Between 1945 and 1950, nearly 28,500 people were held in Special Camp No. 2 Buchenwald. 7,113 of them died in the camp.
The majority of the internees were German men between the ages of 40 and 60. Approximately 1,300 inmates were younger than 21. Just under 150 camp inmates did not have German citizenship. The camp population also included 800 interned women. A few small children came to Special Camp No. 2 with their mothers or were born there. They were not included in the camp statistics.
Most of the internees were arrested in 1945 and in the spring of 1946. The Soviet secret service often accused them of being members of the NSDAP and holding low-level party positions. However, former members of the police and employees of local administrations were also interned. Individual guilt did not necessarily have to correspond to the accusations. Even those who had been denounced innocently ended up in the special camps.
Archival materials and personal documents make it possible to trace the biographies of many of the inmates of the special camp, at least in part. The exhibition presents ten exemplary life stories. Their selection is not representative of the proportion of individual age groups and the reasons for imprisonment mentioned in the entire camp community.
