April 11, 1945
U.S. Troops Liberate Buchenwald
Historical context
On this day, April 11, 1945, U.S. troops reached Buchenwald after prisoners seized control of the camp as the SS fled.
Archive record
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- Date
- April 11, 1945
- Verified sources
- 1
- Archive threads
- 5
On this day, prisoners of the underground resistance took control of Buchenwald as SS guards fled. Later that afternoon, U.S. forces of the 6th Armored Division entered the camp near Weimar and found more than 21,000 people still there. Buchenwald, opened in 1937, was one of the largest camps inside Germany’s 1937 borders.
The SS had already marched tens of thousands away as U.S. forces approached. Between 1937 and 1945 the SS imprisoned some 250,000 people in the Buchenwald system. Exact deaths were never fully registered. The SS murdered at least 56,000 male prisoners there; some 11,000 of them were Jews.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Buchenwald · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · Holocaust Encyclopedia View source
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