The Buchenwald crematorium building with chimney seen through the barbed wire fence

The Buchenwald crematorium building seen through the camp's barbed wire fence. The brick chimney, towering above the roof, burned day and night during periods of highest mortality. The crematorium was built in 1940 to "dispose of" the bodies of prisoners who died from exhaustion, disease, medical experiments, or executions. Inside there was also an autopsy room where valuables such as gold teeth were extracted, and an elevator that brought corpses directly to the ovens from the basement where executions took place.

Buchenwald, crematorium, chimney, barbed wire, concentration camp, death