Opening Hours Practical Info What is where? Apps Public Tours further language offers Accessibility FAQ

CONFRONTING THE PERPETRATORS

Liberated prisoners with a captured SS man in civilian clothes (probably the former Report and Labour Service Leader, Hermann Hofschulte) at the gate building, after 14 April 1945. Unknown photographer ©National Archives at College Park, Maryland

The Frenchman Michel Julien describes the SS men who were captured by liberated prisoners and detained in Block 17, the former quarantine block:


“I walk past Block 17, the transit block [...]. Captured SS men walk back and forth behind the barbed wire, some slowly, others nervously, they all avoid looking at the gawkers. Some insults are hurled, some calls to kill are uttered. But most of the now former prisoners stare at the imprisoned men and appear not to understand the new situation: themselves, the barbed wire, the SS men.”


Michel Julien, Souvenirs de Captivité (unveröffentlichter Bericht), 1984. Buchenwald memorial

1/7
Two officers of the American War Crimes Investigating Team 6822 interrogate an SS man in Berga/Elster, 8 June 1945. The detainee was a member of the camp’s guard staff in Berga/Elster, a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. Photo: Robert H. Wescott ©National Archives at College Park, Maryland
2/7
An SS man beaten to death in Buchenwald, after 11 April 1945. Two SS symbols were painted on the dead man’s chest. Photo: Glenn L. Runyon ©United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
3/7
The 31 defendants of the main Buchenwald trial in Dachau, 16 April 1947. In subsequent trials, another 31 individuals were charged with crimes committed in Buchenwald concentration camp. Photo: John M. Chambers (U.S. Signal Corps) ©National Archives at College Park, Maryland
4/7
Former camp commandant Hermann Pister on trial, April 1947. Pister was arrested with other SS men in a prisonerof-war camp in Bavaria in June 1945. Photo: U.S. Signal Corps ©National Archives at College Park, Maryland
5/7
Buchenwald survivor Kurt Sitte identifies pieces of tattooed human skin that were collected as evidence in Buchenwald, 16 April 1947. Photo: Dean L. Dennis (U.S. Signal Corps) ©National Archives at College Park, Maryland
6/7
The defendant Ilse Koch, wife of the first camp commandant Karl Otto Koch, in front of a map of Buchenwald concentration camp, 6 July 1947. Photos: Dean L. Dennis (U.S. Signal Corps) ©National Archives at College Park, Maryland
7/7
The defendant Hermann Großmann at the sentencing hearing, 14 August 1947. In the main Buchenwald trial, 22 of the 31 defendants were sentenced to death by the American military judges. Only half of the death sentences were carried out. Photo: Dean L. Dennis (U.S. Signal Corps) ©National Archives at College Park, Maryland

On 11 April 1945 and the following days, liberated prisoners captured several dozen SS men who had fled or hid in the vicinity of the camp. Exactly how many were caught is not known. In some cases, revenge immediately was taken. The International Camp Committee handed the prisoners over to the U.S. Army. American investigation teams documented evidence of the crimes at the site, collected witness statements and drew up wanted lists. They also secured three tons of documents from the SS camp administration. Their work formed the basis for the trials that American military tribunals conducted two years later in Dachau against SS personnel from Buchenwald.


var _paq = window._paq = window._paq || []; /* tracker methods like "setCustomDimension" should be called before "trackPageView" */ _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="https://matomo.buchenwald.de/"; _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'matomo.php']); _paq.push(['setSiteId', '1']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.async=true; g.src=u+'matomo.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })();