Liberated inmates at the first memorial service for the dead of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. In the background is the temporary monument to the dead, April 19, 1945. Photo: Donald R. Ornitz, U.S. Signal Corps. National Archives Washington

19 April 1945

At a memorial service for the victims of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, a survivors’ pledge is read out: the Oath of Buchenwald: “We will take up the fight until the last culprit stands before the judges of the people. Our watchword is the destruction of Nazism from its roots. Our goal is to build a new world of peace and freedom.” More than 400 inmates have died since the camp’s liberation.

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