Buchenwald was a concentration camp with 130 satellite camps. It was one of the largest on German soil, 5 miles north of the city of Weimar. The camp was established on July 16, 1937, when the first group of prisoners, consisting of 149 persons, mostly political detainees and criminals, was brought to the site. In the eight years of its existence, until March 1945, a total of 238,980 prisoners from 30 countries passed through.
Buchenwald was divided into three sections: the “large camp,” which housed prisoners with some seniority; the “small camp,” where prisoners were kept in quarantine; and the “tent camp,” set up for Polish prisoners in 1939. In addition, there was the administration compound, the SS barracks, and the camp factories. The commandants were SS-Standartenfuehrer Karl Koch (1937-1941) and SS-Oberfuehrer Hermann Pister (1942-1945).
Large groups of prisoners began to arrive in the camp shortly after its foundation and by the end of 1937, their number reached 2,561, most of them “politicals.” In the spring of 1938, the number of prisoners rose rapidly as a result of the operation against “asocial elements”; by July 1938, there were 7,723 prisoners in the camp. Another 2,200 from Austria were added on September 23, 1938, all of them Jews. A further 10,000 Jews were imprisoned after Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938).
The outbreak of war was accompanied by a wave of arrests throughout the Reich, which brought thousands of political prisoners to Buchenwald. This was followed by the influx of thousands of Poles, who were housed in the tent camp. As of 1943, following the completion of armaments factories in the vicinity of the camp, the number of prisoners grew steadily: 63,048 by the end of 1944, and 86,232 in February 1945. Of these, 43,045 were killed (this figure includes Soviet prisoners of war).
The first transports of German Jews arrived in the spring of 1938, followed by Austrian Jews and the Kristallnacht prisoners. The Jews were subject to extraordinarily cruel treatment, working 14-15 hours a day, and living under extremely harsh conditions. The Nazis' object at this point was to exert pressure on the Jews to emigrate from Germany. Thus, in the winter of 1938-1939, 9,370 Jews were released after their families, as well as Jewish and international organizations, had made arrangements for their emigration. In the short while prisoners like these were held at Buchenwald, 600 were killed, committed suicide, or died from other causes. The number of Jewish prisoners rose again after the outbreak of the war, when Jews from Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were brought to the camp; in September 1939, the Jewish prisoners numbered some 2,700.
In accordance with an order issued on October 17, 1942, all Jewish prisoners held in the Reich were to be transferred to Auschwitz, except for 204 essential workers. Nonetheless In 1944, transports of Hungarian Jews began arriving in Buchenwald from Auschwitz; after a short stay in the main camp, most of them were distributed among the satellite camps, where they were put to work in the armaments factories. Beginning on January 18, 1945, when Auschwitz and other camps in the East were being evacuated, thousands of Jewish prisoners arrived in Buchenwald. The Auschwitz evacuees included several hundred children and youths, and a special barracks, which came to be known as “Children's Block 66,” was put up for them in the tent camp. This block housed more than 600 children and youths, most of whom survived. The Jewish prisoners were deprived of the privileges and exemptions granted to the other inmates, and Jewish prisoners were used in medical experiments.
Resistance cells were formed in Buchenwald from the first years of its existence. In 1938, such a cell was established by members of the German Communist party in the camp. At first, the aim of the resistance cells was to plant their members in the central posts available to inmates, to support one another, and to have a say in developments in the camp. Up to the end of 1938, the internal administration of Buchenwald was, for the most part, in the hands of the criminal prisoners. When it was discovered that the criminals and some of the SS personnel were involved in corruption and stealing (from the Kristallnacht prisoners), the camp administration removed the criminal prisoners from most of their posts, and their influence gradually passed into the hands of the political prisoners. Some resistance cells, mainly those belonging to the Left, managed to plant some of their members in key positions held by prisoners in the internal camp administration. Later, following the outbreak of the war and the influx into Buchenwald of political prisoners from the occupied countries, more resistance groups were formed, on the basis of nationality. In 1943, a general underground movement that included Jews, called the International Underground Committee, came into being. The resistance movement in Buchenwald scored some impressive successes, primarily the acts of sabotage it carried out in the armaments works that employed Buchenwald prisoners. Underground members also smuggled arms and ammunition into the camp.
On April 6, 1945, the Germans began evacuating the Jewish prisoners. The following day, thousands of prisoners of various nationalities were evacuated from the main camp and the satellite camps. The total number of prisoners from the satellite camps and the main camp who fell victim during the evacuation of Buchenwald is estimated at 25,500. In the final days of the camp's existence, resistance members sabotaged SS orders for evacuation by slowing down its pace; as a result, the Nazis failed to complete the evacuation.
By April 11, most of the SS men had fled from the camp. The underground did not wait for the approaching American forces to take control but did so themselves, together with armed teams of prisoners, in the process trapping several dozen SS men remaining in the camp. On that same day, some 21,000 prisoners -- with 4,000 Jews among them, including about 1,000 children and youths – were liberated in Buchenwald.
In 1947, thirty-one members of the Buchenwald camp staff were tried for their crimes by an American court. Two of the accused were sentenced to death, and four to life imprisonment.