LIBERATION OF BUCHENWALD

Chapter 12

from Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen, most of them Jews, arrived in Buchenwald in January 1945. In early April 1945, as American forces approached the camp, the Germans began to evacuate some 28,000 prisoners from the main camp and an additional 10,000 prisoners from subcamps of Buchenwald. The Germans were known to evacuate thousands of prisoners, prior to the Allied Forces arriving, in gruesome “death marches” where the majority of prisoners would die in transport or were simply killed and buried in unknown mass graves if time permitted. At Buchenwald, many children hid and fled in underground holes within the camp to avoid being taken on the death marches. About a third of the Buchenwald prisoners died from exhaustion en route or shortly after arrival from the death marches or were shot by the SS. Some were loaded on trains, sent to other concentration camps such as Dachau, and were never seen again. It was reported that almost 30,000 people died or were killed in the last few months of Buchenwald. However, many lives were saved by the Buchenwald “resistance” right before the Americans liberated the camp. The Buchenwald resistance were prisoners and members that held key administrative posts in the camp that were operating secretly within the camp waiting for the day to escape or a chance at liberating the camp when Allied Forces were close enough. When they heard the Americans were getting close to Buchenwald, they obstructed Nazi orders and delayed the evacuation. On April 11, 1945, starved and emaciated prisoners and resistance members stormed the watchtowers, seizing control of the camp. This underground prisoner organization seized control of Buchenwald to prevent further atrocities by the retreating German SS camp guards.

In a little more detail, the research identified that the Buchenwald resistance members were known as the International Camp Committee led by communists and they were prepared to greet U.S. forces. They were listening clandestinely to radio reports and the inmates realized the Americans were close. The members of the resistance had a secret short-wave transmitter and small generator built and hidden. On April 8, 1945 at noon, two of the prisoners sent a Morse code message to the nearby Allied Forces in English, German, and Russian. The message stated

“To the Allies. To the army of General Patton. This is the Buchenwald concentration camp. SOS. We request help. They want to evacuate us. The SS want to destroy us.” The message was repeated several times. Luckily enough, the Americans did receive it. The resistance had done everything they could do to hinder the evacuation. The Morse coded message was their last hope. Not long after, the resistance intercepted a message from German high command that they were sending explosives to blow up all evidence of the camp including all of the prisoners. The resistance, posing as German SS soldiers responded that it was too late and the remaining German SS guards had already fled.

When the last of the German SS fled late in the morning of April 11, 1945, the prisoners distributed weapons long hidden from the Germans (including rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades) and took control of the watchtowers. A white flag was hoisted. In the adjacent woods, inmates now armed captured more than 70 German SS men. Later that afternoon, American forces entered Buchenwald. Soldiers from the Third U.S. Army Division found more than 20,000 people in the camp, 4,000 of them Jews. With the camp now secured, American personnel had the opportunity to observe and finally understand the depth of the terrors the Nazis implemented. They discovered that everything that was being reported by the prisoners was true, accurate, and more than anyone could have imagined.

With the help form the prisoners, American soldiers were able to pinpoint the scattered sites of years of murder and executions and photographed the six ovens in the camp’s crematorium, with human remains still present. The American soldiers discovered the horrors found in the various buildings and found hundreds of dead bodies stacked like firewood in open view all around the camp. There were even carts loaded with dead bodies stacked with firewood just sitting out in the open. The colossal tasks of documenting and communicating what had occurred in Buchenwald had only just begun for American investigators who ultimately shared the information to the world. The real evil that was occurring at Nazi concentration camps was finally confirmed.

Lengendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow was one of those who came to the camp immediately after liberation, arriving on April 12, 1945. Three days later, he sent a broadcast to audiences in the United States a description of what he encountered, a broadcast prefaced with strong warnings about the extreme content therin. These words have become famous. Murrow stated, “This is Edward R. Murrow. Permit me to tell you what you would have seen, and heard, had you been with me on Thursday. It will not be pleasant listening. If you are at lunch, or if you have no appetite to hear what Germans have done, now