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LEAVING THE CAMP

A group of survivors, probably French, on the roll call square before their departure, around 24 April 1945. The first group of French survivors had left Buchenwald a week after liberation. They were the first to be officially repatriated. Photo: Thérèse Bonney ©The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

The Frenchman Jean Puissant describes the moment of his departure from Buchenwald:


“The next evening, 20 April 1945, as we were preparing a hearty meal in our charming little room, the sound of engines under our windows, squealing brakes, shouting, trampling and screaming made us poke our heads outside. As soon as we reached the doorstep, someone called out to us: ‘Do you want to come? We still have room. Hurry up!’ We didn’t need to be asked twice. Conversy and I, with our small bundle in hand, were heaved onto the inside of a high truck covered with a tarpaulin where a dozen of our comrades were already seated on chairs. Fanatical frenzy, smoke and an acrid smell of petrol. The truck started to move.”


Jean Puissant, La colline sans oiseaux, Paris 2017 [Paris 1945]

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Belgian survivors in the inner courtyard of Block 50, shortly before their departure from Buchenwald, after 11 April 1945. Photo: Gérard Raphaël Algoet ©CegeSoma, Brüssel
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Members of a U.S. Army medical unit bring critically ill Belgian survivors to Nohra airfield near Weimar, 27 April 1945. The repatriation of Belgians began in late April 1945 and was usually conducted by airplane. Photo: François-Louis Ganshof ©Buchenwald Memorial
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Survivors from the Soviet Union on “Caracho Path” about to leave Buchenwald, probably May 1945. Unknown photographer ©Dartmouth College, Hanover / New Hampshire
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Survivors depart from Buchenwald station, 5 June 1945. Photo: James E. Myers (U.S. Signal Corps) ©National Archives at College Park, Maryland
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Czech survivors on their way back to their home countries, May 1945. Unknown photographer ©Buchenwald Memorial
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Buchenwald survivors travelling back to Munich, after 11 April 1945. The German survivors usually had to organise their own transport home. Photo: Yoichi R. Okamoto ©Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
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Dutch survivors of Buchenwald waiting at a junction in Arnhem to continue their journey home, June 1945. The return journey often took place in several stages and with various means of transport. Photo: Pieter Johannes de Booijs ©Gelders Archief, Arnhem, AhGldA 1533-1113

The survivors who were physically able to leave the camp wanted to return home as quickly as possible. Most Western Europeans left in the second half of April, often accompanied by aid organisations from their home countries. For the others, repatriation did not begin until after the war ended on 8 May 1945. The last survivors, mainly from Poland and Yugoslavia, left Buchenwald in August 1945. However, not everyone who left was able to return to their homeland. Jewish survivors in particular often spent years in reception camps, searching for surviving relatives and a new home.


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