Pastor Claudia Buchner devotes herself to new tasks and leaves Dachau. For two years, the young woman mainly guided students through the concentration camp memorial - and had a wide variety of experiences.
BY ELFRIEDE PEIL
Dachau - “It's a strange feeling that this is now ending. I enjoyed doing it very, very much. ”Pastor Claudia Buchner is just coming back from her last tour of a school class through the concentration camp memorial. She is completely frozen now on this windy day in February, but unfortunately cannot warm up in the conversation room of the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation - the heating is not working again. So she keeps her coat on. But it will warm your heart when this young woman looks back so happily on the past years and looks just as happily into the future.
After two years, Claudia Buchner's “special vicariate” ends in the memorial work. After her “normal” vicariate in Gmund, she had absolutely wanted to get to know something else. And it was a perfect fit that Dr. Björn Mensing was looking for reinforcement for the team of the Church of Reconciliation. Because she was very interested in modern church history as a student, Mensing was made aware of her by the university. “And that's how we got together,” reports Claudia Buchner.
In addition to church services, pastoral talks, evening events and commemorations, tours of the concentration camp memorial were part of her duties. The different school classes were, special needs school, middle school, high school, classes with a high proportion of migrants or none. The students were also prepared very differently. “Sometimes they don't know anything. Others are very well informed through school projects. ”
Finding the right language here was the challenge for Claudia Buchner. It started with the experiences of young people. What it is like when you are not allowed to keep anything personal. The detainees had to hand in everything when they were admitted, including photos. "Or when we stand in the sleeping hut and imagine what it was like to never be alone, not to have a second of privacy, to never be able to open the door behind you - then you could feel the compassion."
In addition to the school classes, Buchner has also run adult groups: companies, senior clubs, church communities, educational institutions. And she did individual tours. "They are judicially ordered for young people who have made anti-Semitic or racist smearings or who have shared such comments in chats." Most know that they have "screwed up" and they are sorry. And if you only do this without any insight, you may not express yourself.
For Claudia Buchner, the past two years have also been a great asset in working with the many dedicated volunteers and in good ecumenical practice. But they were also a challenge: “Exposing yourself to this place every day. Going through the barrack, the crematorium - that never loses its fright. ”It helped her to light a candle in the church after every working day. And the 40-minute drive to her apartment in Augsburg was a good distance giver.
From March 1st she will work with her husband Pastor Andreas Buchner in Bad Reichenhall. They share a 1.5 position in community and spa and clinic chaplaincy. Her first child is born in May. Claudia Buchner will go on maternity leave from Easter, but until then she wants to "really get going". She looks forward to the normal life of a church with baptisms, weddings, church celebrations, visits. "We want to do something, we really feel like it."
As the saying goes: "One person's joy is another person's suffering." Ernst Grube said at the farewell service: "At your new location, people can count themselves lucky." So much for the joy of some. And here says Dr. Björn Mensing: "Unfortunately Claudia Buchner's special vicariate ends, where I was able to accompany the extremely competent, talented and passionate young colleague as a specialist mentor." So much for the suffering of others. But it is tempered by the pastor's palpable joy at what she has experienced in Dachau and the future that awaits her.
