DAW - Buchenwald Memorial

The carpentry building stretches from the front right to the back left. In front of the building runs a dirt road on which, on the right, a group of prisoners is unloading a Karen with boards. To the left, a prisoner carries a bucket to the building. — 1/2

Carpentry workshop of the German Equipment Works, 1943. Photo: identification service of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

© Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, Besançon

A child's cradle decorated with hand carvings. The cradle is set in scene with view fraom the right on the decorated front and side walls. — 2/2

SS “family cradle” from the DAW carpentry shop, 1942. Photo: SS-Photo.

©Buchenwald Memorial

The Buchenwald branch of the DAW developed out of the camp workshops and was directly connected to the camp at the east. Up to 1,400 inmates worked here, supervised by civilian foremen.

The production largely supplied the Waffen SS. In the wood shop, inmates had to create replicas of furnishings from the Schiller’s historical home in Weimar and produce pieces of furniture for Hitler's residence in Berchtesgaden. The SS families living on-site were also supplied with carved cradles for their new-borns.

A week before the camp was liberated, the SS drove over 6,000 Jewish inmates into the halls of the DAW. They were the first to leave Buchenwald in a death march.

Only ruins remain of the former SS operation. A small area is accessible through the Time Lane hiking path, constructed in 1999 and leading to Ettersburg Castle.