Isolation Tract - Buchenwald Memorial

Path between the wall and the isolation hut. Both are about the same height. A ladder leads to the roof of the barrack. The wall is covered with barbed wire. The path ends at another wall. — 1/2

The isolation barracks were surrounded by a wall. Photo: Identification Service of the SS.

©Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, Besançon

Foundation walls of the former isolation barracks. The gravel surface is interrupted by grass. On the left an intact wall with a memorial plaque — 2/2

The foundation of the isolation barracks and the course of the enclosing wall can be traced today at the Rudolf Breitscheid Memorial, 2012. Photo: Claus Bach.

©Buchenwald Memorial

Beginning in the autumn of 1943, this is where the former chairman of the SPD parliamentary fraction, Rudolf Breitscheid, and his wife Tony were imprisoned, as well as the daughter of the Italian king, Mafalda of Hesse, Princess of Savoy. Rudolf Breitscheid and Princess Mafalda died as a result of the air raid on August 24, 1944, in which the isolation tract was partially destroyed.

In spring of 1945, the SS held in the quickly rebuilt tract over 40 family members of the officers and politicians who took part in the assassination attempt against Hitler on July 20, 1944 in a sweeping detention of members of the Goerdeler, von Stauffenberg, von Hofacker, and von Hammerstein families. With the approach of American forces, the SS took them to Bavaria in April 1945. On May 4, 1945, they were freed in South Tyrol by American troops.

Today, the layout of the barracks has been laid bare. A commemorative plaque honouring Rudolf Breitscheid is installed on a reconstructed portion of the enclosing wall.