Buchenwald

<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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Buchenwald

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<p>Liberated prisoners demonstrate the overcrowded conditions at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Photograph taken after the liberation of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 23, 1945.</p>

<p>US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. Here, US soldiers escort German civilians from the nearby town of Weimar through the Buchenwald camp. The American liberating troops had a policy of forcing German civilians to view the atrocities committed in the camps.</p>

<p>The charred remains of former prisoners in two crematoria ovens in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 14, 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>

<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>

<p>Prisoners at forced labor near the entrance to the Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, 1937–45.</p>

<p>Roll call for newly arrived prisoners, mostly Jews arrested during <a href="/narrative/4063/en"><em>Kristallnacht</em></a> (the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom), at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, 1938.</p>

<p>Prisoners during a roll call at the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. Their uniforms bear classifying triangular badges and identification numbers. Buchenwald, Germany, 1938–41.</p>

<p>Members of a resistance organization in the camp meet with American soldiers in front of the entrance to the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, after April 11, 1945.</p>
<p>In early April 1945, as US forces approached the camp, the Germans began to evacuate some 28,000 prisoners from the main camp and an additional several thousand prisoners from the subcamps of Buchenwald. About a third of these prisoners died from exhaustion en route or shortly after arrival, or were shot by the SS. The underground resistance organization in Buchenwald, whose members held key administrative posts in the camp, saved many lives. They obstructed Nazi orders and delayed the evacuation.</p>

<p>German civilians under US military escort are forced to view a wagon piled with corpses in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 16, 1945.</p>

<p>Former prisoners of the "little camp" in <a href="/narrative/3963/en">Buchenwald</a> stare out from the wooden bunks in which they slept three to a "bed." <a href="/narrative/10130/en">Elie Wiesel</a> is pictured in the second row of bunks, seventh from the left, next to the vertical beam. Abraham Hipler is pictured in the second row, fourth from the left. The man on the third bunk from the bottom, third from the left, is Ignacz (Isaac) Berkovicz. [He has also been identified as Abraham Baruch.] Michael Nikolas Gruner, originally from Hungary, is pictured on the bottom left corner. Perry Shulman from Klimitov, Poland is on the top bunk, second from the left (looking up). Buchenwald, Germany, April 16, 1945.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This image is also 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>

<p>Children march out of Buchenwald to a nearby American field hospital where they will receive medical care. Buchenwald, Germany, April 27, 1945.</p>

<p>During an inspection by US Army chaplains of the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp, G. Bromley Oxnam (right) views a demonstration of how prisoners were tortured in Buchenwald. Oxnam was the Methodist bishop of New York and President of the Federated Council of Churches of Christ in America. Buchenwald, Germany, April 27, 1945.</p>

<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>

<p>The Buchenwald camp was one of the largest concentration camps. The Nazis built it in 1937 in a wooded area northwest of Weimar in central Germany. US forces liberated the Buchenwald camp on April 11, 1945. When US troops entered the camp, they found more than 20,000 prisoners. This footage shows scenes that US cameramen filmed in the camp, survivors, and the arrival of Red Cross trucks.</p>

<p>US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. This footage records examples of Nazi atrocities (shrunken head, pieces of tattooed human skin, preserved skull and organs) discovered by the liberating troops.</p>

<p>The US army filmed the weak and emaciated survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany to document Nazi crimes against humanity. This film was shot shortly after the liberation of the camp in April 1945.</p>

<p>Survivors of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp gather around trucks carrying American troops. Germany, May 1945.</p>

<p>This photograph taken soon after liberation shows young camp survivors from Buchenwald's "Children's Block 66"—a special barracks for children. Germany, after April 11, 1945.</p>

<p>A view of the Buchenwald concentration camp after the liberation of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, after April 11, 1945.</p>

<p>In December 1939, Eddie's father sent Eddie to live with a family in Belgium, a safer place for Jews as it was not yet occupied by Germany. Later, while visiting his father in a camp in France, Eddie was detained. He and his father escaped, but were later deported. Eddie survived forced labor in a series of camps, and with his friend Mauritz "Michael" Swaab, escaped a death march from Langenstein, a Buchenwald subcamp. The two were liberated while on the run.</p>

<p>One of many piles of ashes and bones found by US soldiers at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Germany, April 14, 1945.</p>

<p>The valuables displayed here were confiscated from prisoners by German guards at the Buchenwald concentration camp and later found by soldiers of the Third US Army after the liberation of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, after April 1945.</p>

<p>American radio journalists view corpses 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. Germany, April 18, 1945.</p>
<p>Pictured from left to right are, Lowell Thomas (NBC); Howard Barnes (WOR); and George Hamilton Combs (WHN).</p>

<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>

<p>A view of one of the watchtowers and part of the perimeter fence at <a href="/narrative/7757/en">Orhdruf</a>, part of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> camp system, seen here after US forces <a href="/narrative/2317/en">liberated</a> the camp. Ohrdruf, Germany, April 1945.</p>

<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>

Article Berga-Elster ("Schwalbe V")

<p>American soldiers and liberated prisoners at the main entrance of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. Germany, May 1945.</p>

<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>

<p>German civilians from the town of Nammering, under orders of American military authorities, dig graves for victims of a <a href="/narrative/2931/en">death march</a> from the Buchenwald concentration camp. Germany, May 1945.</p>

<p>Waldemar Hoven, head SS doctor at the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp, testifies in his own defense at the <a href="/narrative/9245/en">Doctors Trial</a>. Hoven conducted medical experiments on prisoners. Nuremberg, Germany, June 23, 1947.</p>

<p>Document from the Buchenwald trial stating that both the prosecution and the defense teams agree to waive their right to make closing statements. The document is signed by the US military prosecutors (including <a href="/narrative/9936/en">William Denson</a>), the defense lawyers, and the defendants. Dachau, Germany, August 8, 1947.</p>

<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>

<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>

<p>A view of the Buchenwald concentration camp after the liberation of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, after April 11, 1945.</p>

<p>Returning from work in a stone quarry, <a href="/narrative/3384/en">forced laborers</a> carry stones more than six miles to the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. Germany, date uncertain.</p>

Article Halle

<p>US soldiers of the <a href="/narrative/7807/en">4th Armored Division</a> survey the dead at <a href="/narrative/7757/en">Ohrdruf</a>, a subcamp of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. Germany, April 1945.</p>

<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>

<p>In January 1945, the Third Reich stood on the verge of military defeat. As Allied forces approached Nazi camps, the SS organized death marches of concentration camp inmates, in part to keep large numbers of concentration camp prisoners from falling into Allied hands. The term "death march" was probably coined by concentration camp prisoners. It referred to forced marches of concentration camp prisoners over long distances under heavy guard and extremely harsh conditions. During death marches, SS guards brutally mistreated the prisoners and killed many. The largest death marches were launched from Auschwitz and Stutthof.</p>

<p>Zofia Burowska (Chorowicz) donated this doll, which dates from the 1930s, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Zofia's parents gave her the doll before the war and she kept it with her in the Wolbrum and Krakow ghettos, Poland. The doll and some of her family's other belongings were left with non-Jewish friends for safekeeping. Zofia was deported to a forced-labor camp for Jews near Krakow, to the Skarzysko-Kamienna camp (also in Poland), and then to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, where she was liberated. After the war, she returned to Krakow and retrieved her doll.</p>

<p>Escorted by US soldiers, child survivors of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp file out of the main gate of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 27, 1945.</p>

<p>Emaciated survivors of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp soon after the liberation of the camp. Germany, after April 11, 1945.</p>

<p>US soldiers enter the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp following the <a href="/narrative/2317/en">liberation</a> of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, after April 11, 1945.</p>

<p>Ben was born in a small village in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania in Romania. When he was an infant, his family moved to the United States. Ben attended Harvard University, where he studied criminal law. Ben graduated from Harvard University Law School in 1943. He joined a US anti-aircraft artillery battalion that was training in preparation for an Allied invasion of western Europe. At the end of World War II in Europe, Ben was transferred to the war crimes investigation branch of the US Army. He was charged with gathering evidence against and apprehending alleged Nazi war criminals. He ultimately became chief US prosecutor in The Einsatzgruppen Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings.</p>
<p>Describes the process of collecting evidence (including evidence of crimes in the Buchenwald camp) and issuing arrest warrants</p>

Media Gallery Death Marches: Maps

<p>A wagon is piled with the bodies of victims of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. Photograph taken following the liberation of the camp. The <a href="/narrative/7812/en">6th Armored Division</a> overran the camp on April 11, 1945. Buchenwald, Germany, April 11–May 1945.</p>

<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>

<p>A wagon is piled high with the bodies of victims of the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> concentration camp. Photograph taken following the <a href="/narrative/2317/en">liberation</a> of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 16, 1945.</p>

<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>

<p>A US army officer (far right) poses with survivors of the <a href="/narrative/7757/en">Ohrdruf</a> camp, a subcamp in the <a href="/narrative/3956/en">Buchenwald</a> camp system. Photograph taken after the <a href="/narrative/2317/en">liberation</a> of the camp. Ohrdruf, Germany, April 1945.</p>

<p>A survivor shows US Generals Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley how inmates at the <a href="/narrative/7757/en">Ohrdruf</a> camp were tortured. Ohrdruf, Germany, April 1945.</p>

<p>Roll call for newly arrived prisoners, mostly Jews arrested during <a href="/narrative/4063/en"><em>Kristallnacht</em></a> (the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom), at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, 1938.</p>

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