Editing Buchenwald concentration camp (section)

===The site===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J0311-0302-001, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, Mahnmal, Winter.jpg|thumb|Buchenwald memorial by [[Fritz Cremer]]]]
Between August 1945 and 1 March 1950, Buchenwald was the site of [[NKVD special camp Nr. 2]], where the [[NKVD|Soviet secret police]] imprisoned former Nazis and anti-communist dissidents.{{sfn|Marcuse|2010|p=190}} According to Soviet records, 28,455 people were detained, 7,113 of whom died. After the NKVD camp closed, much of the camp was razed, while signs were erected to provide a Soviet interpretation of the camp's legacy.{{sfn|Marcuse|2010|p=200}} The first monument to victims was erected by Buchenwald inmates days after the initial liberation. It was made of wood and only intended to be temporary. A second monument to commemorate the dead was erected in 1958 by the [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] (GDR) government near the mass graves. It was inaugurated on 14 September 1958 by GDR Prime Minister [[Otto Grotewohl]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Overesch |first=Manfred |title=Buchenwald und die DDR oder Die Suche nach Selbstlegitimation |year=1995 |location=Göttingen |pages=325–326}}</ref> Inside the camp, there is a stainless steel monument on the spot where the first, temporary monument stood. Its surface is maintained at {{convert|37|C|F}}, the temperature of human skin, all year round.<ref>{{cite book|last=Young|first=James E.|title=At Memory's Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture|place=New Haven|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2000|page=105}}</ref><ref name="cbsnews.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-visits-buchenwald-concentration-camp/|title=Obama Visits Buchenwald Concentration Camp|website=[[CBS News]]|date=5 June 2009 }}</ref>

The three National Memorials of the GDR, built next to or on the sites of the former concentration camps Buchenwald, [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]], and [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]], played a central role in the GDR's remembrance policy under [[Erich Honecker]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillack-Graf |first=Anne-Kathleen |title=Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung "Neues Deutschland" über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2012 |isbn=978-3-631-63678-7 |location=Frankfurt am Main |pages=94}}</ref> They were controlled by the Ministry of Culture and thus by the government. According to their statute, these memorials served as places of identification and legitimisation of the GDR.<ref>''Gesetzblatt der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik vom 4. September 1961'', Teil II, Nr. 61.</ref> The political instrumentalisation of these memorials, especially for the current needs of the GDR, became particularly clear during the major celebrations of the liberation of the concentration camps, as historian Anne-Kathleen Tillack-Graf analysis in her thesis about the official party newspaper {{lang|de|[[Neues Deutschland]]}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillack-Graf |first=Anne-Kathleen |title=Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung "Neues Deutschland" über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2012 |isbn=978-3-631-63678-7 |location=Frankfurt am Main |pages=2–3, 88–91 |language=}}</ref>

Today the Buchenwald camp site serves as a Holocaust memorial. It has a museum with permanent exhibitions about the history of the camp. It is managed by Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, which also looks after the camp memorial at [[Mittelbau-Dora]].<ref name="Foundation">{{cite web |title= Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation – Purpose of the Foundation |url= http://www.buchenwald.de/english/index.php?p=stiftungszweck |publisher= Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation |access-date= 18 August 2012 |archive-date= 4 March 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120304210835/http://www.buchenwald.de/english/index.php?p=stiftungszweck |url-status= dead }}</ref>