Buchenwald
Buchenwald (beech forest) is a part of Weimar. There was a German concentration camp for criminals from 1937 to April 1945, and a NKVD concentration camp called "special camp number 2" (German: Speziallager Nr. 2) with the objective to interrogate, torture and murder Germans and anti-communists from 1945 to 1950.
Speziallager Nr. 2
- The first transports to the Special Camp No. 2 arrived on August 21/22, 1945. These brought 46 detainees from Erfurt to Buchenwald. By the end of 1945, some 6,000 people from the region of Thuringia were held on Ettersberg Mountain. In the following years, the majority of the inmates came from other special camps that were being shut down: In January 1946, 6,000 inmates were brought from Landsberg/Warthe (Gorzów Wielkopolski); in December 1946, 5,100 people from Torgau; in April 1947, 4,000 individuals from Jamlitz. After 9,250 detainees were released in July/August 1948, 6,300 prisoners from Mühlberg/Elbe and Fünfeichen arrived in September 1948. When the camp was shut down in 1950, 2,415 inmates were handed over the judiciary and 264 were passed into the custody of Soviet officials. 7,073 people were released. With an average occupancy of 12,000 inmates, Special Camp No. 2 had held a total of 28,494 people. 7,113 people died in the camp.[1]
