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Buchenwald (Germania : campo di concentramento)   Cerca

Definizione

Built in the summer of 1937 near Weimar, the Buchenwald concentration camp opened July 15, 1937. It grew to include over 88 satellite and auxiliary camps. Buchenwald's commandants were Karl Koch (1937-1941) and Hermann Pister (1942-1945). The first group of inmates, 149 political prisoners and criminals, arrived July 15, 1937. Other groups soon followed; by the end of the year the camp held over 2,000 prisoners. By October 1938, approximately 10,000 prisoners were held in Buchenwald. In 1938, after the November Pogrom ("Kristallnacht"), almost 10,000 Jews were sent to the camp, but most were released by the end of the year, leaving the camp with a population of 11,000. The number of prisoners continued to grow. By the end of 1944, there were 63,048 inmates; the number rose to 112,000 by February 1945. Due to the approaching Soviet army, the SS evacuated prisoners from concentration and labor camps in the East towards camps in the west. Buchenwald became one of the destinations. In January, prisoners from the Tschenstochau, Auschwitz and Gross Rosen camps arrived in Buchenwald. In April, Pister ordered the evacuation of Buchenwald and thousands were sent on to the Mittelbau, Dachau and Flossenbürg concentration camps as well as to the Theresienstadt ghetto. As American troops approached the camp on April 11, the SS fled; approximately 21,000 prisoners were liberated in the camp. (en-US)

Fonte

Hackett, David A. The Buchwald report. Translated, edited, and with an introduction by David A. Hackett. Westview Press. Boulder, 1995.

Termini più generici

• campi nazisti in Germania