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Region: The Free Nations Region

11th April 1945 (76 years ago): The U.S. army liberates Buchenwald concentration camp

On 11 April 1945, the American Third Army liberates the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany.

Buchenwald was partially evacuated by the Germans from 6 April 1945, until 11 April 1945. In the days before the arrival of the American army, thousands of the prisoners were forced to join the evacuation marches. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Polish engineer (and short-wave 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):

"To the Allies. To the army of 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 U.S. Third Army responded:

"KZ Bu. Hold out. Rushing to your aid. Staff of Third Army."

According to Teofil Witek, a fellow Polish prisoner who witnessed the transmissions, Damazyn fainted after receiving the message.

After this news had been received, inmates stormed the watchtowers and killed the remaining guards, using arms they had been collecting since 1942 (one machine gun and 91 rifles).

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.

A detachment of troops of the U.S. 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, from the 6th Armored Division, part of the U.S. Third Army, and under the command of Captain Frederic Keffer, arrived at Buchenwald on 11 April 1945 at 15:15 (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.

Later in the day, elements of the 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, 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 Infantry Division to take control of the camp on the morning of Thursday, 12 April 1945. Several journalists arrived on the same day.

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 25 kilometres 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 take responsibility for Nazi crimes, instead of dismissing them as atrocity propaganda. 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.

Buchenwald was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Prisoners came from all over Europe and the Soviet Union—Jews, Poles and other Slavs, the mentally ill and physically disabled, political prisoners, Romani people, Freemasons, and prisoners of war. There were also ordinary criminals and sexual "deviants". 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 139 subcamps.

There were no gas chambers

Among the camp’s most gruesome characters was Ilse Koch, wife of the camp commandant, who was infamous for her sadism. She often beat prisoners with a riding crop, and collected lampshades, book covers and gloves made from the skin of camp victims.

Among those saved by the Americans was Elie Wiesel, who would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

From August 1945 to March 1950, the camp was used by the Soviet occupation authorities as an internment camp, NKVD special camp Nr. 2, where 28,455 prisoners were held and 7,113 of whom died. Today the remains of Buchenwald serve as a memorial and permanent exhibition and museum.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Buchenwald_Prisoners_Undressing_80135.jpg

Newly arrived Polish prisoners undressing before they are washed and shaved.
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Buchenwald_Prisoners_83718.jpg

Dutch Jews wearing prison uniforms marked with a yellow star and the letter "N", for Netherlands, stand at attention during a roll call at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Buchenwald_Executions_13143.jpg

On 26 April 1942, twenty Polish prisoners were hanged in retaliation for the killing of a German overseer who had beaten a Polish prisoner to the point of unconsciousness. Pictured awaiting execution. Hundreds of Polish forced laborers from the surrounding area were rounded up and forced to watch the executions.
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Buchenwald_Slave_Laborers_Liberation.jpg

These are slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar; many had died from malnutrition when U.S. troops of the 80th Division entered the camp. The very ill man lying at the back on the lower bunk is Max Hamburger, who had TBC and severe malnutrition. He recovered and became a psychiatrist in the Netherlands. Second row, seventh from left is Elie Wiesel. Photograph taken 5 days after liberation.
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Concentration_camp_SS.jpg

Russian survivor liberated on 14 April 1945 by the U.S. Army in Buchenwald camp in Germany identified a former SS guard who was brutally beating prisoners and was probably involved in the crime of the Holocaust.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Port%C3%A3o_de_entrada_Buchenwald.jpg/1280px-Port%C3%A3o_de_entrada_Buchenwald.jpg

Gatehouse of Buchenwald concentration camp, whose clock shows the time 15:15, the moment of the liberation.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-u-s-army-liberates-buchenwald-concentration-camp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald_concentration_camp

Burgerking, Gullyslanarmaing, Kissassia, and Denolia

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