German Concentration camps/memorials?
 

We are going to be around Frankfurt (a little north) and was wondering what the best places to go for this type of thing would be.

Thanks,
Jackie

Nothing of that kind of thing, to my knowledge, remains in the Frankfurt area. Many were burned immediately for sanitary reasons back in l945. Buchenwald, near Erfurt, may have something left. Mauthausen, near Linz, Austria, still has the stone quarry. Dachau, as you may know, stands on the outskirts of Munich -- somewhat reconstructed, sanitized, and spare. Bergen-Belsen, near Celle, was razed immediately. Sachsenhausen, near Berlin, is questionable; I just do not know its status. Theresienstadt, northwest of Prague, has some structures. The biggest death camps, of course, were in Poland -- Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek, etc. Natzweiler, in France, may still have some remnants.

Buchenwald definitely has a memorial, much appreciated by Jorge Semprun although he had serious qualms about KZ memorials before seeing that one--he was in Buchenwald. But I thought Buchenwald was close to Weimar, and not close to Frankfurt.

Dachau outside of Munich has been redone to honor the anniversary and it is a moving emotional tribute and very well organized for touring. It would be well worth your time to travel there by ICE train--the fastest from Frankfurt which we did. It took only 3+ hours and the town itself is charming if you don't go into Munich.

We will also be traveling along the "castle" road. Is there anything along there?


Thanks,
Jackie

There is a Holocaust site on the southern edge of Frankfurt airport in the town of Walldorf. It wasn't a death camp, rather a work camp where the Germans brought almost 2,000 Hungarian Jewish women to work on hardening the airport runways for jet fighters (most of the women died in death camps eventually).

Several years ago a group of schoolchildren were apparently doing some research on the area and found out about the camp. The community created a memorial walk through the woods. They set up numerous information stations along the path with information, photos, copies of old letters etc.

There isn't much left of the camp--here and there you catch glimpses of old concrete foundations, steps, etc. But the story told along the path is quite moving. Here's the website.

http://www.kz-walldorf.de/

The entrance is on the northern edge of the town of Walldorf (Walldorf is often listed with the neighboring town of Morfelden as Morfelden-Walldorf). Not far from the Albatros Airport Hotel.

The northernmost east-west street in Walldorf (or Morefelden-Walldorf) is Nordendstrasse. The entrance to the memorial wood is a half-block north of the intersection of Nordendstrasse and Farmstrasse off a little offset street that I think was called Familie Jungesweg. You can find this intersection on a mapping website like www.viamichelin.com or www.mappy.com

There was a pretty good Italian restaurant nearby on Aschaffenburger Strasse--called Ciao. It was 4 years ago that we ate there, hopefully it's still there and still good.

There is a museum in Stadtallendorf that has displays on the slave labor munitions factory that was located there. This town is near Marburg.

Interesting info about Walldorf - thanks! I believe we stayed near there back in the 1980s, and I wish I'd known then about its history.

We're hoping to visit Mauthausen sometime soon, as my husband's uncle was held prisoner in one of its satellite camps.

Hi

Bergen Belsen (towards Hanover)has a very moving museum. They now have archeologists uncovering parts of the site.

Peter

This is a long way from Frankfurt but..
I visited Belsen almost 20 years ago and found it very eerie. It's silent, there weren't any birds singing, such a sad sad place - very moving and a place I'll never forget.

Anyone know about Sachsenhausen? (I'm very curious as I will be in Berlin and that would be close to visit)

Here's the Web site for Sachsenhausen:

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Easter...sen/index.html

Thank you! I think I am def going to visit!