Small town Germany, quaint with all the amenities

So on the 23rd of May, Morgan and I ran into the one and only Joel Zimmer ... conveniently arriving 90 minutes late on his train.

I arrived at the train station a little before 6:30 to usher him back to our 'hostel', and instead he decided to choose the train arriving at 7:51 ... it was just swell, i had a goodtime being the alcoholic sitting for 90 minutes drinking temperate Beck's in front of old ladies, who likely thought I was lurking for innocent train-goers.

As soon as we got back, I imagine Joel was struck with the sae feelings Mrgan and I had about our Weimar hostel ... it looked like a run down antique shop, there was crap lying around fro the last century. The seats in the cramped 'comon room' were those of old stadium seats. The table was a door layed on its side. The showers were merely sprinkler heads in the ceiling that instead of typical doors, had etirely sliding walls, that divided the showers from yes, that's right, thekitchen table. As you ate you were able to be fondly greeted witht he visual accompaniment of people toweling off from their uke warm if not cold drizzling of water. There were no lockers in our room, so everything was on close watch until we realized that all of our 7 other roommates were over the age of 40, and not likely to touch our things. It was an entirely new experience all in itself.

That evening we went out for dinner to a place called the Texas Gril ... a restaurant intended to mimic food from the American South. We all had burges, the first red meat we had had in the past month. Morgan however, had the unfortunate luck to have ordered a burger that consisted more of sour creme than actual ground beef. It was more or less, would you like some beef with your sour creme sir? We had a fine laugh at his expense, until he pointed out to Joel and I that we had ordered wheat beer ... in my opinion the most atrocious beer of them al, with such a nasty aftertaste it would make Buckley's blush. Either way it was an interesting adventure all in itself.

The following day, the 24th of May, we decided to begin our morning as the typical back-packers that we were, and engaged in a breakfast that involved 3 pears, a baguette, 8 slices of cheese, and 12 slices of meat that was to be divided amongst the three of us. My dietary needs have completely diminished since coming to Europe, but whatever, its how things are supposed to be in my mind. After our delicious gourmet meal, in which we ate while sitting on a park bench yeling at the pigeons about their laziness to search for food (possibly a view into my distant future), the three of us boarded a bus for the concentration camp of Buchenwald.

Buchenwald was another experience of a serious nature that we experienced thus far. Unlike the majority of our camps so far, this as almost completely destroyed by the Allies in rder to conain a horrendous typhoid epidemic that swept over the camp in the late spring of 1945. The entire camp had been burned down except for the main entrance buildings, the crematorium, and a few scattered ruins here and there. It was purey a commemorative site. Powerful and emotional nonetheless, and I am glad to say that I have been there and seen what it has to offer to the World today as a historical site and view into the past of the 20th century.

We began our tour around the camp as per usual walking through the main gates ... the phrase of "To Each His Own" adorned the entrace to Buchenwald. A strange phrase given the context of the situation. We started out by venturing around the grounds and the zoo the SS had established. They would casually throw large chunks of meat to the black bears in ths pits whilst starving prisoners watched on in shear envy of the food the animals were getting. A very petty form of physical and mental torture was forced upon these people. We moved around the memrials to the barracks and the poor people that dweled within during the entire course of the camps existence. After pausing momentarily, we walked past "the Little Camp" which was strictly dedicated as a spot for peoe to die. When the SS guards grew tired or felt a prisoner could no longer contribute, they were put into cells in the back of the camp and simply forgotten until their life extinguished itself from dehydration, disease, starvation, or exposure ... a truly terrible and painful way to die. After this, we went through a museum constructed on site to give a view into the life of prisoners. It showed the work conditions, the food rations, and the tortuous treatment thrust upon these people. We went into an exhibit that was dedicated to artwork made by the prisoners both during and after their liberation from the camp. These works were both a fascinating and utterly vivid view into the unthinkable experiences these people were dared to survive through. It was more graphich than many of the photos taken, as it was from the perspective of the people enduring these fates rather than the perpetrators

Following the museum, we went to the area dedicated to the Soviet POWs. During the course of World War II, the Nazi's were aside from the Jews, Sinti and Roma Gypsies, and Homosexuals, unthinkably terrible to Soviet Prisoners f War. In the case of the British, American, and Canadian forces who for the most part were put into PW camps, the Soviet POWs were not viewed as people. The entire Slavic population was seen as lesser human beings to the Nazi's. The Soviet POWs experienced some of the worst massacres put upon war prisoner's. In the back (sorry for rambling) of the camp there were hundreds upon hundreds af silver poles sticking out of the ground all within a forest. Each pole marked the unmarked grave of 6 to 7 Soviet Prisoners who were murdered by the Nazi's. It was a very powerful sight ... it is difficult to convey the shear number of poles ... it was a dense forest, and everywhere you looked, every step you took, the suns reflection illuminated just a few more poles than the steps previous to you. It was very powerful.

After the Soviet memorial, we went to the crematorium of the camp. This place was as sterile as the rest and had the same eerie feel accompanying it. This place had one feature unseen in the previous camps to this point. One way of murdering prisoners was to usher peole in for 'routine' medical check-ups. when they were to have their height measured, a slit in the wall would open up as they stood on the scale, and shoot them in the base of the skull. The little window where the SS man stood was a small closet directly located behind the measurement on the wal. The helpless peron never saw the shot coming, and the murderer never had to look into the eyes of the person he was killing. The Nazi's were just making it that much easier to commit their rimes which they knew were wrong. The crematorium had the same efficeincy as all the others. The basement held the morgue, and an elevator shaft lifted the bodies into position to be cremated in one of the 4 ovens. The ovens being the trial ones, and proving so effective, the Nazi's would install the very same models in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp only 8 months later.

After the camp we walked to the train platform where the people were unloaded from their cattle cars. It had the originaltrac and pltform still in place only 1.5 km down the road from the camp. A chiling place considering the context of it all. We then walked ot the Soviet monument dedicated to all the countries who had people die in Buchenwald, a very movng memorial. It was massive tower with sculpture of survivors and their victims, symbolizing the growing strength and unity of the World against National Socialism.

After leaving he camp, a large group accompanied by a mass number of armed riot police had filled the town square ... Joel and I were to find out that this was because there was a Nazi Party rally taking place and an Anti-Nazi group countering their positions. It was a very shocking scene, one I would not expect in this day-and-age. Later that night we met some German girls who were more than happy to escort us around and meet up with the group of us for drinks. A very satisfying way to end our experiences in small town Germany and the town of Weimar.