Breitscheid Memorial - Buchenwald Memorial

View of the memorial wall with plaque of the Rudolf Breitscheid Memorial. In front of it, the remains of the foundations of the former isolation barracks can be seen. In the foreground an information sign. — 1/3

The Rudolf Breitscheid Memorial is located outside the prisoner camp on the access road from Weimar, 2022. Photo: Lukas Severin Damm.

©Buchenwald Memorial

Memorial plaque for Rudolf Breitscheid on a brick wall. There it says: "Rudolf Breitscheid was killed at this spot on August 24, 1944. He was a member of the party executive of the SPD and a member of the Reichstag. Extradited to the Gestapo by the Vichy government in 1941, Rudolf Breitscheid was sent to Sachenhausen concentration camp and in September 1943 to Buchenwald concentration camp. Rudolf Breitscheid advocated the creation of the united front of the working class and the anti-fascist popular front in Germany. — 2/3

Commemorative plaque for Rudolf Breitscheid, 2022. Photo: Lukas Severin Damm.

©Buchenwald Memorial

Foundation walls of the former isolation barracks. The gravel surface is interrupted by grass. On the left an intact wall with a memorial plaque — 3/3

The foundation of the isolation barracks and the course of the enclosing wall can be traced today at the Rudolf Breitscheid Memorial, 2012. Photo: Claus Bach.

©Buchenwald Memorial

While in exile in France, Rudolf Breitscheid attempted to organize a "people's front" of German anti-fascists. In 1940 he was handed over to the Gestapo by the Vichy regime. Together with his wife Tony, he came to Buchenwald in 1943 and was placed in the so-called "isolation barracks" for prominent inmates, which was located inside the SS complex. During the bombing he was buried in a trench by falling debris and died.

During the GDR period, the commemoration of Rudolf Breitscheid—and also that of Ernst Thälmann and Protestant minister Paul Schneider—was a core element of the memorialization of Buchenwald as largely focussed on German political prisoners.

The design of the Breitscheid memorial from 1960 incorporates the foundations of the isolation barracks and its surrounding brick wall. In 2004 markations were extended to include the entire barracks. A plaque now also honours the memory of others held in these barracks, such as Mafalda of Hesse and so-called "Sippenhäftlinge," the imprisoned family members of individuals who actively opposed the NS regime.