Natzweiler

This is the concentration camp post.  As much fun as I have writing, sometimes it’s hard for me to find the appropriate words.  In this post I will share a number of photos with you rather than writing too much.  I will start with just a bit we learned about the Natzweiler camp.  It is located in the Vosges mountains right outside Strasbourg in the Alsace region.  Before WWII, there was a lovely ski resort at its location.  This work camp was used primarily to hold political prisoners meaning opponents of the Nazis and Vichy France (not specifically Jews like the camps in Germany).  Since it was a work camp and not a death camp, the gas chamber is located a bit farther away from the work site and living quarters.  Even though these prisoners weren’t put to death en masse, they were worked relentlessly building what the Germans called a potato cellar (It is an underground structure which I believe is the length of 3 football fields and now houses a museum.  It was not constructed to store potatoes, and its intended purpose was never stated by the Nazis).  Prisoners were so tired that many couldn’t climb the hill where they were housed without lifting their knees with their hands.  If the prisoners were not submissive, they were imprisoned in small chambers for days where they were not permitted to sit or sleep.  In some occasions, they were hung for all to see. 

The Université de Strasbourg conducted many medical experiments in Natzweiler.  In a disturbing and sad twist of fate, a great number of Jews were brought from Auschwitz to this French camp where they were slowly tortured and killed by physicians to advance research.  Learning about these horrors and being in a place where so much evil had occurred made me feel physically ill.  The rest of this entry will be photographs.  For the faint of heart, there are but a few images of Nazi tools used for body disposal.   The remains of those who died here are either scattered or buried higher on the hill above the camp.

Beautiful Alsacian country living

Plans for the camp wouldn't be complete without "Arbeit macht frei".

The layout of the camp~ if you look on the top right, that super long building is the potato cellar.

Natzweiler entrance with a monument to the prisoners in the background

Konzentrationslager: German for "worst place on earth"

Most of the lodging buildings have been removed, but the very frightening fence remains.

That last building on the left was where misbehaving prisoners were placed in isolation.  This is also the hill that the inmates had such difficulty traversing.

As if the fences weren't enough, the guards kept watch in their short towers.

Home away from home

Prisoner garb

Sad shoes

So many bunks for the prisoners to rest a little

Communal living in the extreme~behold the bathroom.

Kyle in the potato cellar

The prisoners carved this small box with materials they found around the camp and offered it to the guards in good will.

A vision of work and death~ wheel barrows and the gallows

The crematorium

Tools for handling burnt remains

Tools for handling burnt remains

Those who opposed the totalitarian rule of the Nazis

Honor & Love of Country :: Humble Bones

For the glory of the French Resistance fighters who were executed or disappeared in Nazi prisons

Something so horrible in a breathtakingly beautiful place