ettersberg; the SS fled, and prisoners of the clandestine resistance organisation opened the camp from inside.[1]
Soviet Special Camp No. 2, 1945–1950
From August 1945 to February 1950 the Soviet occupation used the site as Special Camp No. 2; of the 28,000 people interned there, 7,000 died.[1] Their burial grounds are part of the memorial today.[3]
The GDR's national monument, 1958
The monumental complex on the south side of the Ettersberg was built by 1958 as the national monument of the GDR, designed after a competition of 1951 by a group of young architects who soon called themselves the Architektenkollektiv Buchenwald, with the sculptor Fritz Cremer; it was inaugurated on 14 September 1958.[4][1] Cremer's bronze of eleven figures shows the prisoners freeing themselves, and the Turm der Freiheit, the bell tower of light sandstone visible from afar, holds earth and ash from concentration camps and places of terror.[4] The tower's parapet served the GDR's state and party leadership as a speakers' platform at mass events.[4]
The memorial since 1991
In September 1991 a commission of historians recommended new guidelines for the site; the permanent exhibition opened in 1995 as part of the memorial's redesign, and since 2000 the Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora has run it.[1] What stands on the hill today is the former prisoners' camp with its gate, the barrack foundations and the crematorium, the SS area, the monument and the graves of the special camp.[3]
Visiting
The former prisoners' camp, the SS area, the monument, the burial grounds of Special Camp No. 2 and all the other outdoor areas can be visited every day until dusk; the exhibitions are open Tuesday to Sunday and on public holidays, 10:00 to 18:00 from April to October and 10:00 to 16:00 from November to March, and closed on Mondays, 24 to 26 and 31 December and 1 January.[3] Admission to the memorial and its exhibitions is free; guided tours cost €10, reduced €5, and a multimedia guide €5.[5] The memorial asks visitors to allow at least three hours and to bring warm clothing and sturdy shoes, and advises against taking children under twelve into the museum, the detention cells or the crematorium.[5]
Questions visitors ask
- Is the Buchenwald Memorial open on Mondays?
- The grounds — the former prisoners' camp, the SS area, the monument and the special-camp graves — are open every day until dusk. Only the exhibitions close on Mondays.
- Does it cost anything to visit?
- No — admission to the memorial and its exhibitions is free. Guided tours cost €10 (€5 reduced) and a multimedia guide €5.
- How many people were imprisoned at Buchenwald?
- 277,800 people from more than fifty countries, in the main camp and its 141 satellite camps, between July 1937 and April 1945; 56,000 of them died.
- When was the camp liberated?
- On 11 April 1945, when units of the 3rd US Army reached the Ettersberg; the SS fled and prisoners of the resistance organisation opened the camp from inside.
- How much time should I allow, and is it suitable for children?
- At least three hours, with warm clothing and sturdy shoes; the memorial advises against taking children under twelve into the museum, the detention cells or the crematorium.
Connected Historical Figures
writer • communist • prisoner
A prisoner of the camp from November 1937, where he carved "Das letzte Gesicht" from a piece of the Goethe oak in 1944.
writer • witness • Nobel laureate
He was a prisoner in the Small Camp of the camp this memorial preserves, and was liberated here at sixteen.
designer • typographer • architect • prisoner in Buchenwald
He designed the letters of the camp gate's inscription while a prisoner there.
communist • block elder • Righteous Among the Nations
Block 8 stood in the camp the memorial preserves; more than 370 children and young people were liberated in it.
librettist • lyricist • prisoner
He was held here from September 1938 and wrote the words of the Buchenwaldlied in the camp.
Social Democrat • lawyer • resistance organiser • politician
A prisoner of the camp the memorial preserves, and the author of the manifesto its political prisoners wrote there.
pianist • composer • cabaret artist
Held here from August 1938; he composed the music of the Buchenwaldlied in the camp.
writer • resistance member • screenwriter
A prisoner of the camp the memorial preserves, and one of the writers who made it legible to people who were never there.
sociologist • scholar
He died in the camp the memorial preserves, on 15 March 1945, less than four weeks before its liberation.
veterinary surgeon • mayor • resistance member
Deported here on 17 January 1944 and killed on the Ettersberg on 9 February 1945; the memorial names him among the raid's dead.[^buchenwald-luftangriff-1945]
communist • resistance organiser • historian
A prisoner of the camp the memorial preserves, and afterwards one of the heads of the International Buchenwald Committee.
Sources (5)
- KZ Buchenwald — Wikipedia (de), retrieved 30 August 2026
- Zahlen und Fakten — Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Öffnungszeiten — Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Das Mahnmal — Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Praktische Infos — Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, retrieved 29 August 2026
Visit Information
Free entry to the memorial and its exhibitions; guided tours €10 (€5 reduced), multimedia guide €5.
Grounds open daily until dusk. Museums and exhibitions: April–October Tue–Sun and public holidays 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:30); November–March 10:00–16:00 (last entry 15:30); closed Mondays, 24–26 and 31 December and 1 January.
Buchenwald, 99427 Weimar
51.0191, 11.2512
Events held here
Events
Late September into October, every year
The camp above the city is the reason a dialogue festival staged in Thuringia carries the weight it does.
Two hours, on announced dates
The camp on the Ettersberg, in the memorial's own words before the gates of the city, is where this history arrives.
A weekend at the end of October, every year
What the failure of the first German republic eventually produced, on the hill above the town.
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
From July 1937 the SS had prisoners build a camp on the Ettersberg, the wooded hill above the town. 277,800 people from more than fifty countries were held there; 56,000 did not survive.
The camp is the site the memorial preserves; the ground and the buildings are the same.
On 24 May 1941 the SS put fifty Buchenwald prisoners into a carriage shed at Kranichfeld to rebuild a castle it had bought — and the point of the work was an insurance claim.
One of the satellite camps of the main camp on the Ettersberg, documented on the memorial's own satellite-camp portal.
On 18 August 1944 the leader of Germany's communists was killed inside the Buchenwald crematorium. Nine years later the first memorial plaque in the prisoners' camp marked the spot, and the GDR arranged its visits around it.
The plaque of 1953 is still in the crematorium and was the first memorial marker in the prisoners' camp.
In January 1945 prisoners set up a second children's block at the far end of the Small Camp and kept the boys in it alive. 904 children and young people were in Buchenwald when it was liberated.
Barrack 66 stood at the lower end of the Small Camp, on the grounds the memorial preserves.
On 11 April 1945, with armoured divisions of the US Third Army approaching, the SS were ordered out and armed prisoners took the camp gate.
The memorial marks 11 April as the day the camp it preserves was liberated.
Four months after the liberation, the Soviet occupation began interning people on the same ground. 28,494 were held there until 1950 and 7,113 of them died.
The memorial preserves the special camp's burial grounds alongside the concentration camp site, and its grounds are open daily.
Around Weimar
North
The memorial is on the same hill this municipality is named for, above the villages on its northern slope.