October 2017 Weimar town and Buchenwald concentration camp ***Warning..graphic photos

WARNING.....SOME PICTURES DIFFICULT TO LOOK AT......

The road through Weimar, just a few Kilometers away from the concentration camp called Buchenwald is beautiful but once you approach the camp, you get real feeling in your gut and in your heart that something horrible happened in this place.  The feeling here is very strong.  It has perhaps changed me forever.  In July 1937, the SS had a forest cleared on the Ettersberg near Weimar and built a new concentration camp.  The camp is intended to fight political opponents, persecute Jews, and exclude "common foreigners", among them homosexuals, homeless, Jehovah's Witnesses and pre-eminence,permanently from the German "Volkskoper". Buchenwald will soon become synonymous with the system of national socialist concentration camps.  

At the end of the was, Buchenwald is the largest concentration camp in the German Reich.  More than 56,000 people die from torture, medical experiments and exhaustion.  More than 8,000 Soviet prisoners of war are shot in a specially built killing facility.  Resistance fighters form and underground organization in the camp in order to curb the furiousness of the SS to its best advantage.  Nevertheless the "small camp" becomes the hell of Buchenwald.  Just before liberation, thousand of oppressed prisoners die.  

When American's reached Buchenwald and its outlying camps in April 1945, Dwight D. Eisenhower, ...writes: "Nothing has ever shattered me like this sight."

(Internet Historical Overview, Buchenwald de)

 This picture below is the walk to the "little camp" where mostly children as young as four years old were imprisoned here.  Dwight D. Eisenhower said of this camp as he saw the dead corpses lying on the ground..."I have never been able to portray the feelings that came to me as when I first witnessed such indisputable testimony of the inhumanity of the Nazi, and that they were unscrupulous about the most primitive commandments to humanity. "So far I had only known that there were camps of this kind, I knew nothing else about hearing, nothing ever shattered me as much as this sight." 

 This below is a photo I took of the remains of their eating bowls and shoes...the picture tells it all.

 Shoes

 Anita and Steve Canfield looking in disbelief

 As we walked thru the camp, many of the buildings that had been destroyed but we could see where the buildings once stood...............

 This building was used to house the sick 

 Barbed wire still remains to the entrance of the "little camp"

 Description below.........

 This picture below is one of the saddest I posted.....read the caption below the picture ... it explains this picture.....The villagers of Weimar were brought into the camp by the US army....they claimed they knew nothing........ The town of Weimar is literally walking distance from the camp!

 The small town of Weimar is just a short distance from this camp.....read the inscription below the picture.  I have such a difficult time thinking that people could watch such atrocities with no feeling of quilt or of helping in some way, even at the risk of their own lives.....why did people DO NOTHING!??????

This picture below I got from the Archives of the Buchenwald camps 10,000 photos.  This picture is a picture of men who were liberated from the "small camp" on April 16, 1945 by the American Troops.

I walked thru this courtyard and into the crematorium where I could only stand for about one minute total.....It saddened me so much to know that such atrocities could actually happen.  

 The Crematorium

 See below for the description for this photo below

As we depart the camp, we drove in silence down a beautifully fall lined road wondering how in the world did this happen?  Unbelievable.  We should never forget and EVERYONE should go to these camps to see what happened.

October 2017 Scripture discussion and good bye to sweet friends!

Saying good bye to friends who have been here for 18 months but we've only known them for 3 months is still difficult!  Dr. Done and Margie, the Swensons, the Hackings, and the Healy's.  This was our midweek scripture discussion that we have each week.  Standing is our zone leader, he and his is sweet wife Peggy are so wonderful.  We will be saying good bye to them also in the middle of October.  I did not realize it would be so difficult to say good bye to these great friends!

 Each couple as given a book with all our thoughts written to them.  These are the Swenson's, who are over all the YSA leaders throughout Europe Area.  They will be so missed!  Right after we arrived, Sharee took me to a mall to shop just to make me feel "at home"

 This is Elder Proctor (zone leader) handing Diane Hacking her booklet with our thoughts and well wishes.  She and her husband have served over all the mission presidents all over Europe.  They travel a lot.  She has been very involved in the refugees efforts here in Frankfurt.

 And, of course, there was one for the Proctors, this is Peggy receiving it from her husband.  They will be dearly missed!

 Thanks Elder Proctor for picking us up at the airport, for gathering all the missionaries when we first got here, to go to dinner with us and show us how to use the Ubahn.   Thanks for "movie nights in the Keller with popcorn!  He and Peggy are revered so highly, we all love them so much.  The couple directly behind Elder Proctor are the Lindsey's .... they just arrived last weekend.  They are the first of 7 new couples entering our mission.

 On the back couch are my dear friends, Jill (in the yellow) and Anita (in the blue)  ... In the purple is Dani Garrett, she and her husband have been here 6 months and in the front, with the red sweater is Pam Done and her husband who is the other mission doctor.  On the right, are the Von Hoffs, they got here around the same time we did and work in the technical offices. Such wonderful people!

Elder Rich thanking the Proctors for all they've done for all of us!  They will be so very much missed!

Strasbourg France Sept. 2017

Strasburg France lies in France right on the western border of Germany.

Below, you can see the steeple of the Catholic Cathedral - Notre Dame of Strasbourg

 Below is a picture of the medieval bridge with the cathedral in the background.

 One of the canals from the Rhine

The statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States in 1886 so when we drove thru France we actually saw if quite a few times.  We were driving around a "round about" and I snapped this from the back side of it.

Oh my goodness.....Strasbourg is just charming!  Here is a bit of it's history...........

Strasbourg became a French city in 1681, after the conquest of Alsace by the armies of Louis XIV.  In 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, the city became German again, until 1918 (end of WWI), when it reverted to France.  After the defeat of France in 1940 (WWII), Strasbourg came under German control again; since the end of 1944, it is again a French town.  In 2016, Strasbourg was promoted from capital of Alsace to capital of Grand Est.

Strasbourg sits on the Rhine and is the second largest port on the Rhine.  This is just a small portion of the Rhine running thru the city.  

This is actually a house where someone lives.....how quaint is this?!

As we walked thru the city and over bridges I felt as though I was taking the same photo over and over.....it looks like this all over the city......we just loved it!

This also is the smaller portion of the Rhine River.  (From Wikipedia)...Strasbourg is immersed in the Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a cultural bridge between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture.

I have appreciated my friend Jill so much, she and Don have been so great to us since we've gotten here.  I love spending time with her.  They will be leaving in April after they extended their mission by 3 months. 

All the store fronts were so cute, I took this just as we were leaving.

Town square

I will definitely go back to see this city again.  Here's Tony with Jill to his left.   This was an outdoor market on this street where I bought a scarf from France!

The Cathedral of Notre Dame of Strasbourg:   Below is the Catholic Cathedral Notre Dame of Strasbourg constructed in 1176-1439.  This city was taken over and occupied by the Nazi's from 1940-1944 and then the air raids from the British and American forces almost demolished the city.

Jill in the Cathedral of Notre Dame - Strasbourg

Below are the busts of the Apostles from the "high alter" of 1682 along the semi-circular wall closing the choir, wood, 17th century.

The enormity of the building is amazing!

The church houses the largest Astronomical clock in the world.  It originated from 1352-1354 and was rebuilt in 1838-1843.  There is a little shop off to the left where I bought a manger scene for Christmas.  You just can not get a real feel for how massive this Cathedral is!

The outdoor market with the church of Notre Dame Strasburg to the right.

Looking good in his hat!

I just loved all the window fronts

Look at the Ivy growing on the building and the fall colors are beginning to change

One of the things I've always wanted to do was go to France and eat at a little cafe in the square....well, here it is!  Take that off my bucket list!

One of the many bridges we walked over

Loving the charm!  The architecture is so different from anything in the U.S.  Houses are attached, roofs are all different sizes, shapes and heights.  Cobble stones line all the streets everywhere which are not easy or comfortable to walk on but they are so charming!

Jill and Don were walking ahead of us .... I asked them to turn and snapped this......Look at all the different tutor homes.....charming

Cars actually drive down these small streets.  I have no idea where the home/apt. dwellers park because we didn't see any parking anywhere and there were no parking garages.

Sewing store