Establishment of the Soviet Special Camp No. 2

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. — 1/2

First delivery list of prisoners to Special Camp No. 2, 21.8.1945.

©GARF, Moskau

Aerial view from high altitude of the Buchenwald camp site, June 1945. Top left, ten slightly curved rows of barracks side by side with other buildings in a clearly defined area. This is the prisoners' camp. Next to it, arranged in the form of a semicircle, the SS barracks. The area is surrounded by forest. — 2/2

Aerial view of the camp grounds in Buchenwald, 1945. ©Buchenwald Memorial

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. In the following years, the majority of the inmates came from other special camps that were being shut down: In January 1946, 6,000 inmates were brought from Landsberg/Warthe (Gorzów Wielkopolski); in December 1946, 5,100 people from Torgau; in April 1947, 4,000 individuals from Jamlitz. After 9,250 detainees were released in July/August 1948, 6,300 prisoners from Mühlberg/Elbe and Fünfeichen arrived in September 1948.

When the camp was shut down in 1950, 2,415 inmates were handed over the judiciary and 264 were passed into the custody of Soviet officials. 7,073 people were released. With an average occupancy of 12,000 inmates, Special Camp No. 2 had held a total of 28,494 people. 7,113 people died in the camp.