Editing Buchenwald concentration camp

{{short description|Nazi concentration camp in Germany}}
{{Redirect|Buchenwald}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox concentration camp
| type               = [[Nazi concentration camp]]
| name               = Buchenwald
| image              = File:Buchenwald Prisoners Undressing 80135.jpg 
| image size         = 
| caption            = Polish prisoners forced to undress after arriving in the camp, {{circa|1940}}<br>Below: Roll call at Buchenwald
[[File:Buchenwald Prisoners Roll Call 10105.jpg|frameless]]
| alt                = 
| location map       = Germany 1937
| map caption        = Location of Buchenwald within Nazi Germany in 1937
| other names       =
| known for          = 
| location           = [[Weimar]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]
| coordinates        = 
| built by           = 
| operated by        = ''[[Schutzstaffel]]''
| commandant         = [[Karl-Otto Koch]] (1 August 1937 – July 1941)<br />[[Hermann Pister]] (1942–1945)
| original use       =
| companies involved =
| construction       = 
| in operation       = 15 July 1937 – 11 April 1945
| gas chambers       = 
| prisoner type      = 
| inmates            = 280,000
| killed             = 56,545
| liberated by       = [[6th Armored Division]], [[United States Army]]
| notable inmates    = [[Bruno Apitz]], [[Phil Lamason]], [[Elie Wiesel]], [[Rudolf Brazda]], [[Ernst Thälmann]]
| notable books      = 
| website            = {{URL|www.buchenwald.de/en/69/}}
}}

'''Buchenwald''' ({{IPA|de|ˈbuːxn̩valt}}; 'beech forest') was a German [[Nazi concentration camp]] established on [[Ettersberg]] hill near [[Weimar]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the [[Altreich (pre-1938 Nazi Germany)|Altreich]] (Old Reich) territories. Many actual or suspected [[communist]]s were among the first internees.

Prisoners came from all over [[Europe]] and the [[Soviet Union]], and included [[Jews]], [[Polish people|Poles]], and other [[Slavs]], the mentally ill, and physically disabled, political prisoners, [[Romani people|Roma]], [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]], and prisoners of war. There were also ordinary criminals and those perceived as sexual deviants by the Nazi regime. All prisoners worked primarily as forced labor in local armaments factories. The insufficient food and poor conditions, as well as deliberate executions, led to 56,545 deaths at Buchenwald of the 280,000 prisoners who passed through the camp and its [[List of subcamps of Buchenwald|139 subcamps]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.buchenwald.de/en/72/ | title = Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1937–1945 |access-date=15 April 2023}}</ref> 

The camp gained notoriety when it was liberated by the [[United States Army]] in April 1945; Allied commander [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] visited one of its subcamps.

From August 1945 to March 1950, the camp was used by the [[Soviet occupation of Germany|Soviet occupation]] authorities as an internment camp, [[NKVD special camp Nr. 2]], where 28,455 prisoners were held and 7,127 of whom died. Today the remains of Buchenwald serve as a memorial and permanent exhibition and museum.

==Establishment==
[[File:MK38040 Buchenwald Lagertor.jpg|thumb|The inscription on the entrance gate to Buchenwald concentration camp, which reads: "Jedem das Seine" ("To each his own")]]
The ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS) established Buchenwald concentration camp at the beginning of July 1937.{{sfn|Zegenhagen|2009|p=290}} The camp was to be named [[Ettersberg]], after the hill in [[Thuringia]] upon whose north slope the camp was established.{{sfn|Zegenhagen|2009|p=290}}{{sfn|Rapson|2015|p=27}} The proposed name was deemed inappropriate because it carried associations with several important figures in German culture, especially [[German Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] writer [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] who had lived in [[Weimar]]. Instead the camp was to be named Buchenwald, in reference to the [[beech]] forest in the area. However, [[Holocaust]] researcher {{interlanguage link|James E. Young|de}} wrote that SS leaders chose the site of the camp precisely to erase the cultural legacy of the area. After the area of the camp was cleared of trees, only one large oak remained, supposedly one of [[Goethe's Oak]]s.{{sfn|Rapson|2015|pp=25, 27}}{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=177–178}}
[[File:Buchenwald Prisoners 83718.jpg|thumb|Dutch Jews stand during a roll call after their prisoner transport from Buchenwald in May 1941 in camp [[Mauthausen]] on 26 June 1941.{{sfn|Stein|2007|p=81–83}}]]
The camp, designed to hold 8,000 prisoners, was intended to replace several smaller concentration camps nearby, including {{interlanguage link|Bad Sulza concentration camp|lt=Bad Sulza|de|KZ Bad Sulza}}, [[Sachsenburg concentration camp|Sachsenburg]], and [[Lichtenburg concentration camp|Lichtenburg]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Establishment of the camp |url=https://www.buchenwald.de/en/geschichte/chronologie/konzentrationslager/lagergruendung |website=Buchenwald Memorial}}</ref> Compared to these camps, Buchenwald had a greater potential to profit the SS because the nearby clay deposits could be made into bricks by the forced labor of prisoners. The first prisoners arrived on 15 July 1937, and had to clear the area of trees and build the camp's structures.{{sfn|Zegenhagen|2009|p=290}} By September, the population had risen to 2,400 following transfers from Bad Sulza, Sachsenburg, and Lichtenburg.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=178}}

On the camp's main gate, the motto ''[[Jedem das Seine]]'' (English: "To each his own"), was inscribed. The SS interpreted this to mean the "[[master race]]" had a right to humiliate and destroy others.{{sfn|Rapson|2015|p=51}} It was designed by Buchenwald prisoner and [[Bauhaus]] architect [[Franz Ehrlich]], who used a Bauhaus typeface for it, even though Bauhaus was seen as [[degenerate art]] by the [[Nazism|National Socialists]] and was prohibited. This defiance however went unnoticed by the SS.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.buchenwald.de/en/1267/| title = Buchenwald Memorial Foundation}}</ref>

==Command structure==
===Organization===
Buchenwald's first commandant was SS-''[[Obersturmbannführer]]'' [[Karl-Otto Koch]], who ran the camp from 1 August 1937 to July 1941. His second wife, [[Ilse Koch]], became notorious as ''Die Hexe von Buchenwald'' ("the witch of Buchenwald") for her cruelty and brutality. In February 1940 Koch had an indoor riding hall built by the prisoners who died by the dozen due to the harsh conditions of the construction site. The hall was built inside the camp, near the canteen, so that oftentimes Ilse Koch could be seen riding in the morning to the beat of the prisoner orchestra.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=198}} Koch himself was eventually imprisoned at Buchenwald by the Nazi authorities for incitement to murder. The charges were lodged by [[Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont|Prince Waldeck]] and [[Georg Konrad Morgen|Morgen]], to which were later added charges of [[Political corruption|corruption]], [[embezzlement]], [[Underground economy|black market]] dealings, and exploitation of the camp workers for personal gain.{{sfn|Hackett|1997|p=341}} Other camp officials were charged, including Ilse Koch. The trial resulted in Karl Koch being sentenced to death for disgracing both himself and the SS; he was executed by firing squad on 5 April 1945, one week before American troops arrived. [[Ilse Koch]] was acquitted by the SS court and released. However, she was rearrested by American occupation authorities in June 1945, and chosen as one of 31 Buchenwald defendants to stand trial before a [[Military Commission Court at Dachau]]. The life sentence imposed by the Dachau court was reduced to four years upon review. Upon her release from U.S. custody in October 1949, she was arrested by West German authorities, tried at Augsburg, and again sentenced to life imprisonment; she committed suicide in [[Aichach]] (Bavaria) prison in September 1967.{{sfn|Hackett|1997|p=43 n.19}} The second commandant of the camp, between 1942 and 1945, was [[Hermann Pister]] (1942–1945). He was tried in 1947 ([[Dachau Trials]]) and sentenced to death, but on 28 September 1948 he died in [[Landsberg Prison]] of a heart attack.{{sfn|Hackett|1997|p=59 n.29}}

===Female prisoners and overseers===
{{more citations needed|section|date=March 2019}}
The number of women held in Buchenwald was somewhere between 500 and 1,000. The first female inmates were twenty political prisoners who were accompanied by a [[Female guards in Nazi concentration camps|female SS guard (''Aufseherin'')]]; these women were brought to Buchenwald from [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]] in 1941 and forced into sexual slavery at the camp's [[brothel]]. The SS later fired the SS woman on duty in the brothel for corruption; her position was taken over by "brothel mothers" as ordered by SS chief [[Heinrich Himmler]].

The majority of women prisoners, however, arrived in 1944 and 1945 from other camps, mainly [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]], [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]], and [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen Belsen]]. Only one barracks was set aside for them; this was overseen by the female block leader (''Blockführerin'') Franziska Hoengesberg, who came from Essen when it was evacuated. All the women prisoners were later shipped out to one of Buchenwald's many female satellite camps in [[Sömmerda]], [[Buttelstedt]], [[Mühlhausen]], [[Gotha (town)|Gotha]], [[Gelsenkirchen]], [[Essen]], [[Lippstadt]], [[Weimar]], [[Magdeburg]], and [[Penig]], to name a few. No female guards were permanently stationed at Buchenwald.

Contrary to popular opinion, the notorious "Bitch of Buchenwald" [[Ilse Koch]] never served in any official capacity at the camp, nor ever acted as guard.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jardim |first=Tomaz |title=Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the 'Bitch of Buchenwald' |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |year=2023 |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674249189 |page=1|isbn=9780674249189}}</ref> In total, however, more than 530 women served as guards in the vast Buchenwald system of subcamps and external commands across Germany. Only 22 women served/trained in Buchenwald, compared to over 15,500 men.{{sfn|Stein|2005|p=n/a}}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}

===Subcamps===
{{main|List of subcamps of Buchenwald}}
About [[List of subcamps of Buchenwald|136 subcamps]] and satellite commandos belonged to Buchenwald concentration camp.{{sfn|Buggeln|2014|p=9}}

In 1942, the SS began to use its forced labor supply for armaments production. Because it was more economical to rent out prisoners to private firms, subcamps were set up near factories which had a demand for prisoner labor. Private firms paid the SS between 4 and 6 [[Reichsmark]]s per day per prisoner, resulting in an estimated 95,758,843 Reichsmarks in revenue for the SS between June 1943 and February 1945.{{sfn|Zanden|2009|p=297}} So the subcamps of Buchenwald were mainly used for armament production and other fabrications and are considered labour camps. Conditions were worse than at the main camp, with prisoners provided insufficient food and inadequate shelter.{{sfn|Zanden|2009|p=298}}

==Allied POWs==
{{main|Allied airmen at Buchenwald concentration camp}}

Although it was highly unusual for German authorities to send [[Allies of World War II|Western Allied]] POWs to concentration camps, Buchenwald held a group of [[KLB Club|168 aviators]] for two months.<ref>[http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/fact_sheets/pow Veterans Affairs Canada, 2006: "Prisoners of War in the Second World War"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625165353/http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/fact_sheets/pow |date=25 June 2009 }} Accessed 16 May 2007.</ref> These men were from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica. They all arrived at Buchenwald on 20 August 1944.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140223114725/http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1575 National Museum of the USAF: "Allied Victims of the Holocaust"] Accessed 9 July 2017.</ref><ref name="buchenwaldflyboy.wordpress.com">{{cite web|url=http://buchenwaldflyboy.wordpress.com |title=Eyewitness accounts of Art Kinnis, president of KLB (Konzentrationslager Buchenwald), and 2nd Lt. Joseph Moser, one of the surviving pilots|website=www.buchenwaldflyboy.wordpress.com}}</ref>

All these airmen were in aircraft that had crashed in [[German occupation of France during World War II|occupied France]]. Two explanations are given for them being sent to a concentration camp: first, that they had managed to make contact with the [[French Resistance]], some were disguised as civilians, and they were carrying false papers when caught; they were therefore categorized by the Germans as [[espionage|spies]], which meant their rights under the [[Geneva Conventions|Geneva Convention]] were not respected. The second explanation is that they had been categorised as ''[[Terror bombing|Terrorflieger]]'' ("terror aviators"). The aviators were initially held in [[Gestapo]] prisons and headquarters in France. In April or August 1944, they and other Gestapo prisoners were packed into [[covered goods wagon]]s  and sent to Buchenwald. The journey took five days, during which they received very little food or water.<ref>From ''The Lucky Ones: Allied Airmen and Buchenwald'' (1994 film, directed by Michael Allder), cited by [http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/fact_sheets/pow Veterans Affairs Canada, 2006: "Prisoners of War in the Second World War"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625165353/http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/fact_sheets/pow |date=25 June 2009 }} Accessed 16 May 2007.</ref>

==Victims==

===Causes of death===
[[File:Buchenwald Executions 13143.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|On 26 April 1942, twenty Polish prisoners were hanged in retaliation for the killing of a German overseer. Pictured awaiting execution.]]

A primary cause of death was illness due to harsh camp conditions. Like all concentration camps, prisoners at Buchenwald were deliberately kept in a state of [[starvation]], many while performing [[Forced labor in Nazi concentration camps|grueling forced labor]],<ref name="Quarry">{{cite web |title=Quarry |url=https://www.buchenwald.de/en/geschichte/historischer-ort/konzentrationslager/steinbruch |website=Buchenwald Memorial}}</ref> making consequent illnesses prevalent. Malnourished and suffering from disease, many were literally "worked to death" under the ''Vernichtung durch Arbeit'' policy ([[extermination through labor]]), as inmates only had the choice between slave labor or inevitable execution. Many inmates were killed by [[Nazi human experimentation|human experimentation]] or fell victim to arbitrary acts perpetrated by the SS guards. Other prisoners were simply murdered,<ref name="Quarry"/> primarily by shooting and hanging. As part of [[Action 14f13]], prisoners deemed too weak or sick to work were sent to [[Sonnenstein Killing Facility]], where they were murdered with [[carbon monoxide]] gas.

[[Martin Sommer|Walter Gerhard Martin Sommer]] was an SS-''[[Hauptscharführer]]'' who served as a guard at the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. Known as the "Hangman of Buchenwald", he was considered a depraved sadist who reportedly ordered [[Otto Neururer]] and [[Mathias Spannlang|Mathias Spanlang]], two Austrian priests, to be [[Cross of St. Peter|crucified upside-down]]. Sommer was especially infamous for hanging prisoners from trees by their wrists, which had been tied behind their backs (a torture technique known as [[strappado]]) in the "singing forest", so named because of the screams which emanated from this wooded area.<ref>{{cite book |title=The resistance in Austria, 1938–1945|first=Radomír|last=Luža|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=1984|isbn=0-8166-1226-9}}</ref>{{sfn|Stein|2005|p=302}}

[[Summary execution]]s of Soviet POWs were also carried out at Buchenwald. At least 1,000 men were selected in 1941–42 by a task force of three [[Dresden]] [[Gestapo]] officers and sent to the camp for immediate liquidation by a gunshot to the back of the neck, the infamous ''Genickschuss''.

The camp was also a site of large-scale trials for [[vaccine]]s against [[Typhus|epidemic typhus]] in 1942 and 1943. In all 729 inmates were used as test subjects, of whom 154 died.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=199}} Other "experimentation" occurred at Buchenwald on a smaller scale. One such experiment aimed at determining the precise fatal dose of a poison of the [[alkaloid]] group; according to the testimony of one doctor, four Soviet POWs were administered the poison, and when it proved not to be fatal they were "strangled in the crematorium" and subsequently "dissected".{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=209–210}} Among various other experiments was one which, in order to test the effectiveness of a balm for wounds from [[incendiary bomb]]s, involved inflicting "very severe" [[white phosphorus]] burns on inmates.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=213–214}} When challenged at trial over the nature of this testing, and particularly over the fact that the testing was designed in some cases to cause death and only to measure the time which elapsed until death was caused, one Nazi doctor's defence was that, although a doctor, he was a "legally appointed executioner".{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=209}}

===Number of deaths===
{{Main|Number of deaths in Buchenwald}}
[[File:German atrocities. Germany, Poland &amp; Czechoslovakia - NARA - 292596.jpg|thumb|Corpses found in the camp after liberation]]

The SS left behind accounts of the number of prisoners and people coming to and leaving the camp, categorizing those leaving them by release, transfer, or death. These accounts are one of the sources of estimates for the number of deaths in Buchenwald. According to SS documents, 33,462 died. These documents were not, however, necessarily accurate: Among those executed before 1944, many were listed as "transferred to the Gestapo". Furthermore, from 1941, Soviet POWs were executed in mass killings. Arriving prisoners selected for execution were not entered into the camp register and therefore were not among the 33,462 dead listed.{{sfn|Bartel|1961|p=64, lines 12–23}}

One former Buchenwald prisoner, Armin Walter, calculated the number of executions by the number of shootings in the spine at the base of the head. His job at Buchenwald was to set up and care for a radio installation at the facility where people were executed; he counted the numbers, which arrived by telex, and hid the information. He says that 8,483 Soviet prisoners of war were shot in this manner.<ref>Bartel 1961, p. 203, lines 18–38.</ref>

According to the same source, the total [[Number of deaths in Buchenwald|number of deaths at Buchenwald]] is estimated at 56,545. This number is the sum of:
* Deaths according to material left behind by the SS: 33,462<ref>Includes male deaths in satellite camps.</ref>
* Executions by shooting: 8,483
* Executions by hanging (estimate): 1,100
* Deaths during<!--NOT "at"--> evacuation transports (estimate): 13,500<ref>{{harvtxt|Bartel|1961|loc=p. 87, line 17–18}} reports that somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 prisoners died on evacuation transports in March and April 1945.</ref>

This total (56,545) corresponds to a death rate of 24 percent, assuming that the number of persons passing through the camp according to documents left by the SS, 240,000 prisoners, is accurate.<ref>Bartel 1960, p. 87, line 8.</ref>

==Liberation==
[[File:Concentration_camp_SS.jpg|thumb|Prisoner of KZ Buchenwald with [[SS-Totenkopfverbände|member of SS personnel]] after entry of U.S. Army, 1945]]
[[Image:Buchenwald-bei-Weimar-am-24-April-1945.jpg|thumb|U.S. Senator [[Alben W. Barkley]] (D-Kentucky) looks on after Buchenwald's liberation.]]
[[File:Orphans of Buchenwald Ex-Prisoners Coming Home Air Views HQ and Camps (1945).webm|thumb|right|'Orphans of Buchenwald Ex-Prisoners Coming Home Air Views HQ and Camps (1945)' – film from US National Archives]]

In April 1945 an [[Alsos Mission]] team was searching for a German nuclear physicist near Weimar, eastern Germany. Taking a side road through woods to avoid German forces, they struck a ghastly smell from a clearing, and saw a barbed wire enclosure with a few pathetic figures and piles of corpses. Before continuing their mission they broke secrecy protocol to radio a request for the Army to send medical help. A group of survivors had just taken control of the camp from the few remaining Nazi guards. The four-man team was under linguist Hugh Montgomery and included Corporal Rick Carrier. Montgomery recalled the survivors made a final request: ''Please give the guards to us, and we’ll take care of them ..... And I’m sure they did''. Montgomery later joined the CIA, and took part in [[Operation Gold]] in Berlin.<ref>{{cite book |last= Vogel |first=Steve |title= Betrayal in Berlin |accessdate=  |edition=  |origyear=  |year= 2019  |publisher=CustomHouse/HarperCollins, New York |isbn= 978-0-06-244962-7 |oclc= |page= |pages=  }}</ref>

On 4 April 1945 the [[89th Division (United States)|U.S. 89th Infantry Division]] overran [[Ohrdruf forced labor camp|Ohrdruf]], a subcamp of Buchenwald.

Buchenwald was partially evacuated by the Germans from 6 to 11 April 1945. In the days before the arrival of the American army, thousands of the prisoners were [[death march|forcibly evacuated 
on foot]].{{sfn|Stein|2005|p=227}}
Thanks in large part to the efforts of Polish engineer (and [[Shortwave radio|short-wave]] [[Amateur radio operator|radio-amateur]], his pre-war callsign was SP2BD) Gwidon Damazyn, an inmate since March 1941, a secret short-wave transmitter and small generator were built and hidden in the prisoners' movie room. On 8 April at noon, Damazyn and Russian prisoner Konstantin Ivanovich Leonov sent the [[Morse code]] message prepared by leaders of the prisoners' underground resistance (supposedly [[Walter Bartel]] and Harry Kuhn):

{{Blockquote|text=To the Allies. To the army of [[George S. Patton|General Patton]]. This is the Buchenwald concentration camp. SOS. We request help. They want to evacuate us. The SS wants to destroy us.}}

The text was repeated several times in English, German, and Russian. Damazyn sent the English and German transmissions, while Leonov sent the Russian version. Three minutes after the last transmission sent by Damazyn, the headquarters of the [[Third United States Army|U.S. Third Army]] responded:

{{Blockquote|text=KZ Bu. Hold out. Rushing to your aid. Staff of Third Army.}}
[[File:Buchenwald-J-Rouard-25.jpg|thumb|Interior of the barracks, pictured after liberation by {{ill|Jules Rouard|fr}} on 16 April 1945]]
According to Teofil Witek, a fellow Polish prisoner who witnessed the transmissions, Damazyn fainted after receiving the message.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Langbein|first1=Hermann|title=Against All Hope: Resistance in the Nazi Concentration Camps, 1938–1945|year=1994|publisher=Paragon House|location=New York|isbn=1-55778-363-2|page=502|translator=Harry Zohn|language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Portão de entrada Buchenwald.jpg|thumb|3:15 p.m. was the time the camp was liberated, and is the permanent time of the clock at the entrance gate.]]

As American forces closed in, Gestapo headquarters at Weimar telephoned the camp administration to announce that it was sending explosives to blow up any evidence of the camp, including its inmates. The Gestapo did not know that the administrators had already fled. A prisoner answered the phone and informed headquarters that explosives would not be needed, as the camp had already been blown up, which was not true.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Best |first1=Brian |title=Reporting the Second World War |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate Publishers |isbn=9781473870666 |pages=234 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWHNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT234 |access-date=8 July 2020}}</ref>

A detachment of troops of the U.S. 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, from the [[6th Armored Division (United States)|6th Armored Division]], part of the [[Third United States Army|U.S. Third Army]], and under the command of [[Captain (U.S. Army)|Captain]] Frederic Keffer, arrived at Buchenwald on 11 April 1945 at 3:15&nbsp;p.m. (now the permanent time of the clock at the entrance gate). The soldiers were given a hero's welcome, with the emaciated survivors finding the strength to toss some liberators into the air in celebration.<ref name="liberators">{{Cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/buchenwald.liberator/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129174639/http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/buchenwald.liberator/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-01-29 |title=Buchenwald liberator, American hero [James Hoyt] dies at 83 |work=CNN |date=14 August 2008 |author=Wayne Drash}}</ref>

Later in the day, elements of the [[83rd Infantry Division (United States)|U.S. 83rd Infantry Division]] overran Langenstein, one of a number of smaller camps comprising the Buchenwald complex. There, the division liberated over 21,000 prisoners,<ref name="liberators"/> ordered the mayor of Langenstein to send food and water to the camp, and hurried medical supplies forward from the 20th Field Hospital.

Third Army Headquarters sent elements of the [[80th Division (United States)|80th Infantry Division]] to take control of the camp on the morning of Thursday 12 April 1945. Several journalists arrived on the same day, perhaps with the 80th, including [[Edward R. Murrow]], whose radio report of his arrival and reception was broadcast on [[CBS]] and became one of his most famous:{{Blockquote|text=I asked to see one of the barracks. It happened to be occupied by Czechoslovaks. When I entered, men crowded around, tried to lift me to their shoulders. They were too weak. Many of them could not get out of bed. I was told that this building had once stabled 80 horses. There were 1,200 men in it, five to a bunk. The stink was beyond all description.

They called the doctor. We inspected his records. There were only names in the little black book, nothing more. Nothing about who these men were, what they had done, or hoped. Behind the names of those who had died, there was a cross. I counted them. They totaled 242. 242 out of 1,200, in one month.

As we walked out into the courtyard, a man fell dead. Two others, they must have been over 60, were crawling toward the latrine. I saw it, but will not describe it. |author=Extract from [[Edward R. Murrow]]'s Buchenwald Report – 15 April 1945.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.otr.com/murrow_buchenwald.html|title=Edward R. Murrow Reports From Buchenwald|website=www.otr.com|access-date=10 April 2014|archive-date=24 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124060237/http://www.otr.com/murrow_buchenwald.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> }}

===Civilian tour===
After Patton toured the camp, he ordered the mayor of Weimar to bring 1,000 citizens to Buchenwald; these were to be predominantly men of military age from the middle and upper classes. The Germans had to walk {{convert|25|km}} roundtrip under armed American guard and were shown the crematorium and other evidence of Nazi atrocities. The Americans wanted to ensure that the German people would [[German collective guilt|take responsibility]] for Nazi crimes, instead of dismissing them as [[atrocity propaganda]].{{sfn|Mauriello|2017|pp=32–34}}  Gen. Dwight Eisenhower also invited two groups of Americans to tour the camp in mid-April 1945; journalists and editors from some of the principal U.S. publications, and then a dozen members of the Congress from both the House and the Senate, led by Senate Majority Leader [[Alben W. Barkley]].

War correspondent [[Osmar White]] reported that above the crematorium door was a verse beginning 'Worms shall not devour me, but flames consume this body. I always loved the heat and light…'.<ref>White's dispatch on Buchenwald 18 April 1945 reproduced in his book ''Conquerors' Road'' (Harper Collins, 1996) p. 189.</ref>

==Aftermath==
[[File:Ilse Koch testifies in her own defense 8 jul 47.png|thumb|Ilse Koch testifies]]

===Buchenwald trial===
{{main|Buchenwald trial}}
Thirty SS perpetrators at Buchenwald were tried before a US military tribunal in 1947, including [[Higher SS and Police Leader]] [[Josias Erbprinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont]], who oversaw the SS district that Buchenwald was located in, and many of the doctors responsible for Nazi human experimentation. Almost all of the defendants were convicted, and 22 were sentenced to death. However, only nine death sentences were carried out, and by the mid-1950s, all perpetrators had been freed except for [[Ilse Koch]], who was tried by a [[West Germany|West German]] court and given a life sentence. Additional perpetrators were tried before German courts during the 1960s.{{sfn|Zegenhagen|2009|pp=293–294}}

===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>

===Literature===
[[Image:Buchenwald Slave Laborers Liberation.jpg|thumb|Slave laborers at Buchenwald after liberation in 1945. Elie Wiesel is seen in the second row, seventh from left.]]
Survivors who have written about their camp experiences include [[Jorge Semprún]], who in ''Quel beau dimanche!'' describes conversations involving [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] and [[Léon Blum]], and [[Ernst Wiechert]], whose ''Der Totenwald'' was written in 1939 but not published until 1945, and which likewise involved Goethe. Scholars have investigated how camp inmates used art to help deal with their circumstances, and according to [[Theodor Ziolkowski]] writers often did so by turning to Goethe.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ziolkowski |first=Theodore |year=2001 |title=Das Treffen in Buchenwald oder Der vergegenwärtigte Goethe |journal=Modern Language Studies |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=131–50 |jstor=3195281 |doi=10.2307/3195281}}</ref> Artist [[Léon Delarbre]] sketched, besides other scenes of camp life, the [[Goethe Oak]], under which he used to sit and write.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jenkins|first=David Fraser|title=John Piper: The Forties|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7WuzDK3dSkC&pg=PA84|year=2000|publisher=New Age International|isbn=978-0-85667-534-8|page=84}}</ref> One of the few prisoners who escaped from the camp, the Belgian Edmond Vandievoet, recounted his experiences in a book whose English title is "I escaped from a Nazi Death Camp" [Editions Jourdan, 2015]. In his work ''[[Night (memoir)|Night]]'',  [[Elie Wiesel]] talks about his stay in Buchenwald, including his father's death.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wiesel|first1=Elie|title=La Nuit|date=2007|publisher=Éditions de Minuit|location=Paris|pages=194–200|edition=2nd}}</ref> [[Jacques Lusseyran]], a leader in the underground resistance to the German occupation of France, was eventually sent to Buchenwald after being arrested, and described his time there in his autobiography.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lusseyran|first1=Jacques|translator-last1=Elizabeth R.Cameron|translator-first1=|title=And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance|date=1998|publisher=Parabola Books|location=New York|pages=272–309|edition=2nd}}</ref>

===Visit from President Obama and Chancellor Merkel===
[[File:President Obama Visits Buchenwald Concentration Camp.webm|thumb|Video of President Obama's visit]]
On 5 June 2009 [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[Barack Obama]] and [[Chancellor of Germany|German Chancellor]] [[Angela Merkel]] visited Buchenwald after a tour of [[Dresden Castle]] and [[Dresden Frauenkirche|Church of Our Lady]]. During the visit they were accompanied by [[Elie Wiesel]] and [[Bertrand Herz]], both survivors of the camp.<ref name=Whitehouseblog>{{cite web |title=Buchenwald – The WhiteHouseBlog |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/Buchenwald/ |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] |work=[[whitehouse.gov]] |date=5 June 2009 |access-date=18 August 2012 }}</ref> {{Interlanguage link|Volkhard Knigge|de}}, the director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation and honorary professor of [[University of Jena]], guided the four guests through the remainder of the site of the camp.<ref name=Whitehouseremarks>{{cite speech |title=Remarks By President Obama, German Chancellor Merkel, And Elie Wiesel at Buchenwald Concentration Camp |event=Buchenwald memorial event |location=Weimar, Germany |date=5 June 2009 |publisher=The White House – Office of the Press Secretary |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-german-chancellor-merkel-and-elie-wiesel-buchenwald-concent |access-date=1 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129041423/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-german-chancellor-merkel-and-elie-wiesel-buchenwald-concent |archive-date=29 January 2017 }}</ref> During the visit Wiesel, who together with Herz were sent to the [[Little camp]] as 16-year-old boys, said, "if these trees could talk." His statement marked the irony about the beauty of the landscape and the horrors that took place within the camp.<ref name="Whitehouseremarks" /> President Obama mentioned during his visit that he had heard stories as a child from his great uncle, who was part of the [[89th Division (United States)|89th Infantry Division]], the first Americans to reach the camp at Ohrdruf, one of Buchenwald's satellites.<ref name="Whitehouseblog" /> Obama was the first sitting US President to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp.<ref name="cbsnews.com"/>

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Buchenwald Resistance]]
* [[List of subcamps of Buchenwald]]
* [[Number of deaths in Buchenwald]]
* [[Ohrdruf forced labor camp]]
* [[Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany]]
* ''[[The Boys of Buchenwald]]''
* [[List of prisoners of Buchenwald]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

'''Sources'''
* {{cite book |editor-last=Bartel |editor-first=Walter |year=1961 |title=Buchenwald-Mahnung und Verpflichtung: Dokumente und Berichte |trans-title=Buchenwald-Warnings and obligation: Documents and reports |publisher=Kongress-Verlag |asin=B0000BGX5M |language=de }} [https://books.google.com/books?id=HnQNAAAAIAAJ Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1983 edition].
* {{cite book |last=Buggeln | first=Marc | year=2014 |title=Slave Labor in Nazi Concentration Camps |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19870-797-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Hackett |first=David A. |year=1997 |title=The Buchenwald Reports |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=978-0-8133-3363-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AkzuR3Q39i4C |access-date=1 June 2016 }}
* {{cite book | last=Marcuse |first=Harold | chapter=The Afterlife of the Camps | pages=186–211 | editor1-last=Wachsmann |editor1-first=Nikolaus |editor2-last=Caplan |editor2-first=Jane |title=Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories |date=2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-13526-321-8}}
*{{cite book |last1=Mauriello |first1=Christopher E. |title=Forced Confrontation: The Politics of Dead Bodies in Germany at the End of World War II |date=2017 |publisher=Lexington Books |location=Lanham |isbn=9781498548069 |language=en}}
*{{cite book |last1=Rapson |first1=Jessica |title=Topographies of Suffering: Buchenwald, Babi Yar, Lidice |date=2015 |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=New York |isbn=9781782387107 |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last=Spitz |first=Vivien |year=2005 |title=Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans |publisher=Sentient Publications |isbn=978-1-59181-032-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/doctorsfromhellh00spit/page/199 199] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/doctorsfromhellh00spit/page/199 }}
* {{cite book |last=Stein |first=Harry |editor-last=Gedenkstatte Buchenwald |year=2005 |title=Buchenwald concentration camp 1937–1945 (A Guide to the Permanent Historical Exhibition) |publisher=Wallstein |isbn=978-3-89244-695-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Stein|first=Harry|title=Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945. Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung|editor=Buchenwald Memorial|publisher=Wallstein-Verlag|edition=5th|year=2007|isbn=978-3-89244-222-6|location=Göttingen|pages=81–83|language=de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u2Xx4fz5K4cC}}
* {{cite book |last1=Stone |first1=Dan |title=The Liberation of the Camps: The End of the Holocaust and Its Aftermath |date=2015 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=9780300216035 |language=en}}
*Tillack-Graf, Anne-Kathleen (2012). ''Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung "Neues Deutschland" über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen.'' Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main. ISBN 978-3-631-63678-7.
* {{cite book |last=Wachsmann |first=Nikolaus |author-link=Nikolaus Wachsmann |year=2015 |title=KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-4372-7 }}
*{{cite book |last=Zanden|first=Christine Schmidt van der|entry=Buchenwald Subcamp System|location=Bloomington|title=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 |volume=1|date=2009|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |isbn=978-0-253-35328-3 |language=en|title-link=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945|editor-last=Megargee|editor-first=Geoffrey P.|editor-link=Geoffrey P. Megargee|pages=567–569}}
*{{cite book |last=Zegenhagen|first=Evelyn|entry=Buchenwald Main Camp|location=Bloomington|title=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 |volume=1|date=2009|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |isbn=978-0-253-35328-3 |language=en|editor-last=Megargee|editor-first=Geoffrey P.|pages=567–569|translator-last= Pallavicini|translator-first=Stephen}}

==Further reading==
* Knigge, Volkhard und Ritscher, Bodo: ''Totenbuch. Speziallager Buchenwald 1945–1950'', Weimar: Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau Dora, 2003.
* Tillack-Graf, Anne-Kathleen: ''Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung "Neues Deutschland" über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen.'' Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-631-63678-7.

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* Hardy Graupner: [https://www.dw.com/en/survivors-academics-recall-dark-episode-in-germanys-postwar-history/a-5249683 Survivors, academics recall dark episode in Germany's postwar history], Deutsche Welle, 16 February 2010.
* [https://archives.cjh.org//repositories/5/resources/13879 Guide to the Concentration Camps Collection], Leo Baeck Institute, New York City 2013. Includes extensive reports on Buchenwald collected by the Allied forces shortly after liberating the camp in April 1945.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tGwjwK9pIM Holocaust Buchenwald Concentration Camp Uncovered (1945) | British Pathé] on [[YouTube]]
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