A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

The picture of all the men crammed in these "shelves" really grabbed my attention because usually we are learning about death camps, where as labor camps. I was quite interested in learning how the conditions here are just as bad and the death tolls are quite astonishing themselves. This picture I found shows slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camps in squished together in horrible conditions. Buchenwald was a Nazi concentration cam established on the Etter Mountain, located near Weimar, Germany. This was one of the first and biggest camps within Germany. Prisoners incuded Jews, Poles, criminals, homosexuals, religious prisoners, and many more. They came from countries all over Europe; most of the political prisoners were from anti-Nazi countries. Even though Buchenwald was a labor camp and not extermination, there were many deaths from mistreatment, malnutrition, human experimentation, and execution. On April 4, 1945, the first german concentration camp was invaded by U.S. troops. Four days later, the Germans partially left Buchendwald. On April 12, 1945, the U.S. 80th Infantry Division took control of this camp.