Elie Wiesel in Buchenwald

Category: Genocide

In January 1945, Wiesel, his father, and two sisters were part of a death march to Buchenwald. On January 28, 1945, Wiesel's father suffered from dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion, and was later sent to the crematoria. Wiesel was only in the camp for a few months as it was liberated by the American Third Army on April 11.

1. Picture #1: Forced laborers in Buchenwald; (Elie Wiesel is 2nd row, 7th from left). April 16, 1945
Picture #2: German Flag
Picture #3: Hermann Hackmann (Nazi head of personnel)
Picture #4: Karl Otto Koch (Commandant)
Picture #5: Waldemar Hoven (Medical Doctor)
Footage from Buchenwald: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UN9GsjieXEk and http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_fi.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005198&MediaId=170
2. Set up in 1937, Buchenwald initially housed political prisoners and other targeted groups, including Jews. The population of Buchenwald increased rapidly after Kristallnacht in November 1938, when Jewish men aged 16–60 were arrested and incarcerated. After the outbreak of World War II, Buchenwald continued to house political prisoners and, later, Poles. Most inmates worked as slave laborers at nearby work sites in 12-hour shifts around the clock. There were some 18,000 prisoners after Kristallnacht, 11,000 on the eve of the war, 63,000 by the end of 1944, and 86,000 in February 1945, when Buchenwald became the destination for some of the inmates forcibly evacuated from Auschwitz. On April 6, 1945, some 28,500 prisoners were evacuated from Buchenwald on a death march on which one in four died. Just prior to the arrival of American troops on April 11, 1945, the German guards and officers fled, and inmates took over. Inmate officials were on hand to greet the liberating American troops later that day.
3. According to SS documents, 33,462 died in Buchenwald. However, these documents were not necessarily accurate as many of those executed before 1944 were listed as “transferred to the Gestapo,” arriving prisoners selected for execution were not entered into the camp register, and from 1941 forward Soviet POWs were executed in mass killings. Today, the total number of deaths at Buchenwald is estimated at 56,545.
4. Unfortunately, many of the perpetrators were never reprimanded. Just prior to the arrival of American troops on April 11, 1945, the German guards and officers fled, and inmates took over. Inmate officials were on hand to greet the liberating American troops later that day.
5. After the war Wiesel settled in France, studied at the Sorbonne (1948–51), and wrote for French and Israeli newspapers. Wiesel went to the United States in 1956 and was naturalized in 1963. He was a professor at City College of New York (1972–76), and from 1976 he taught at Boston University, where he became Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities.