TODAY IN HISTORY: August 1, 1937 - The Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany became operational.

TODAY IN HISTORY: August 1, 1937 - The Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany became operational. The Nuremberg Trial would later bring high-ranking Nazis to justice. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or suspected communists were among the first internees.


 Prisoners came from all over Europe and the Soviet Union — Jews, Poles and other Slavs, the mentally ill and physically disabled, political prisoners, Romani people, Freemasons, and prisoners of war. The insufficient food and poor conditions, as well as deliberate executions, led to 56,545 deaths at Buchenwald of the 280,000 prisoners who passed through the camp and its 139 subcamps. It was liberated by the United States Army in April 1945. Today the remains of Buchenwald serve as a memorial and permanent exhibition and museum.

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