Number of deaths in Buchenwald
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The concentration camp Buchenwald was established in 1937, 10 kilometers from Weimar. The prisoners of the camp were Jews, political prisoners, religious prisoners and prisoners of war. They came from Russia, Poland, France, Germany, Austria and other countries.
The American army came to Buchenwald on 11 April 1945. In the days before, thousands of the prisoners were forced to join the evacuation marches.
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[edit] Causes of death in Buchenwald
One cause of the deaths in the concentration camp Buchenwald was illness due to the harsh conditions in the camp. Furthermore, many were murdered. The two primary methods of execution were shooting in the back of the head or hanging.
[edit] Number of deaths in Buchenwald[1]
The SS left behind accounts of the number of prisoners and people coming to the camp and leaving the camp, split into releases, transfers and deaths. This material is one of the sources to the estimation of the number of deaths in Buchenwald. According to the SS material, 33,462 died in Buchenwald. There are defects in the material left behind by the SS though. Among others, people executed before 1944 were posted as ”transferred to Gestapo”. Furthermore, from 1941 there were mass killings of Soviet prisoners of war. The prisoners arriving and determined for execution were not enlisted in the register of the camp, and are not included in the 33,462 dead according to the SS material.
One of the prisoners in Buchenwald, Armin Walter, has made a calculation of the number of executions by shooting in the back of the head [2]. As a prisoner in Buchenwald, he was instructed to connect and take care of a radio installation in the facilities, where people got shot in the back of the head. He counted the numbers, which came on telex and hid this information. He says that 8,483 Soviet prisoners of war were shot.
In "Buchenwald : Mahnung und Verpflichtung : Dokumente und Berichte" by Walter Bartel the number of deaths in Buchenwald is estimated at 56,545[3]. This number is the sum of:
- The number of deaths according to material left behind by SS: 33,462[4].
- Executions by shooting: 8,483.
- Executions by hanging (estimate): 1,100.
- Deaths during evacuation transports: 13,500[5].
This total (56,545) corresponds to a death rate of 24 percent assuming that the number of persons passing through the camp according to documents left by the SS, 238,979 prisoners, is accurate.
[edit] Deaths among the deported Danish policemen[6]
Out of the 1960 deported Danish policemen, which came to Buchenwald in late September and start of October 1944, 62 (3 %) died in Buchenwald. The reason that the death frequency was not as high as for other groups was that the policemen received packs from Danish Red Cross. Furthermore, the length of the stay was relatively short. On 16 December 1944, 1604 of the policemen got transferred to Mühlberg after having got status as prisoners of war.
[edit] References
- Walter Bartel: "Buchenwald : Mahnung und Verpflichtung : Dokumente und Berichte", published 1960.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The source is Walter Bartel: "Buchenwald : Mahnung und Verpflichtung : Dokumente und Berichte", published 1960.
- ^ The source is Walter Bartel: "Buchenwald : Mahnung und Verpflichtung : Dokumente und Berichte", published 1960.
- ^ Podcast with one of 2,000 Danish policemen in Buchenwald. Episode 6 is about statistics for the number of deaths in Buchenwald.
- ^ In this number are included dead in the satellite commands with the exception of women.
- ^ According to Bartel somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 prisoners died on the evacuation transports in March and April 1945.
- ^ "Helvede har mange navne." by Jørgen Barfod.
