The Final Months

The air strike on the armament factory at the camp and the SS complex on August 24, 1944, marked a turning point and the beginning of the final phase of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The camp became a destination for clearance transports from dismantled prison camps in western and eastern Europe. The murderous clearance of the Auschwitz and Groß-Rosen concentration camps took place in early 1945. Among the thousands of inmates arriving in Buchenwald, hundreds died along the way. With over 110,000 registered inmates in late February 1945, Buchwald together with its subcamps was the largest still existing concentration camp. A third of the men and women were Jewish inmates. The so-called "Little Camp" in Buchenwald developed into a death zone in the last few months before liberation. Between January and April 1945, 6,000 inmates died in that portion of the camp alone. With the children's block 66, it was, however, simultaneously a place where hundreds of children and youth were saved.