Key Points
Location
Buchenwald was in a wooded area on the northern slopes of the Ettersberg, a hill north of the city of Weimar. Before the Nazis rose to power, Weimar was primarily associated with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, literary icons of the eighteenth century. Weimar was also known as the birthplace of German constitutional democracy, the Weimar Republic (1918–1933).
Establishment
The camp was built by the people incarcerated at the camp. During the entire summer of 1937, the SS forced the imprisoned individuals to use their "free time" to carry huge stones from the quarry to the camp. Those who had the misfortune to carry stones that were too small in the eyes of the SS, were immediately killed. Thousands of people died during the construction of the road leading from the foot of the Ettersberg to the entry of the camp. This road was called "Blood Street" by the imprisoned inhabitants.
Imprisoned Population
The camp was established in July 1937 and became operational shortly thereafter. Initially, it was designed to hold political opponents, including communists, socialists, and other opponents of the Nazi regime. Over its years of operation, Buchenwald housed more than 280,000 individuals from various backgrounds, including Jews, Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The camp also included a significant number of Soviet POWs. The population increased rapidly after Kristallnacht in November 1938, when Jewish men aged 16–60 were arrested and incarcerated. The Jews were treated very cruelly; they were forced to work 14-15 hours a day and lived under terrible conditions. At the end of 1938, they released 9,370 Jews because of pressure from the victims’ family in conjunction with Jewish and International organizations, which had arranged for them to leave the country. During the short time such people were kept at Buchenwald, however, 600 victims perished. On January 18, 1945, the Germans began to evacuate Auschwitz and other camps in Eastern Europe. This brought thousands of Jews to Buchenwald, including hundreds of children. A special barracks, called "Children's Block 66," was set up for them in the tent camp, and most survived.
Conditions
The conditions in Buchenwald were brutal. The incarcerated faced overcrowding, forced labor, malnutrition, disease, and inhumane treatment by the guards. Many died from starvation, exhaustion, or mistreatment.
Medical Experiments
Some incarcerated individuals were subjected to medical experiments, including tests related to infectious diseases, such as typhus, and other unethical medical practices. These experiments were often conducted without consent and resulted in suffering and death. Thousands of the imprisoned, especially Soviet POWs, were murdered in the infirmary by lethal injections.
Liberation
An underground movement inclusive of Jews was formed in 1943, called the International Underground Committee. The movement succeeded in undermining some of the work done in the weapons factory and smuggling weapons and ammunition into the camp. The Germans began evacuating Jews on April 6, 1945. The following day, thousands of other people were also evacuated. Some 25,500 people died during the camp's evacuation. During Buchenwald's last days, resistance members were able to slow down the evacuation. By April 11, most of the SS had fled. The underground members took control of the camp and trapped the remaining SS. On that day, 21,000 individuals were liberated by American forces, including 4,000 Jews and 1,000 children, including Elie Wiesel. Upon liberation, the American soldiers encountered thousands of emaciated and sick imprisoned people, along with the remnants of the camp's horrific conditions. The U.S. Army assumed control of the camp, but shortly afterward, it was handed over to the Red Army because the camp now lay within the zone of Germany occupied by the Soviets.
Memorial Visit
On June 5, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Buchenwald. During the visit they were accompanied by Elie Wiesel and Bertrand Herz, both survivors of the camp. During the visit, Wiesel, who had been sent to the Little Camp, a quarantine area for new arrivals, as a 16-year-old boy together with Herz, 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. President Obama mentioned during his visit that he had heard stories as a child from his great uncle, who was part of the 89th Infantry Division, the first Americans to reach one of Buchenwald's subcamps.
