11 April 1945 A.D. WEIMAR, GERMANY: US 3rd Army Liberates Buchenwald Concentration Camp
11 April 1945 A.D. WEIMAR, GERMANY: US 3rd Army Liberate Buchenwald Concentration Camp
1945 – American Third Army liberates the
Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, a camp that will be judged
second only to Auschwitz in the horrors it imposed on its prisoners. As
American forces closed in on the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, 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. What the Gestapo did not know was that the camp administrators had
already fled in fear of the Allies. A prisoner answered the phone and informed
headquarters that explosives would not be needed, as the camp had already been
blown up, which, of course, was not true. The camp held thousands of prisoners,
mostly slave laborers. There were no gas chambers, but hundreds, sometimes
thousands, died monthly from disease, malnutrition, beatings, and executions.
Doctors performed medical experiments on inmates, testing the effects of viral
infections and vaccines. 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.
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