Soviet Special Camp No. 2 - Buchenwald Memorial

Map of the Allied internment camps in the four occupation zones

End of the War and Allied Internments 1945

With the surrender of the German Reich on May 8, 1945, World War II came to an end in Europe. Even while the war was still going on, the victorious powers agreed to the punishment of those responsible and means for providing security for the occupying...

Frontal view of a small back building at Arnstadt town hall in the high grass in front of it are piled up cobblestones

Soviet Arrests and Internments Arrest Categories

In January 1945, the Soviet Army reached the German Reich. The Soviet Minister of the Interior, Lavrentiy Beria, had the area behind the lines of advancing troop secured by means of arrests. A Beria order of 18 April 1945 established arrest categories.

Twenty-five names are written one below the other in Cyrillic script. To the right are dates of birth some names are crossed out by hand.

Establishment of the Soviet Special Camp No. 2 A total of 28,494 people interned

The first transports to the Special Camp No. 2 arrived on August 21/22, 1945. These brought 46 detainees from Erfurt to Buchenwald. By the end of 1945, some 6,000 people from the region of Thuringia were held on Ettersberg Mountain.

First page of the camp journal for the special camp. A handwritten, closely written table in Cyrillic script.

The Make-up of the Inmate's Society The Majority Are Men between 40 and 60 Years of Age

Most of the men were between 40 and 60 years old, and over half of them had been local NSDAP functionaries (block and cell leaders). A number of them had been members of the police, Gestapo, or SS. In addition, numerous people were arrested who had not...

Blue and red officer's cap Cap of a NKVD captain. In front is a red star with sickle and mutton.

Administration and Custody No More than 200 Soviet Soldiers

The administration of the camp was the responsibility of the NKVD/MVD. The first commander was captain Fyodor J. Matuskov. Major Konstantin P. Andrejev was put in charge in 1947. Members of the secret services (operative groups) were responsible for...

Plan of Special Camp No. 2. At the bottom right, the area of the former SS barracks arranged in a semicircle, but only part of it, forming a quarter circle, and the other functional buildings. Further to the center of the picture and occupying the whole remaining area, the prisoners' area with 6 longer rows of barracks and other buildings. At the top left are larger open areas. Outside around the camp fence with marked watchtowers.

Layout of the Camp Each of the Barracks Was Surrounded by a Fence

Special Camp No. 2 was set up in a portion of the remaining buildings from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. It did not make use of the crematorium, the Gustloff-Werke II, or the barracks of the Little Camp. A few new buildings were constructed.

Transports to the Soviet Union From Buchenwald to Karaganda

On 8 February 1947, the camp administration sent 1,086 internees from Buchenwald to the city of Karaganda in Kazakhstan, almost 5,000 kilometres away. There they were housed in prisoner-of-war camps.

A drawing with the heading Kitchen. Behind open doors, people are working at troughs. In front of it, others carry open barrels in pairs.

Hunger and Disease Inadequate Provisions

At the beginning of November 1946, the supply rations were cut to the lowest category of the non-working civilian population. A sharp increase in mortality was the result: more than half of the total number of people who died in Special Camp 2 died of...

A yellowish paper with a handwritten table in Cyrillic script.

Death and the Treatment of the Dead 7,113 Dead

Between 1945 and 1950, 7,113 people died in Buchenwald, more than three quarters of them during the hunger winter of 1946/47. A burial detail buried the dead in two areas north of the camp. The relatives were not notified.

Brightly shining steel stelae in the forest cemetery mark anonymous collective graves from the time of the Soviet special camp

Taboo and Late Re-examination Before and after 1990

Since 1990, the Buchenwald Memorial has been working on the previously taboo history of the Soviet special camp. Aspects of the camp's history were dealt with in discussion groups with former camp inmates.