This weekend, we visited the Buchenwald concentration memorial outside of Weimar. We visit Weimar once a week and always see the signs for Buchenwald, and since we knew we should see at least one concentration camp memorial while in Germany, we figured we’d visit the one right in our backyard.

We took a bus for about fifteen minutes from the Weimar train station to Buchenwald. The area was somewhat forested, and it amazed me that something so terrible happened in the middle of all the greenery.

We saw what was left of the camp, the memorials, and museum exhibitions about the history of the camp. We also saw an incredibly moving art gallery featuring pieces made by camp survivors.

The experience was not fun; it was difficult to be in the crematorium and the cellars, but overall I think it was an important part of Germany’s past for us to experience firsthand.