One of the largest Concentration Camps on German soil, with 130 satellite camps and external units
Buchenwald was situated on the northern slope of Ettersberg, a mountain about eight kilometres north of Weimar. The camp was established on 16 July 1937, with the transfer of 149 prisoners, mostly criminal detainees along with a minority in confinement for political reasons. At that time, the facility was known as Ettersberg Concentration Camp. On 28 July 1937, Himmler renamed it Buchenwald. The camp was divided into three parts: a "large camp" for prisoners with some seniority, a "small camp" where prisoners were kept in quarantine, and a "tent camp" for Polish prisoners captured after the German invasion of Poland. The first transports of German Jews arrived in the spring of 1938, followed by Jews from Austria and Kristallnacht prisoners. The International Underground Committee, established in Buchenwald in 1943, carried out sabotage actions in the armaments plants that employed prisoners. Buchenwald was liberated in April 1945.
