The massively devastating impact of Hitler’s Third Reich regime become overwhelmingly real and emotionally painful when visiting the German National Memorials of Wewelsburg Castle and the concentration camps of Mittelbau-Dora and Buchenwald. We made our way across this beautiful countryside to the impressive Castle of Wewelsburg. Built in 1603-09 it’s the only triangular Medieval Castle in Europe and it’s very unique but it’s real diabolical claim to fame is that this is the location Himmler himself chose to establish a “Reich Leaders” SS School. His plans for the castle and village were nothing short of spectacular and to that end he established a concentration camp of workers nearby to help realize his dream. Recently the German Government has established a very impressive educational and interpretative centre in the old SS administrative building next to the Castle to provide the public with an opportunity to examine this notorious organization. Both the memorial and the castle are well worth a visit. A short distance away is the Mittelbau-Dora site. This is where V1 and V2 rockets were produced under-ground destined to ultimately rain down on London. The very large concentration camp at this site provided the labour force to build the mega tunnels and manufacture those terrorizing rockets. Hitler’s grand and devious plans of the nearby Jonas Valley facility (also built into  the side of a mountain and still a restricted area) was his last chance of using advanced technology to turn the tides of the war in his favour. This second massive underground facility was conceived and well underway by 1945 with the purpose of building many more rockets and jet fighter airplanes. This was also going to be the location of Hitlers command centre and last stand if he had to evacuate Berlin.  Furthermore, evidence exists that the development and testing of nuclear related devices took place here in 1945. Fortunately for everyone time ran out before this facility could become fully productive on all fronts.  Much of the large labour force required for this huge project was provided by two concentration camps, the largest one being Buchenwald not too far away. I won’t even try to describe this camp as the appropriate words fail me. The camp facility itself is now a massive historical display and adjoining the camp is a gigantic memorial built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1958, dedicated to it’s internees.  Walking through this left us numb and in silence. Like the military casualties of war that we take time to remember every November 11th, countless other innocent and unfortunate souls also deserve to be remembered and their tragic and painful story should serve as a sobering lesson to humanity.
Tomorrow we start heading north for Berlin and we’re so looking forward to experiencing all that this incredible city has to offer.