Photo above - Julie at entrance gate to Flossenbuerg.

While I was here primarily to see where Bonhoeffer's last hours were spent, I want to talk a little about Flossenbuerg as a memorial in general - since the KZs (Konzentrationslager - Concentration Camps) were an important part of the context of Bonhoeffer's work and action.

Flossenbuerg was founded relatively late in the process (established May 1938) - at a point where the Concentration Camp system was being rethought. Generally, the thought was that rather than just locking people up to die, they could get a few bucks out of them before they died. The war was expensive, and there was a lot of labor in the KZ system. Flossenbuerg was situated near some great granite deposits, and the prisoners were used in the mines.

However, from the beginning Flossenbuerg, was also used for other kinds of prisoners: "criminals," political prisoners, etc.

The site itself is very informative. The administration building in still in existence, along with a prisoner's cookhouse and laundry. There is no living quarters - that area has been developed, and there is one spot where eerily, you can see a photo of the dormitories on a hill while on the hill behind you, the houses sit on the same hill. Makes one wonder what it would be like to live there. The laundry houses a very good exhibit on the history of the camp in German and English.

For the Bonhoeffer student, the important part is the detention center, to which Bonhoeffer was brought the night of April 8, 1945, summarily tried, and executed the morning of April 9.The whole detention center is not there – there are two cells, a larger room (more on that later) and the end of the yard. In the yard is a large memorial plaque to some of the more notable people executed here. Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the first name on it.

Inside the building is a special exhibit on Bonhoeffer. This is completely in German – I was able to read the first one (and got my reading of it on tape) but my husband reminded me that at the speed I was going it would take me all day to get through the entire exhibit. So I got lots of pics and will translate later, at my leisure.The exhibit includes information about Bonhoeffer’s life and work, as well as many of the people in relationship with him (very important, since those relationships in many ways define responsible action for B.) George Bell, his sister Sabine (whose husband was a “non-Aryan” and who emigrated to England early in the struggle, Eberhard Bethge, the Finkenwalde students, Hans von Dohnanyi, and others.

One other area of the site should be mentioned. There is a large memorial section just down a stairway from the main site. It’s really beautiful. The site includes the crematorium of the camp, and the entry way post (with “Arbeit Macht Frei” written on it). The entry way post was moved there from the entryway in 1946, when the first memorial here was set up.

Bonhoeffer was killed here on April 9, 1945, along with Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr, military intelligence, Major General Hans Oster, and four other members of the conspiracy. On April 23 the American Army reached Flossenbürg and liberated it.