Flossenburg

Our journey took us east, to the German/Czech Republic border where we stopped at the concentration camp in Flossenburg. We were interested in stopping since this was the camp where Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed, and were pleasantly surprised to find an absorbing museum housed in one of the remaining buildings. We walked through an intimidating gate house into a large gravel courtyard between long, white buildings. The museum was located in the one to the right, a thorough collection of describing in detail all aspects of the concentration camp, augmented with audio and video from survivors. The initial camps were working camps (the death camps came later and were located further east, mostly in Poland), built to produce something for the Reich. Flossenburg was a stone quarry. The intent was to extract stones for use in Hitler’s grand building plans. There is a certain skill required for quarrying stone of a quality good enough for building, but the Nazis did not focus on training the unskilled labor, so the stone from Flossenburg was only adequate for roads. The progression of inmates to Flossenburg demonstrated Hitler’s opinion of who was undesirable: the first wave was the criminals (murderers, thieves), a second wave brought in the political enemies of the Reich, and the final wave was the social outcasts (Gypsies, Jews, Homosexuals). Looking through blurry Nazi lenses, criminals were esteemed higher than political foes who were better than social outcasts. Often a criminal was given charge of a group of political enemies and outcasts; you can imagine how pleasant it would be to work with a murderer as your boss. In the basement we walked through the large, concrete block rooms where the unfortunate were deloused at first entry. Outside a path led down the hill to the crematorium, which still contained the furnace that was used. The majority of those who died were buried in the neighboring city; sad that the locals participated in carting the bodies out of the compound to the city cemetery. The furnace was put into use near the end of the war.