Obj. ID: 57549
Memorials Ring Gaves at Nationale Mahn-und Gedenksätte Buchenwald, Germany
Name of Monument:
Ribng Gaves and Avenue of Nations at Nationale Mahn-und Gedenksätte Buchenwald (The GDR Memorial)
Who/What is Commemorated?
Inmates of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp
Description:
Visible from a great distance, the Buchenwald Memorial is the largest monument commemorating a Nazi concentration camp in Europe. The large-scale complex was constructed in 1958 on the southern slopes of Ettersberg Mountain as a national monument of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Part of the memorial includes the graves of almost 5,000 concentration camp inmates. The memorial was designed based on a didactic and ideological concept to guide the visitor on a path from death to life. The visitor’s journey leads through the camp from the crematorium, and continues down to the graves, and finally uphill again to the bell tower which stands as a symbol of freedom and light. At the top of the monumental staircase and in front of the tower is a large sculptural group representing a revolt of the prisoners.
The descent to the graves begins at the Entrance Gate, which leads to the Stelae path that is lined by seven large stone slabs (stelae) with carved pictorial depictions of life in the camp.
In March and April 1945, the SS had approximately 3,000 corpses buried in natural depressions in the earth. 2,000 more bodies were buried in adjoining graves. Many of the deceased were Hungarian Jews who were deported to Buchenwald from Auschwitz, and who died at the infamous Little Camp. As part of the memorial complex, three of these burial pits were landscaped as ring graves, defined by massive masonry perimeter walls.
One ring grave is located to the right of the bottom of the Stelae path and from this runs the wide and flat Avenue of Nations until it reaches a similarly proportioned ring grave located at the bottom of the massive stairway that leads back up the hillside to the Tower of Freedom, and the sculpture of the Prisoners’ Revolt.
On a plaque they are portrayed as "antifascist resistance fighters and patriots."
The Avenue of the Nations is marked by eighteen large masonry pylons, each of which bears the names of a country victimized by the Nazi regime. Each pylon represents one country. The names of countries inscribed in German alphabetically, one on each pylon, to be seen while progressing from Stelae Path. The opposite side of each pylon is the name of the country in its own language.
On each of these pylons is a broad bronze bowl, set on three short legs. These can be lit for commemorative ceremonies.
Inscriptions
Plaque near ring grave at bottom of Stelae path:
IN
DIESEN ERDSENKEN
VERSCHARRTEN
DIE FASCHISTEN
UBER ZEHNTAUSEND
ERMORDETE ANTI-
FASCHISTISCHE
WIDERSTANDS-
KAMPER UND
PATRIOTEN AUS
UBER 18 NATIONEM
Translation: In these earth depressions, the fascists buried over ten thousand murdered anti-fascist resistance fighters and patriots from over 18 nations
Commissioned by
German Democratic Republic (GDR) government
German national memorial site managed by Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation
sub-set tree: 
The design of the memorial complex originated from a limited competition, resulting in the recommendation that a young group of architects, which soon called themselves "Architektenkollektiv Buchenwald" work together with sculptor Fritz Cremer. They planned a massive complex, in which visitors are first led down to three mass graves, the "night of fascism," and then up again to a giant bell tower, "the light of freedom." The architects employed the Western traditional motif of resurrection to portray the suffering and death of the concentration camp inmates as a communist-led struggle and victory.
The construction of the "Nationale Mahn- unci Gedenkstatte Buchenwald" got under way in 1954 as per GDR government resolution. The first plans for the memorial were based on two mass graves. However, when a third mass grave was discovered during construction, the stele path was extended to the right, and thus this third depression in the earth was also integrated into the Avenue of Nations. By 1958, a monumental national monument had been erected on the southern slope of the Ettersberg. Three large mass graves were incorporated into the design.
Buchenwald Memorial, I
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