Buchenwald

a fascist German concentration camp. It was established in the environs of Weimar in 1937 and was originally called Ettersburg. About 239,000 people were imprisoned in Buchenwald over a period of eight years. In the beginning the inmates were German antifascists but later, during World War II, they included many other nationalities. Many prisoners had already died during the camp’s construction, which was done only by manual labor. The prisoners were also ruthlessly exploited by owners of large industrial firms whose enterprises were located near Buchenwald, such as Siemens and Junkers. An especially large number of prisoners died in Dora, a branch of Buchenwald, where the V-l and V-2 missiles were manufactured underground. Inhuman living conditions, hunger, excessive work, and beatings resulted in mass deaths. About 10,000 prisoners were executed, including almost 8,500 Soviet prisoners of war. A total of 56,000 prisoners of 18 nationalities were tortured to death. E. Thälmann was brutally murdered by the Hitlerites in Buchenwald on Aug. 18, 1944. From the time Buchenwald was organized, an underground antifascist organization headed by communists began forming in the camp. In 1943 an international camp committee was set up, headed by the German communist W. Bartel. By early April 1945 the organization numbered 178 groups of three to five people each, including 56 Soviet groups. On Apr. 11, 1945, when the fascist German troops were being routed in World War II, the Buchenwald prisoners, headed by an international political center, raised a rebellion that resulted in the camp’s liquidation by the rebels. In 1958 a majestic complex of structures dedicated to the heroes and victims of Buchenwald was unveiled in Buchenwald.