Inmate's Canteen - Buchenwald Memorial

Building of the prisoners' canteen. In the background, on the left and right, watchtowers No. 2 and 3. The camp fence runs between them. The area in front of it is also interrupted by smaller fences. — 1/2

Prisoner canteen next to the roll call area, 1943. Photo: Identification service of the Buchenwald concentration camp. ©Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, Besançon.

The photo provides a view behind the sales counter of the prisoners' canteen. On the shelves and in the drawers behind the counter you can see some goods, but most of them are empty. On the shelves are palm plants in tubs for decoration. Three cash registers are placed on the counter at regular intervals. The counter is also decorated with smaller potted plants. — 2/2

The sales room in the prisoner canteen, 1943. Photo: identification service of the Buchenwald concentration camp. ©Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, Besançon

The canteen was opened in 1941. Instead of urgently needed basic foodstuffs, the SS sold products here at high prices, which the inmates had previously produced themselves in the camp. Selected inmates were allowed to purchase what were usually low-quality products. This is how the SS skimmed off for themselves the tiny amounts of money that they paid to some inmates.

A soap works was located in the basement of the canteen. This work commando also secretly produced Molotov cocktails for the camp resistance and experimented with self-constructed hand grenades.