Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated by United States forces on 11 April 1945. Located near Weimar in central Germany, Buchenwald operated from 1937 until its liberation and became one of the largest concentration camps within Germany’s prewar borders.
The camp imprisoned political opponents, Jews, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, forced laborers, and many other targeted groups. Prisoners were subjected to forced labor, starvation, disease, violence, medical abuse, and systematic killing. The main camp complex included numerous subcamps connected to German armaments production.
As American troops approached, prisoners organized resistance inside the camp. On 11 April, members of the International Camp Committee seized weapons and took control of parts of the camp before American soldiers arrived. The liberation exposed the camp’s catastrophic conditions to the outside world.
Buchenwald was not an extermination camp designed primarily for mass gassing, although prisoners were murdered there. Dachau, another major camp liberated by U.S. forces, was liberated later, on 29 April 1945.