![In the center of the image is a man in prisoner's clothing standing next to a US soldier and pointing into one of the crematorium ovens. In the background, more US soldiers are standing and watching through an archway.](/.imaging/mte/buchenwald-base-theme/gallery/dam/Bilder/Dora/MD_Geschichte/MD_Historischer-Ort_Historische-Fotografien/Krematoriumsofen.jpg/jcr:content/______Krematoriumsofen.5767147674550709481.284703806590693407.jpg)
©National Archives, Washington
![View of the crematorium of Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp with its characteristic central chimney.](/.imaging/mte/buchenwald-base-theme/gallery/dam/Bilder/Dora/MD_Geschichte/MD_Historischer-Ort_Historische-Fotografien/313.003.jpg/jcr:content/______313.003.10162821506212000945.8475584890399434902.jpg)
©GARF, Moskau
![View of the crematorium building from the former infirmary. It is a reddish one-storey brick building with a tall chimney.](/.imaging/mte/buchenwald-base-theme/gallery/dam/Bilder/Buchenwald/BW_Geschichte/BW_Historischer-Ort_Neuere-Fotografien/_DSC4457.jpg/jcr:content/_DSC4457.jpg)
During the first few months of the camp, when there were not yet any
Due to its significance as a cemetery, the crematorium building was not torn down with the rest of the camp in the 1950s. From 1966 to the early 1990s, it housed a permanent exhibition on the history of the camp. Interior walls had been torn down and the paintings on the walls made by inmates had been painted over with white paint. A bronze relief by artist Theo Balden was installed in the incinerator room in 1979. From a broad base of emaciated bodies arises a flame, which culminates in a flower bud. After 1990, the crematorium was restored, and it now exclusively serves as a commemorative site for the dead.