Jewish Memorial

The "Jewish Memorial" was consecrated on November 9, 1993, in the footprint of barracks 22, one of the so-called Jewish blocks. It honours the memory of the 75,000 Jewish men and women who were interred at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp and its subcamps, the 11,800 Jews murdered there, and the six million dead of the Holocaust.

A long rectangular area filled with quarry stones. There are fewer stones towards the center, which is why a depression can be seen. In the background are three visitors, each of whom places a small stone on the edge of the depression. — 1/2

The Jewish memorial extends along the entire area of the former Block 22, 2012. Photo: Claus Bach.

©Buchenwald Memorial

The inscription of the Jewish memorial on the ground: "That the future generation may know, the children that are born, that they may rise up and tell their children." Behind it the cinder stone field of the Jewish Memorial. — 2/2

Lettering: "So recognize the future generation, the children who are born, that they get up and tell their children." in front of the Jewish memorial, 2022. Photo: Lukas Severin Damm.

©Buchenwald Memorial

At the National GDR Memorial on the southern slops of the Ettersberg, the commemoration of the victims of Buchenwald was organized by nationalities. The fates of racially persecuted individuals, in particular European Jews, are not visible in this design. After 1990, ideas were explored for an appropriate means of commemoration. Instead of altering the GDR monument, it was decided to erect a Jewish memorial at the historical site of their suffering within the former inmates' camp.

In order not to disrupt the given appearance of the site, the chosen competition design called for digging out the footprint of block 22 and filling the sunken area with stones. The stones stem from the Buchenwald quarry, where many of the Jewish inmates performed forced labour. The depression lays bare one wall, into which pieces of olive wood from Israel have been cast. The inscription consists of blocks of letters set in the ground and running the entire length of the former structure. Like the monument itself, one can only grasp their meaning by walking the full length the memorial.

The inscription (Psalms 78:6) is displayed in English, Hebrew, and German: "So that the generation to come might know, the children, yet to be born, that they too may rise and declare to their children." The design is the work of artist Tine Steen and architect Klaus Schlosser.