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THEMED TOURS 2024

There are many perspectives on the history of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. They all allow for unique insights and further questions. With the public themed tours, the staff of our education department would like to open up a variety of approaches and spaces that are not possible with overview tours.

View of the installation Remineszenzen by Josef Szajna in the art exhibition of the Buchenwald Memorial. Arid, abstract wooden frames fill the space, vaguely reminiscent of people. In the background, larger-than-life portraits, a large list, and shoes on the floor.

FOOTBALL AND THE BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP Themed tour | 16/23/30 June 2024 & 7/14 July 2024 , 11 AM | Information, Buchenwald Memorial

This summer, Germany will host the UEFA EURO 2024, the European Men's Football Championship. The Buchenwald Memorial is taking this as an opportunity to highlight the links between European football and the history of the Buchenwald concentration camp for the first time. The outdoor exhibition created especially for the occasion highlights selected players and club officials as well as the significance of football for the inmates in the camp and for the SS.

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Nach dem Krieg. Spuren der sowjetischen Besatzungszeit in Weimar 1945–1950 Themed tour with Franziska Mendler | 23 June 2024 | 3 p.m. | Memorial Stone Block 45, Buchenwald Memorial

Around 600 men were deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp as homosexuals under National Socialism. There they had to wear a pink triangle on their striped prisoner clothing to identify them. The tour shows the conditions and where they suffered in the concentration camp. The experiences they had after liberation are also shown.

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THE LIFE OF THE SS NEXT TO THE CAMP Thematic tour with Rikola-Gunnar Lüttgenau and Holger Obbarius | 14 July 2024 | 11:15 a.m. | Information, Buchenwald Memorial

The SS town of Buchenwald was home to thousands of SS men in their barracks - many of them under the age of 21 - as well as the families of the SS leaders. What was their everyday life like? What do we know about their careers and motivations? The tour leads to various SS sites in Buchenwald that are often overlooked when visiting the memorial: from the barracks to the troop garages and the ‘Kommandantenweg’ to the ‘SS-Siedlung I’, to the remains of the Falkenhof and the riding hall and finally to the SS zoological garden directly opposite the crematorium.

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General view of the Villa Koch in the Führersiedlung. The house in Heimatstil is surrounded by an ornamental wall with corner turrets. A car is parked in front of the driveway. In the background two more villas.

THE LIFE OF THE SS NEXT TO THE CAMP Thematic tour with Rikola-Gunnar Lüttgenau and Holger Obbarius | 14 July 2024 | 11:15 a.m. | Information, Buchenwald Memorial

The SS town of Buchenwald was home to thousands of SS men in their barracks - many of them under the age of 21 - as well as the families of the SS leaders. What was their everyday life like? What do we know about their careers and motivations? The tour leads to various SS sites in Buchenwald that are often overlooked when visiting the memorial: from the barracks to the troop garages and the ‘Kommandantenweg’ to the ‘SS-Siedlung I’, to the remains of the Falkenhof and the riding hall and finally to the SS zoological garden directly opposite the crematorium.

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Groepsfoto van bevrijde Nederlandse gevangenen voor een houten barak. Sommigen dragen nog gevangenenkleding.

Rondleiding in het Nederlands Tour in Dutch with Lisa Rethmeier | 17/23/25/32 July 2024 & 16/18/21 August 2024 | 11:15 am | Information, Buchenwald Memorial

Ons rondleidigen zijn gewoon in het Duits. Vandaag wil ik u graag een Nederlandse rondleiding aanbieden. Onderwerpen zijn het concentratiekamp Buchenwald, zijn veranderende functies tijdens de oorlog en zijn banden met de stad Weimar. Perspectieven van de gevangenen, maar ook van de daders en andere actoren komen aan bod. Wij zullen verschillende locaties op het kampterrein ontdekken.

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Two women are talking with an American soldier in uniform and helmet.

Frauen im KZ Buchenwald Thematic tour with Lisa Rethmeier | 21.07.2024 | 11:15 a.m. | Information, Buchenwald Memorial

The role of women* under National Socialism is still associated with housekeeping and motherhood - nothing more. On this themed tour, we ask other questions: What role did women and families play in the social and health policy of the state? Were they actors or determined by others? What happened to those who were unwilling or unable to fulfil their assigned role? Who guarded female concentration camp prisoners? Why do we still remember the wife of a Buchenwald concentration camp commandant, but not the almost 30,000 female prisoners in this concentration camp complex?

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Drawing made in green and brown tones. In front of a barrack, prisoners dressed in rags pull an indeterminable number of emaciated, dead bodies from a pile onto a wheelbarrow. Other prisoners stand next to them and watch. A fence in the background separates the site from other barracks.

Visite guidée en français Guided tour in French with Bärbel Grönegres | 04./08./18./25.08.2024 | 11:15 AM | Information, Buchenwald Memorial

Les thèmes abordés seront le camp de concentration de Buchenwald, ses fonctions changeantes pendant la guerre et ses liens avec la ville de Weimar. La perspective des détenus, mais aussi des bourreaux et d'autres acteurs sera abordée. Nous explorerons différents lieux sur le site du camp.

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Das Recht wird symbolisch gehängt

JUSTICE AND NATIONAL SOCIALISM THEMED TOUR WITH JULIA TREUMANN | 04.08.2024 | 11:15 A.M. | INFORMATION, BUCHENWALD MEMORIAL

We start with an overview of the history of the Buchenwald concentration camp. I will then focus the tour on the question of (co-)perpetration: Who is actually meant when we talk about ‘the Nazi perpetrators’ today? What role did other actors outside the SS play in the context of the concentration camps? What room for manoeuvre did they have? I will focus in particular on the role of lawyers in the Nazi state.

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ANTISEMITISM AND THE BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP THEMED TOUR WITH TIMO GALKI | 11.08.2024 | 11:15 A.M. | INFORMATION, BUCHENWALD MEMORIAL

Anti-Semitism is often translated as ‘hostility towards Jews’. But anti-Semitism is more than that. I would like to talk to you about this in a themed tour. What role did anti-Semitism play in National Socialism? How did Jews and those persecuted as Jews fare in Buchenwald and its subcamps? How did anti-Semitism manifest itself after 1945 and what gaps are there in the German culture of remembrance? We will explore these and other questions at the memorial, which is also a historical site of the Shoah.

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A group of prisoners in civilian clothes is standing on the roll call square. In front of them a uniformed man. Photo from front left.

JEWISH INMATES IN THE BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP THEMED TOUR WITH CHRISTIAN MOLITOR | 18.08.2024 & 15./22.9.2024 | 11:15 A.M. | INFORMATION, BUCHENWALD MEMORIAL

In 1938, when the Nazi regime accelerated the economic elimination and expulsion of the Jewish population through terror, the mass incarceration of German and Austrian Jews in Buchenwald began. The SS camp management concentrated Jewish inmates in separate living and working areas, subjecting them as a group to special harassment, collective punishment and the harshest forced labour.

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The themed tours require a basic knowledge of the National Socialist era and the Buchenwald concentration camp. The recommended minimum age is 15 years. The group size is limited to 30 participants. We look forward to your participation!

Meeting point: Information desk at the Buchenwald Memorial

Tickets: 7 euros, reduced 3 euros

Duration: approx. 2.5 hours

Tickets are available at the information desk at the car park. Please buy your ticket at least 15 minutes before the start of the tour. Advance booking is possible by telephone on 03643/745 500 or by e-mail to buchenwaldinfo-weimar@buchenwald.de.

A programme of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.
Supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag and with funds from the Free State of Thuringia.

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