Garske

English Period: 5

12/2/2020

The Unhuman Treatments in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp

While the horrifying event of World War II, incent Jews where being taken to one of the camps that the Germans had made for prisoners and slaves, the Buchenwald's concentration camp where they kept the Jews. The things that they would do to them in the Buchenwald concentration camp where so unhuman because of how they treated the Jews, the Germans made the Jews go through a lot of painful things that now one should ever experience in their life. In the Buchenwald concentration camp, a lot of people died because of the lack of food or because they worked so much, and the SS authorities would often even kill them by shooting them or hanging them. That is why it was important to talk about this, because everyone should know what happened in this concentration camp and what the Jews had to go through because of the war and because of their race, at the end of the day everyone is human so everyone should treat each other the same.

To show everyone what happened in this camp I have organized my paper into four main sections, the first section I provide the readers with the information of how they forced the slaves to work nonstop. For the second section I provide the readers with information of how many people were sent there, how many people died there, and how many people survived in there, I end with the third section where I am going to talk about how the Jews where liberated from the Buchenwald

concentration camp and with the fourth section, where I am going to be discussing about the experiments they would do to the prisoners in that camp, Gomez 2

I also need to make a historical context.

Historical context

The Buchenwald concentration camp was one of the largest concentration camps that where in the German borders in 1937, The Buchenwald camp was also constructed in 1937 in a wooded area on the northern slopes of the Ettersberg, about five miles northwest of Weimar in east-central Germany, this camp was also for only men until late 1943 when they started to allow woman.

Forced labor. The Buchenwald concentration camp was a concentration camp that was for only men and it was meant for many things, between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites including ghettos. The perpetrators used these locations for a range of purposes, including forced labor, detention of people deemed to be “enemies of the state," and mass murder. They kept the prisoners in there and forced them to do hard labor, During World War II, the Buchenwald camp system became an important source of forced labor. The prisoner population expanded rapidly, reaching 112,000 by February 1945. The camp authorities deployed Buchenwald prisoners in the German Equipment Works, an enterprise owned and operated by the SS in camp workshops and in the camp's stone quarry. In February 1942, the Gustloff firm established a subcamp of Buchenwald to support its armaments works, and in March 1943 opened a large munitions plant adjacent to the camp. A rail siding completed in 1943 connected the camp with the freight yards in

Weimar, facilitating the shipment of war supplies.

Population. Most of the early inmates at Buchenwald were political prisoners. However, in 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, German SS and police Gomez 3

sent almost 10,000 Jews to Buchenwald where the camp authorities subjected them to extraordinarily cruel treatment upon arrival. 255 of them died as a result of their initial

mistreatment at the camp. Jews and political prisoners were not the only groups within the Buchenwald prisoner population, although the political, given their long-term presence at the site, played an important role in the camp's prisoner infrastructure. The SS also interned repeat criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma Gypsies, and German military deserters at Buchenwald. Buchenwald was one of the only concentration camps that held so-called “work-shy” individuals, persons that the regime incarcerated as asocials because they could not, or would not, find gainful employment. In the camp's later stages, the SS also incarcerated prisoners of war of various nations including the United States, resistance fighters, prominent former government officials of German occupied countries, and foreign forced laborers. But at the end the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated, and 21,000 prisoners survived, after all of that and so many deaths they let them go.

Liberation of Buchenwald. As Soviet forces swept through Poland, the Germans evacuated thousands of concentration camp prisoners from German-occupied areas under threat. After long brutal marches more than 10,000 weak and exhausted prisoners from Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen, most of them Jews, arrived in Buchenwald in January 1945. In early April 1945, as US forces approached the camp, the Germans began to evacuate some 28,000 prisoners from the main camp and an additional several thousand prisoners from the subcamps of Buchenwald. About a third of these prisoners died from exhaustion en route or shortly after arrival, or were shot by the SS. The underground resistance organization in Buchenwald, whose members held key administrative posts in the camp, saved many lives. They obstructed Nazi orders and delayed the evacuation. On April 11, 1945, in expectation of liberation, starved and emaciated prisoners stormed the watchtowers, seizing control of the camp. Later that afternoon, US forces entered Buchenwald. Soldiers from the 6th Armored Division, part of the Third Army found more than 21,000 Gomez 4

people in the camp.

Medical Experiments of Buchenwald. Beginning in 1941, several physicians and scientists carried out a program of medical experimentation on prisoners at Buchenwald in special barracks in the northern part of the main camp. Medical experiments aimed at testing the efficacy of vaccines and treatments against contagious diseases such as typhus, typhoid, cholera, and diphtheria resulted in hundreds of deaths. In 1944, Danish physician Dr. Carl Vaernet began a series of experiments that he claimed would cure homosexual inmates through hormonal transplants. Also, From December 1943 until October 1944, experiments were conducted at the Buchenwald concentration camp to test the effects of chemical poisons on humans. The poison was administered to subjects in their food. Most victims died quickly or were killed so their organs could be examined postmortem. Beginning in September 1944, subjects were shot with poison-laced bullets to test their effect on humans. Most died as a result of the poison or from the wounds.

Conclusion. This is the story of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and all the unhuman and evil things that happened in there to the prisoners and the Jews who did not disserve such treatments. It was necessary for everyone to know what happened there because this story is very sad and real, I wouldn’t even know what to do if I was in the position, they only gave the prisoners bread and coffee, that was their only rations, and they had to survive with that every day, only with that amount of food they still had to work all day. The SS from there where so cruel that they would punish them for no reason sometimes, The SS authorities did anything they wanted to the prisoners

because they were slaves, and their lives did not matter to them in any way, they just wanted them to work, and they would often just kill them. Therefore, Gomez 5

I thought everyone should have knowledge of what happened in this terrifying camp, those slaves had to go through a lot and at the end a some survived and got to live because of the liberation.

WORKS CITED PAGE

©2020 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. https://www.britannica.com/place/Buchenwald

100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1933-1938/buchenwald-concentration-camp-opens

© 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern) https://www.theguardian.com/world/1945/apr/18/secondworldwar.germany

Garske

English Period: 5

12/2/2020

The Unhuman Treatments in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp

While the horrifying event of World War II, incent Jews where being taken to one of the camps that the Germans had made for prisoners and slaves, the Buchenwald's concentration camp where they kept the Jews. The things that they would do to them in the Buchenwald concentration camp where so unhuman because of how they treated the Jews, the Germans made the Jews go through a lot of painful things that now one should ever experience in their life. In the Buchenwald concentration camp, a lot of people died because of the lack of food or because they worked so much, and the SS authorities would often even kill them by shooting them or hanging them. That is why it was important to talk about this, because everyone should know what happened in this concentration camp and what the Jews had to go through because of the war and because of their race, at the end of the day everyone is human so everyone should treat each other the same.

To show everyone what happened in this camp I have organized my paper into four main sections, the first section I provide the readers with the information of how they forced the slaves to work nonstop. For the second section I provide the readers with information of how many people were sent there, how many people died there, and how many people survived in there, I end with the third section where I am going to talk about how the Jews where liberated from the Buchenwald

concentration camp and with the fourth section, where I am going to be discussing about the experiments they would do to the prisoners in that camp, Gomez 2

I also need to make a historical context.

Historical context

The Buchenwald concentration camp was one of the largest concentration camps that where in the German borders in 1937, The Buchenwald camp was also constructed in 1937 in a wooded area on the northern slopes of the Ettersberg, about five miles northwest of Weimar in east-central Germany, this camp was also for only men until late 1943 when they started to allow woman.

Forced labor. The Buchenwald concentration camp was a concentration camp that was for only men and it was meant for many things, between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites including ghettos. The perpetrators used these locations for a range of purposes, including forced labor, detention of people deemed to be “enemies of the state," and mass murder. They kept the prisoners in there and forced them to do hard labor, During World War II, the Buchenwald camp system became an important source of forced labor. The prisoner population expanded rapidly, reaching 112,000 by February 1945. The camp authorities deployed Buchenwald prisoners in the German Equipment Works, an enterprise owned and operated by the SS in camp workshops and in the camp's stone quarry. In February 1942, the Gustloff firm established a subcamp of Buchenwald to support its armaments works, and in March 1943 opened a large munitions plant adjacent to the camp. A rail siding completed in 1943 connected the camp with the freight yards in

Weimar, facilitating the shipment of war supplies.

Population. Most of the early inmates at Buchenwald were political prisoners. However, in 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, German SS and police Gomez 3

sent almost 10,000 Jews to Buchenwald where the camp authorities subjected them to extraordinarily cruel treatment upon arrival. 255 of them died as a result of their initial

mistreatment at the camp. Jews and political prisoners were not the only groups within the Buchenwald prisoner population, although the political, given their long-term presence at the site, played an important role in the camp's prisoner infrastructure. The SS also interned repeat criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma Gypsies, and German military deserters at Buchenwald. Buchenwald was one of the only concentration camps that held so-called “work-shy” individuals, persons that the regime incarcerated as asocials because they could not, or would not, find gainful employment. In the camp's later stages, the SS also incarcerated prisoners of war of various nations including the United States, resistance fighters, prominent former government officials of German occupied countries, and foreign forced laborers. But at the end the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated, and 21,000 prisoners survived, after all of that and so many deaths they let them go.

Liberation of Buchenwald. As Soviet forces swept through Poland, the Germans evacuated thousands of concentration camp prisoners from German-occupied areas under threat. After long brutal marches more than 10,000 weak and exhausted prisoners from Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen, most of them Jews, arrived in Buchenwald in January 1945. In early April 1945, as US forces approached the camp, the Germans began to evacuate some 28,000 prisoners from the main camp and an additional several thousand prisoners from the subcamps of Buchenwald. About a third of these prisoners died from exhaustion en route or shortly after arrival, or were shot by the SS. The underground resistance organization in Buchenwald, whose members held key administrative posts in the camp, saved many lives. They obstructed Nazi orders and delayed the evacuation. On April 11, 1945, in expectation of liberation, starved and emaciated prisoners stormed the watchtowers, seizing control of the camp. Later that afternoon, US forces entered Buchenwald. Soldiers from the 6th Armored Division, part of the Third Army found more than 21,000 Gomez 4

people in the camp.

Medical Experiments of Buchenwald. Beginning in 1941, several physicians and scientists carried out a program of medical experimentation on prisoners at Buchenwald in special barracks in the northern part of the main camp. Medical experiments aimed at testing the efficacy of vaccines and treatments against contagious diseases such as typhus, typhoid, cholera, and diphtheria resulted in hundreds of deaths. In 1944, Danish physician Dr. Carl Vaernet began a series of experiments that he claimed would cure homosexual inmates through hormonal transplants. Also, From December 1943 until October 1944, experiments were conducted at the Buchenwald concentration camp to test the effects of chemical poisons on humans. The poison was administered to subjects in their food. Most victims died quickly or were killed so their organs could be examined postmortem. Beginning in September 1944, subjects were shot with poison-laced bullets to test their effect on humans. Most died as a result of the poison or from the wounds.

Conclusion. This is the story of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and all the unhuman and evil things that happened in there to the prisoners and the Jews who did not disserve such treatments. It was necessary for everyone to know what happened there because this story is very sad and real, I wouldn’t even know what to do if I was in the position, they only gave the prisoners bread and coffee, that was their only rations, and they had to survive with that every day, only with that amount of food they still had to work all day. The SS from there where so cruel that they would punish them for no reason sometimes, The SS authorities did anything they wanted to the prisoners

because they were slaves, and their lives did not matter to them in any way, they just wanted them to work, and they would often just kill them. Therefore, Gomez 5

I thought everyone should have knowledge of what happened in this terrifying camp, those slaves had to go through a lot and at the end a some survived and got to live because of the liberation.

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