Talk:Bastei

File:Basteibrücke morgens.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Basteibrücke morgens.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on November 6, 2015. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2015-11-06. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. Thanks! — Chris Woodrich (talk) 00:10, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Picture of the day

Bastei is a jagged rock formation, formed by water erosion, towering 194 metres (636 ft) above the Elbe River in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains of Germany. It has been a tourist attraction for over 200 years. In 1824, a wooden bridge was constructed to link several rocks for visitors. This bridge was replaced in 1851 by the present Bastei Bridge (pictured here). The rock formations and vistas have inspired several artists, among them Caspar David Friedrich.Photograph: Thomas Wolf

Which photo for the infobox?

Special:Diff/900279428 contains a replacement suggestion for the main image. Which one should we choose?

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~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:15, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Use as forced labour camp in WWII

During World War II, the Bastei resort was used as a forced labour camp, including Polish inmates who had been transported from the former eastern parts of Poland (Galicia region). The labour performed there was harvesting lumber from the forest. It was a lower security operation, guarded by Wermacht soldiers, many of whom were older men. The SS would perform supervisory visits, but there were no SS permanently based there. The camp was liberated by the Americans in 1945, however with nowhere to go, inmates stayed at the resort waiting to find out what happened next. The following day the Americans handed possession of the camp to the Soviets and many inmates fled towards Dresden at the sight of Red Army soldiers. This account is anecdotal and comes from a three-year inmate of the facility.