Buchenwald

 

History

    Buchenwald was located five miles north of Weimar, and at its peak consisted of 130 satellite camps and extension units. The camp was established on July 19, 1937, with 149 prisoners from the Sachsenburg concentration camp. It was originally named Ettersberg; but since this name was famous from the writings of Goethe and Schiller, Himmler changed the name to Buchenwald.  As of 1943, following the completion of armament factories in the vicinity of the camp, the number of prisoners grew steadily: to 63,408 by the end of 1944 and to 86,232 in February, 1945. In its eight years of existence, a total of 238,980 prisoners passed through Buchenwald and its satellite; of these, 43,405 were killed or perished there. The camp was one of the largest labor-exploitation centers in Europe, with factories owned by, among others, Farben, Siemens and Krupp. In 1944 alone, the SS made over 6.5 million marks from the Buchenwald labor hired out to the arms industry.

    The isolation wards of Buchenwald were the home of some of the worst medical experiments conducted in the concentration camps.  These experiments were done with the participation of many of Germany's leading chemical companies.  Among the tests conducted on inmates were those involving typhus, yellow fever, smallpox, chemical warfare agents and poisoned ammunition.

   The Germans began evacuation of the camp on April 6, 1945.  Over 25,000 prisoners died during the evacuation.  The camp was liberated on April 11, 1945, at which time there were about 21,000 prisoners, including 4,000 Jews and 1,000 children.

Philatelic Materials

        Main Camps

        Subcamps

               Altenburg

               Aschersleben

               Berga/Elster

               Gelsenkirchen

               Giessen

               Kassel

             Meuselwitz

               Ohrdruf

               Rottleberode

               Sonnenberg

               Weimar

References

Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-Rom Edition, Keter Publishing

Erik Lordahl, German Concentration Camps 1933-1945, History and Inmate Mail (2000).  Referred to as Lordahl.

Feig, Hitlers Death Camps (1979) 

Hackett, The Buchenwald Report, (1995)

Copyright © 2001 Edward Victor