Dossiers - Buchenwald Memorial

US soldiers in front of the camp gate. SS ammunition boxes can be seen in the right foreground.

The liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp Chronology

Historical overview of the events from the dawn of April 10 until April 19, 1945.

Liberated prisoners at the first memorial service for the dead of Buchenwald concentration camp. The temporary memorial for the dead can be seen in the background.

The Oath of Buchenwald On April 19, 1945

On behalf of the International Camp Committee, a group of Austrian, Dutch, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian inmates, which included Jewish survivors, organized a memorial ceremony on April 19, 1945, for those who had died in the camp.

View of the white camp gate with the inscription "To each his own" in red letters, which can be read from the inside

"To Each his Own" The inscription of the camp gate

The camp gate was designed to visually emphasize the line drawn by the SS between the Nazi "master race" and its "inferiors."

The picture shows a table with human specimens. On the far right is a lampshade made of human skin. To the left are pieces of tanned, tattooed human skin on the front of the table. At the back of the table, organs are displayed in preparation jars. A heart and a lung are clearly recognisable. Two shrunken heads can also be seen between the organ preparations.

Human remains - evidence of crimes In our collection

We deliberately do not show any human remains in our exhibitions, even though they are in our collection. These should actually be buried for humanitarian reasons. However, as they are also evidence of the National Socialist crimes committed in the...

Leaflet of the bicycle manufacturer Wanderer for the tour of Germany. In the upper part you can see the silhouettes of 5 cyclists racing each other. Below the inscription: "Deutschland-Rundfahrt 1937".

Cycling in Buchenwald Blog

The Deutschland Tour, an international cycling race with four daily stages, took place at the end of August 2021. The second stage leads on August 27 near the Buchenwald memorial over the Ettersberg and through Weimar.

View of a watchtower and the camp fence of the Buchenwald subcamp Ohrdruf. The watchtower looks provisional and reminds of a hunter's stand.

The Ohrdruf Subcamp 1944/45

The Ohrdruf subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp (code name: S III) was the first concentration camp to be liberated by Western Allied troops in 1945. The photos of the starved, shot and burned human bodies that the shocked soldiers of the 3rd U.S....

Emaciated liberated prisoners of the Little Camp talking to American soldiers. An emaciated shirtless former prisoner looks directly into the camera.

The 120th Evacuation Hospital U.S. veterans remember

Immediately after April 11, 1945, the U.S. Army began with the medical care of the completely emaciated former inmates. The memories of enlisted men serving in the 120th Evacuation Hospital provide insight into their experiences.

Group photo of liberated Dutch prisoners in front of a wooden barrack. Occasionally, some still wear prisoner clothing.

Dutch inmates Chronology and detainees

The Dutch King Willem-Alexander and his wife Máxima visited the Buchenwald Memorial in February 2017. On this occasion, an overview of the approximately 3,000 prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp from the Netherlands was compiled.