LIFE - WWII: Buchenwald

Buchenwald: Horror and Liberation, 1945

Thu, 12 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

On June 5, 2009, Barack Obama makes a special visit to Buchenwald concentration camp in central Germany -- a public gesture of commemoration, and a personal tribute to his great-uncle, who as a U.S. soldier helped liberate the camp. Here, in one of the most haunting images from the war, taken in April 1945 by LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White, prisoners at Buchenwald gaze dully at the Allied troops arriving at the camp, unable to comprehend that freedom has, finally, come. WARNING: Several of the images in this gallery are intensely graphic, depicting scenes of violence and death.

Dying of Dysentery

Sun, 01 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

A prisoner slowly dies of dysentry in his bunk at Buchenwald. CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow made a famous broadcast when he witnessed the liberation of Buchenwald. "Men crowded around, tried to lift me to their shoulders. They were too weak. Many of them could not get out of bed. I was told that this building had once stabled 80 horses. There were 1,200 men in it, five to a bunk. The stink was beyond all description," he said.

Buchenwald's Victims

Fri, 13 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Bodies of prisoners are stacked like cordwood on a truck just outside the incinerator plant at Buchenwald concentration camp in this Margaret Bourke-White photograph. One Canadian pilot recalled his first entry to Buchenwald: "As we got close to the camp and saw what was inside ... a terrible, terrible fear and horror entered our hearts. We thought, 'What is this? Where are we going? Why are we here?' And as you got closer to the camp and saw these human skeletons walking around -- old men, young men, boys, just skin and bone, we thought, 'What are we getting into?'"

Sickened by What They See

Sat, 28 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

German civilians look on in horror and revulsion, some holding hankerchiefs against their faces, while being forced to look at corpses loaded onto a truck in the courtyard of Buchenwald. The civilians were given no special protection against typhus, which was a serious concern in the cramped and filthy quarters. Inmates were used as subjects in Nazi experiments to find a typhus vaccine, and at least 280 died during the awful scientific pursuit.

German Citizens Avert Their Gaze

Sat, 28 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Residents from the nearby city of Weimar walk with their eyes averted while being forced by liberating Allied troops to walk past a pile of corpses in the courtyard of Buchenwald.

Germans Face Their Inner Demons

Sat, 28 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Horrified German civilians face the reality of the suffering and death that was going in their midst as they view a pile of emaciated corpses at Buchenwald, in this Margaret Bourke-White photograph taken on April 28, 1945. Enraged by what they saw, liberating American troops forced nearby German civilians to march to the concencration camps and see for themselves the terror that their government -- and their own inaction -- had created.

Charred Bodies at Buchenwald

Sun, 01 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Charred bodies of would-be escapees lie at the base of an electrified fence in Erla Work Camp No. 3, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Almost one out of four people who passed through Buchenwald died.

Into the Torture Cell

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

A door leads to the bunker at Buchenwald concentration camp where the torture cell was situated. When the inmates heard news that the U.S. Third Army was on its way to liberate the camp, inmates overpowered the guards remaining at the camp and killed most of them.

Germans See the Ovens

Fri, 13 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

German citizens are forced to view the cremation ovens in this Margaret Bourke-White photograph. Elie Wiesel, a prisoner at Buchenwald, said the Holocaust was a clear example of why it's impossible to remain on the sidelines when an evil is being committed. "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation," he said. "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

The Last Cremation

Sat, 28 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

A gaping skull and rib bones are among the charred remains of a prisoner inside a Buchenwald cremation oven. "Using a camera was almost a relief. It interposed a slight barrier between myself and the horror in front of me," photographer Margaret Bourke-White wrote of her experience at Buchenwald. She later wrote a book about her World War II experiences entitled, "Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly."

Joy Succeeds the Sorrow

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Half-starved inmates at Buchenwald lie in their bunks, finally grinning after their liberation by American forces. Desperate to try to cover up evidence of their crimes, the Nazis attempted to force as many prisoners as they could on "evacuation marches" where they could be disposed of far from Allied troops. At Buchenwald, a Polish engineer managed to send out a call for help from a hidden radio: "To Allies. To General Patton's Army. This is concentration camp Buchenwald. SOS. We need help. They're trying to evacuate us. The SS try to exterminate us."

Just Desserts

Sun, 01 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Prisoners and U.S. soldiers stand behind the Buchenwald gate, on which can be seen the phrase, "Jedem das seine" -- literally, "To each his own," but also translated as "To each his just desserts." Between 239,000 and 250,000 people were imprisoned there; 56,000 died -- a number even more terrible in light of Buchenwald not being, technically, a "death camp," but rather a camp designed to warehouse and exploit slave labor. When the Soviets imprisoned Nazi officials in Buchenwald for several years after the war, "Jedem das seine" was still to be seen on the gate -- a strikingly apt coda to the horrors inflicted there.

It Is Over

Sun, 01 Apr 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Tearful prisoners, hardly daring to believe, overcome by sorrow and relief, hold each other shortly after their liberation from a subcamp of Buchenwald by Allied troops, who look on in the background.