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Rail Line between Weimar and Buchenwald

The SS used the 10-km long rail line begnning in 1944 to transport prisoners from throughout Europe. The route was also used for death transports to Auschwitz.

Prisoners in striped clothing laying tracks on an embankment made of earth with simple tools. In the background, SS members supervise the construction.
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Prisoners laying tracks to Buchenwald, spring 1943. Photo: Zentralbauleitung der Waffen-SS.

©Thuringian Main State Archives in Weimar
At the edge of a trail the remains of a switchyard. The tracks are covered with rust. In the middle of the tracks is a tree stump.
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Remnants of the tracks have been uncovered along today's Buchenwaldbahn memorial path, 2022. Photo: Lukas Severin Damm.

©Buchenwald Memorial

At the orders of SS-leader Himmler, the SS had a 10-km rail line constructed in the spring of 1943, which connected the Buchenwald Concentration Camp with the city of Weimar.

The rails ran parallel to the "Blood Road" and were originally intended to supply the new armament factory in Buchenwald. Only three months were planned for the construction. To comply with this unrealistic timeline, the SS drove the inmates with utter ruthlessness. At the time of the opening ceremony in June 1943, the route was in a provisional state and was under construction for an additional six months thereafter.

The line did not go into regular use until the spring of 1944. In addition to freight trains and regularly scheduled passenger trains, transports also ran on the newly connected line. Mass transports with detainees from all throughout Europe used the "Buchenwald Line" as did trains carrying inmates no longer fit for work to Auschwitz. The line was operated by a private railroad company, Bachstein GmbH, which earned money on every wagon crossing this route.

Today the tracks of the former rail line form the Commemorative Buchenwald Railway Path.

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