Buchenwald concentration camp

Buchenwald ( German pronunciation: [ˈbuːxn̩valt]; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territories. Many actual or suspected communists were among the first internees.

The Nazi camp prisoners came from all over Europe and the Soviet Union, and included Jews, Poles and other Slavs, Roma, the mentally ill and physically disabled, political prisoners, Freemasons, and prisoners of war. There were also ordinary criminals and those perceived as sexual deviants by the Nazi regime. All prisoners were primarily subjected to forced labor in local armaments factories. The insufficient food and poor conditions, as well as deliberate executions, led to 56,545 deaths at Buchenwald out of the 280,000 prisoners who passed through the camp and its 139 subcamps.