Memorial Buchenwald-Dora

In one of the corners of the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, 11 memorials dedicated to victims of the concentration camps in the Second World War are located. Each memorial is dedicated to one concentration camp.

This memorial commemorates the victims of Buchenwald.
The monument from 1964 was created by sculptor Louis Bancel. A dark group of emaciated prisoners, who can barely keep each other standing, was cast by Godard's bronze foundry. Two deportees with a lifeless appearance try to lift their comrade who is dead. They depict the misery in this labor camp set up on a hill above Weimar for the production of the V1 and V2, where some 238,000 people were held captive and 57,000 people did not survive the hardships. Horror and suffering are perfectly expressed here, as are solidarity and mutual aid. The Buchenwald-Dora monument is one of the most exceptional in terms of expressiveness.


On the granite pedestal the inscription:
"Qu'à jamais ceci montre comme l'Homme dut tomber et comment le courage et le dévouement lui conservent son nom d'Homme"
Freely translated it says:
"That this forever shows how man had to fall and how courage and devotion keep his name man."

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries
• Photos: Geert-Jan van Glabbeek