Dog Kennel - Buchenwald Memorial

View of the large dog kennel used by the SS. The individual kennels can be seen surrounded by trees. — 1/2

View of the large dog kennel, 1943.
Photo: Identification service of the Buchenwald concentration camp. © Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, Besançon

You can see six elongated plots of a dog kennel separated from each other by walls. — 2/2

The dog kennel is one of the few well-preserved structural remains of the camp, 2012. Photo: Claus Bach. ©Buchenwald Memorial

In 1938, the SS built a dog kennel for commanding members of the SS next to the camp headquarters. Later, a second larger kennel was built to serve the entire SS near the horse stable.

The dog brigade of Buchenwald was organised as its own company. By only employing the dogs together with their trainers, the SS ensured good cooperation and unwavering loyalty by the dogs. This made it easier to efficiently replace SS guards who were transfered to the front lines more often in the later years of the war.

The guard dogs were a part of the inmates' daily lives. They were let loose on newly arriving inmates not even fully admitted to the camp and when someone managed to escape, the dogs were employed to hunt them down. Especially when inmates had to work outside of camp grounds, the dogs played an important role in guarding them.

At the end of 1942, the SS ordered a large part of the dog brigade of Buchenwald to relocate to Auschwitz to train and employ guard dogs there. This lead to the closing of the large dog kennel and afterwards, only the smaller one continued to be regularly used.

Today, the small dog kennel next to the camp headquarters is still visible.