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Camp Fence and Watchtowers

For the inmates, the electronic fence was an insurmountable obstacle. It encircled the camp, running three kilometres in length. Outside the camp, there were twenty-three massive watchtowers spaced 100 metres apart.

On the left, the post path runs straight along the camp fence. Guard towers can be seen at regular intervals along the path. On the right side of the picture, a gate in the camp fence, provisionally closed with wooden boards, can be seen. The fence consists of high posts that are bent inward at the top, into the camp. Barbed wires are stretched between them.
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Watchtower, guard path, camp fence and damaged gate after the liberation on April 11, 1945. Photo: Alfred Stüber.

©Private collection
The liberated prisoner Karl Herrmann stands on the inside at the outer camp fence. Behind him the fence, behind it two watchtowers.
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Camp fence with watchtowers after liberation, April 1945. Photo: Alfred Stüber.

©Buchenwald Memorial
From the picture you can see several square metal frames with barbed wire set up in three rows as trip wires in front of the camp fence.
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Parts of the fence and the Spanish riders on the inside have been preserved to this day, 2012. Photo: Claus Bach.

©Buchenwald Memorial

The towers had wide openings at the upper levels to provide a broad field of fire for the machine guns. The turret crews, each consisting of three guards, were permitted to shoot at any inmate who approached the fence without warning. They also patrolled the path surrounding the camp, the "Guard Path" in pairs. On workdays, a large cordon of guards (totalling 55 pairs of watchmen in 1944) surrounded the camp, who were responsible for hundreds of supposed "shootings upon attempted flight."

The fence system consisted of a security area outfitted with so-called "Spanish rider" obstacles, trip wires, and a 380-volt electronic fence. On the outside, wires spanned across wooden posts protected the SS guards from inadvertently stumbling onto the fencing.

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