Camp Headquarters - Buchenwald Memorial

View from the camp gate across Carachoweg to the building of the camp commandant's office and adjutant's office. The building consists of two flat-built wings and a smaller central section with two floors. — 1/2

View from the camp gate over the Carachoweg to the building of the camp command and adjutant, 1943. Photo: Identification service of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

©Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, Besançon

Two boot scraper right and left in front of the entrance of the former camp commandant's office, photographed from the ground — 2/2

Shoe scrapers at the entrance to the former camp headquarters, 2012. Photo: Claus Bach.

©Buchenwald Memorial

Set close together were the offices of the camp commander, the adjutancy, the secret state police, registry II, the so-called "Head of Protective Custody," and military staff offices.

All these entities were overseen by the camp commander, whose representatively furnished offices were located in a two-story building. He held far-reaching authority over all the inner workings of the camp. His unchecked power offered numerous opportunities for personal enrichment.

The camp commander and his division heads were experts in violence. During the years of the rise of the NSDAP, they had belonged to the paramilitary squads of the SS and had made a name for themselves with their ruthlessness in early concentration camps. They considered themselves the elite of the German people According to their self-understanding, they had the right to practice violence against those categorized as inferior.

The middle section of the former commander's offices has been preserved. This structure and the adjoining buildings on the left and right today serve as a restoration workshop and as a site for the Memorial Foundation's education programmes.