The Special Camps in Public Discourse (Since 1989/90)

With the political upheaval of 1989/90, the history of the Soviet Special Camps came to public attention. Former internees and their relatives began speaking out. They demanded research and dignified commemoration of this history.

The Buchenwald Memorial located the mass graves and turned them into cemeteries. In addition, a central place of mourning and an individual memorial site for the Special Camp were created.

Beginning in 1992/93, researchers were given access to the previously secret Special Camp files in the Russian State Archive (GARF) in Moscow. They evaluated the documents and used their findings for the first permanent exhibition on the Special Camps at the Buchenwald Memorial.

Since the 1990s, historical-political debates have dominated the discussion about the Special Camps. Various political currents have often distorted their history, failing to take a nuanced approach toward the internees’ biographies and reasons for imprisonment.

Metal steles in Graveyard I, undated. ©Buchenwald Memorial

In the early 1990s, employees of the Buchenwald Memorial, together with the Christian Youth Village Association of Germany (CJD), the Bundeswehr, and former Special Camp inmates, cleared the graveyards of vegetation. The memorial initially marked the individual grave sites with numbered wooden pegs before replacing them with steel steles in 1995/96.

A place for individual remembrance was also created at Graveyard I.

Memorial site opposite the permanent exhibition on the Special Camp, 2002. ©Gedenkstätte Buchenwald

The Buchenwald 1945-50 Initiative Group organized the “Buchenwald Meetings” for former internees and their relatives until 2023. For many years, the central location for these meetings has been the memorial site at the special camp exhibition building. Since 2024, the Buchenwald Memorial has continued to organize the event.

The inscription in front of the cross reads: “The dead of the Soviet Special Camp 1945–1950.

Memorial staff member Antje Wolf transferring the Soviet camp journal into a database, Weimar–Buchenwald, 1994. ©Buchenwald Memorial

The Special Camp files from the Russian archives were translated into German and their information was transferred to a database by memorial staff. This enabled research into individuals as well as statistical surveys, e.g. on the age or reasons for imprisonment of the camp inmates.

Opening of the permanent exhibition on the history of Soviet Special Camp No. 2 at the Buchenwald Memorial, May 25, 1997. ©Buchenwald Memorial

Between 1995 and 1997, staff at the Buchenwald Memorial developed a permanent exhibition on the history of Soviet Special Camp No. 2. It was opened in May 1997 opposite the burial ground. This made the findings of the research accessible to a wide audience.