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<p>Wedding rings taken from prisoners. The rings were found near the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp following liberation by US Army soldiers. Germany, May 1945.</p>

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<p>A <a href="/narrative/4750/en">Jewish Brigade</a> soldier with two members of "Kibbutz Buchenwald." "Kibbutz Buchenwald" was a group of survivors from the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp who were preparing for agricultural work in Palestine. Antwerp, Belgium, 1946.</p>
Photo A Jewish Brigade soldier with two members of "Kibbutz Buchenwald"
<p>A pile of corpses in the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp after <a href="/narrative/2317/en">liberation</a>. Buchenwald, Germany, May 1945.</p> <p>Together with its many satellite camps, Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps established within the old German borders of 1937.</p>
Photo A pile of corpses in the Buchenwald concentration camp
<p>A US soldier stands among the corpses of prisoners exhumed from a mass grave in a ravine near Nammering. On April 19, 1945, a freight train with nearly 4,500 prisoners from Buchenwald pulled onto the railroad siding at Nammering. Hundreds of prisoners who had died on the train were buried in the mass grave along with the prisoners who were forced to carry the corpses to the ravine and were then shot. Germany, ca. May 6, 1945.</p>
Photo A US soldier stands among the corpses of prisoners exhumed from a mass grave near Nammering
<p>A watchtower and barracks at the <a href="/narrative/7757/en">Ohrdruf</a> subcamp of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. This photograph was taken after the US <a href="/narrative/7807/en">4th Armored Division</a> liberated the camp. Ohrdruf, Germany, June 1945.</p>
Photo A watchtower and barracks at Ohrdruf
<p>Abraham Lewent, who had been sent from the <a href="/narrative/2014/en">Warsaw</a> ghetto to <a href="/narrative/3168/en">Majdanek</a> and later transferred to several concentration camps in Germany, wore this jacket as part of the uniform issued to him upon his arrival in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944.</p>
Artifact Abraham Lewent's prisoner jacket
<p>The oldest of three children, Abram was born to Jewish parents in the small, predominantly Jewish town of Kaluszyn, 35 miles east of Warsaw. Abram's <a href="/narrative/8873/en">father</a> owned a wholesale grocery store, a restaurant and a gas station, all of which were located on the heavily traveled main road. Abram went to public elementary school and also received religious instruction.</p> <p>1933-39: I was 21 when the Germans <a href="/narrative/4879/en">invaded Poland</a>. My father, brother <a href="/narrative/8881/en">Majlech</a> and I fled eastward towards the Soviet Union because we were afraid that the Germans would send us away to forced labor. When we heard that German forces had engaged Polish troops in a battle at Kaluszyn and that our town had been heavily bombed, we had to return home to see if my mother and my sister, <a href="/narrative/8877/en">Chaie Sura</a>, were safe.</p> <p>1940-44: When the Germans entered Kaluszyn, our house, which was on the outskirts of town, wasn't bombed and we found <a href="/narrative/8875/en">Mother</a> and Chaie Sura unhurt. Acting under Nazi orders, the town mayor chose 10 men, including my father, to be on the Jewish council. My father chose me to be on the Jewish police force. My job was to keep order in the Jewish ghetto and to make sure that everyone respected the curfew hours.</p> <p>Abram escaped to Warsaw in late 1942. In May 1943 he was deported to a camp at <a href="/narrative/3768/en">Majdanek</a> and later to Skarzysko and <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a>. After the war, he emigrated to the United States.</p>
ID Card Abram Kisielnicki
<p>Jewish refugees in front of the "Kibbutz Buchenwald" building, where Jews received agricultural training in preparation for life in Palestine. Buchenwald displaced persons camp, Germany, ca. August 1946.</p>
Photo Agricultural training before emigration to Palestine
<p>Newly arrived prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, 1938-1940.</p>
Photo Arrival at Buchenwald
<p>One of many piles of ashes and bones found by US soldiers at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Germany, April 14, 1945.</p>
Photo Ashes and bones at the Buchenwald camp
<p>A view of the double row of barbed-wire fences that surrounded the <a href="/narrative/7757/en">Ohrdruf</a> camp, a subcamp in the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> camp system. Ohrdruf, Germany, April 1945.</p>
Photo Barbed-wire fences surrounding Ohrdruf
<p>Interior view of prisoners' barracks at the Ohrdruf subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. This photograph was taken after liberation. Ohrdruf, Germany, April 13, 1945.</p>
Photo Barracks at the Ohrdruf camp
<p>A view of barracks in the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. This photograph was taken after the <a href="/narrative/2317/en">liberation</a> of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, after April 11, 1945.</p> <p>Buchenwald, along with its subcamps, was one of the largest concentration camps established within the old German borders of 1937.</p>
Photo Barracks in the Buchenwald camp
<p>Beno was the oldest of three children in a Jewish family. His mother, originally from Austria, came to Czechoslovakia after World War I. Beno's father, a Swedish Jew, arrived there in search of work and became a successful merchant. The German-speaking Helmer home was frequently full of guests. Every day some students from the local rabbinical academy were invited to join the family for a meal.</p> <p>1933-39: My parents sent me to Budapest to attend high school. Later, because of my talent with languages, I got a job as an extra in movies. Each scene was shot in German and Hungarian; since I was fluent in both, I was always on the set. After my parents fled to Budapest to evade the Nazis, they tried to bribe a Hungarian official to help us. But this backfired; we were deported to Poland. I ended up in Lodz, just before war broke out.</p> <p>1940-44: We were always hungry in the <a href="/narrative/2152/en">Lodz ghetto</a>. People were dying all around us. In the ghetto I worked scooping out cesspools with a cooking pot. One day the Nazis took us into a home. They lined us up in a semicircle. One lady had a child. A Nazi asked, "Whose child is this?" Terrified, the mother did not admit that he was hers. He took the child by the legs and swung him against the wall, killing him. Paralyzed by fear, the mother looked on as if the child belonged to someone else.</p> <p>Beno survived the <a href="/narrative/5386/en">Theresienstadt</a> ghetto, and the <a href="/narrative/3673/en">Auschwitz</a> and <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> camps. After the war he helped track down war criminals in Europe. In 1947 Beno settled in the United States.</p>
ID Card Beno Helmer
Article Berga-Elster ("Schwalbe V")
<p>Bernard was raised by Jewish parents in the small southwestern Polish town of Bedzin. In 1930 Bernard moved with his wife, <a href="/narrative/8541/en">Ruchla</a>, to the nearby city of Katowice, where he owned a wholesale leather business. The couple lived with their two children, Moses and Genia, in a three-bedroom, upper-floor apartment on Jordana Street.</p> <p>1933-39: In 1939 Bernard, who was a Zionist, decided the family should emigrate to Palestine [the Yishuv]. His son, <a href="/narrative/8992/en">Moses</a>, had been the target of antisemitic taunts at school. Bernard himself had been harassed by antisemitic hooligans as he walked home from work. Bernard sold his business and the Rechnitz family packed up their household. Their luggage was at the Katowice railroad station waiting to be shipped when <a href="/narrative/2388/en">war broke out</a> that September 1.</p> <p>1940-44: By 1942 Bernard and his family had been deported to a labor camp on the site of an ammunition factory, in Skarzysko-Kamienna. Bernard was put to work in subcamp C where workers filled artillery shells with picric acid, a yellow, poisonous powder absorbed through the skin. One day, someone dropped a loaded artillery shell that exploded, injuring several people, including his wife, Ruchla. To help her recover, Bernard had his gold teeth extracted and sold the gold on the black market to buy Ruchla nourishing food.</p> <p>With no medical care, Ruchla died. Over the next three years Bernard was sent to several different Nazi camps, including <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a>. After the war, he emigrated to Palestine.</p>
ID Card Bernard Rechnitz
<p>The bodies of former prisoners are stacked outside the crematorium in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 23, 1945.</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This image is among the </span><a href="/narrative/8334/en"><span style="font-weight: 400;">commonly reproduced and distributed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and often extremely graphic, images of liberation. These photographs provided powerful documentation of the crimes of the Nazi era. </span></p>
Photo Bodies of victims outside the crematorium in Buchenwald