The so-called Special Camp 2 Buchenwald, established in August 1945, was one of the altogether ten camps and three prisons located in the Soviet-occupied zone
and used by the occupying power for the internment of Germans.
The Soviet Security Service took charge of the still-existing structural facilities
of Buchenwald Concentration Camp and initially committed persons from the region.
By the end of 1945, the number of internees had increased to nearly 6,000. According
to the research undertaken to date, this number included: a small group of major
perpetrators of Nazi crimes, a larger number of low- and medium-ranking functionaries
of the NSDAP (i), the Nazi state and the economy, a group of Hitler Youth leaders
and members, members of the Armed SS (i), members of the police force and officers
of the Wehrmacht (i), as well as a large number of persons committed to the camp
on the basis of denunciations, confusions of identity and arbitrary arrests.
Of the altogether 28,455 persons (official Soviet number) imprisoned in Special
Camp 2 between August 1945 and February 1950, 1,000 were women. According to
the research results obtained to date, the proportion of persons interned on
grounds of opposition to the occupying power and the political order emerging
in the eastern occupied zone remained small. The camp population was repeatedly
replenished with transports from other internment camps upon the dissolution
of the latter. The number of inmates in Special Camp 2 reached its peak at 16,371
in the spring of 1947. Some 1,500 persons were sent to the USSR, primarily for
labour deployment.
The Soviet camp administration consisted of the nachalnik (chief), his deputy,
a commander, a so-called operative group in charge of surveillance and interrogations
and a relatively small guard troop. The inmates themselves were responsible
for the everyday internal workings of the camp, as well as for providing a large
proportion of the urgently needed medical care. A set of camp regulations was
in effect. Not even minimal privileges such as contact with family members by
mail or visitation were granted. No effort was made to determine the extent
of the individual inmate's guilt.
While physical abuse in the hands of the Soviet security forces had often accompanied
the arrest and interrogation of an inmate, it rarely occurred during everyday
life in the camp. The internees suffered from cramped conditions, vermin and
cold. In addition to tuberculosis and dystrophy, skin diseases and oedemas were
rampant due to the poor hygienic conditions. Depression was brought about by
complete isolation from the outside world, the lack of occupation and of prospects
for the future, and was one of the frequent psychiatric disorders which accelerated
physical collapse. Hunger and isolation were the primary characteristics of
everyday life. The temporary reduction of the meagre rations in the winter of
1946–47, when the state of nutrition in Special Camp 2 was at its worst, led
to mass death.
The conditions of life in the Soviet special camps (i) were nothing short of disastrous
in certain phases, accounting for the high mortality rate. According to official
Soviet documents, 7,113 persons died in Special Camp 2 Buchenwald. They were
buried in mass graves, their families receiving no notification of death.
The largest wave of releases took place in July / August 1948. The dissolution
of the camp began on January 16, 1950 and was concluded a month later. Of the
persons still interned at the time, 2,415 were turned over to the judicial system
of the GDR (i) to be condemned in the notorious "Waldheim Trials (i);" the
rest were discharged. |
