Buchenwald Station - Buchenwald Memorial

On the right, three rows of SS men stand in rank and file on an area of gravel. On the left, an officer stands at the edge of the platform. At the rear left, one can make out an arriving train. — 1/3

SS men lined up at the train station before the first entrance of the Buchenwald train, 1943. Photo: Eberhard Leitner, Buchenwald Concentration Camp Photo Department.

©Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, Besançon

Prisoners during the construction of the Buchenwald railroad station. In the middle left, a high wooden scaffolding tower can be seen on the track. — 2/3

Prisoners during the construction of the Buchenwald train station, April 12, 1944. Photo: identification service of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

©Buchenwald Memorial

Frog perspective from the track bed. The rails to the right of the high platform are bent. Grasses are sticking out between them. A milestone of the Buchenwaldbahn can be seen on the left.Frog perspective from the track bed. The rails to the right of the high platform are bent. Grasses are sticking Frog perspective from the track bed. The rails to the right of the high platform are bent. Grasses are sticking out between them. A milestone of the Buchenwaldbahn can be seen on the left.between them. A milestone of the Buchenwaldbahn can be seen on the left. — 3/3

Fragments of the tracks were restored with the support of trainee track workers, 2022. Photo: Lukas Severin Damm.

©Buchenwald Memorial

Initially the railway station served to supply the adjacent armament factory. A feeder track led directly into the factory. Until 1944, transports arrived in Weimar, at first at the main station and later at the freight station. From there, inmates often had to march the eight-kilometre distance to the camp on foot. From 1944 onward, inmates were brought directly to Buchenwald.

The platform, which still stands today, was the site of horrifying scenes. In 1944 trains came from France with crammed-full wagons, in which the deported had suffocated or died of thirst. In 1945, overfilled transports arrived constantly from the concentration camps Auschwitz and Groß-Rosen with half-frozen people. Hundreds were pulled from the wagons merely as corpses.

In the late 1950s most of the rail lines were demolished and the large rail shed was torn down. Today, beginning in Weimar, the Commemorative Buchenwald Railway Path ends at the Buchenwald railway station.