Buchenwald

On April 4, 1945, the US 89th Infantry Division under the command of General George Patton overran Ohrdruf, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. It was the first Nazi camp liberated by US troops. On April 11, Buchenwald was liberated by the Allies. Shortly afterwards, General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the camp. In his report from that day, Eisenhower described scenes that horrified him. US President Barack Obama’s great uncle, Charlie Payne, was a member of the 89th Infantry Division who liberated the camp.

The Buchenwald concentration camp was established by the Nazis in 1937, just seven kilometers away from the city of Weimar, once home to Goethe and Schiller. At the end of the war, it was the largest Nazi camp in Germany. Around 250,000 people from 36 countries were brought there and around 56,000 prisoners died in the camp or were murdered.

On April 2, shortly before the camp was liberated, the Nazis began a mass evacuation of prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp and its sub-camps. More than 30,000 prisoners were forcibly marched from the camp, away from the advancing American forces. About 8,000 died during the march. Before the march began, the Nazis burnt down the barracks and the SS shot dead between 60 and 70 prisoners who were too weak to start the march.

When Buchenwald was liberated on April 11, 1945, the US soldiers uncovered shocking scenes and evidence of the camp’s brutality. They found bodies of starved and exhausted victims as well as emaciated survivors. The starving man in the foreground of this photo is a Hungarian Jew.

This April 16, 1945 photo shows inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp inside their barracks, a few days after US troops liberated the camp. The young man seventh from the left in the middle row bunk is Elie Wiesel, who would later become an author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Today, the remnants of the camp serve as a memorial. Each year, around 600,000 people visit the site.