Talk:Buchenwald concentration camp

This page was blanked and listed for speedy deletion by anonymous user 152.163.100.199. It may pay to keep an eye on it. Lisiate 23:14, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Which Essen is meant in the section on female prisoners? Saintswithin 10:22, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Illegal

I removed the word "illegal" from the following sentence: "The camp was also the site of large-scale illegal testing of vaccines for epidemic typhus..." due to it being superfluous. Clearly, as testing was being performed by an official government branch, it was not technically illegal. As for its legality in international post-war courts, this is more or less irrelevant in the sentence.

I do not mean to nitpick, but the reason I remove this bit is that it might confuse people. Not removing the word "illegal" may lead one to think that the camp commanders were, contrary to orders from the central nazi government, experimenting on humans. This would then be faulty. --TVPR 00:11, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Liberated by Americans or liberated by prisoners?

German Wikipedia writes that the camp was not liberated by the Americans but self-liberated by the prisoners. I will give the article a factual accuracy warning. See also this German language website [1] Andries 18:27, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

The Nazis left the camp before the US Army arrived. So I wonder whether the term 'liberated' is correct at all? 'Liberation' implies a specific action. A good description of the event is at: ww.remember.org/witness/herder.html I'll have a go at editing the article and remove the warning. --Maustrauser 06:48, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

my grandfather was in this camp... i think it was here that his brother and father died. They were given a death injection 2 weeks before liberation.

Photo

That's a horrible photo, can barely tell what it is (upside down guy behind a fence, I assume dead?), defeintely has to be changed. Sherurcij ^{(talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject)} 21:02, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't see it mentioned anywhere that Buchenwald was a prison before the war

The horrors aren't described.

The current text includes this sentence "It was used to house German prisoners, and Soviet records indicate that over 7,000 died." but there is no mention of the numbers who died while the camp was run by the Nazis. Likely the number was 100 times that, or more.... is it really enough to say that prisoners were used for labor? It was *not* a POW labor camp. It was a concentration/death camp.

Die Hexe von Buchenwald

I question whether Ilse Koch was really known informally as "The Bitch of Buchenwald". Bitch (Huendin) and witch (Hexe) are not homonyms in German, and bitch is not used as an insult, either. The German version of the Buchenwald KZ article just calls her "Hexe" and makes no mention of other descriptions. Anything to back up that she was called "Bitch of Buchenwald"? Pending that, I'll change the sentence to something along the lines that the name loosely translates as "Bitch etc" YggdrasilsRoot 15:17, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

The best translation is whatever English word best conveys the sense of the German word. I would think that "bitch" or even "beast" would be better here than "witch". In English we don't think of witches as particularly cruel and brutal. However someone has monkeyed around with your edit, and it looks odd. I will change it back. 144.9.8.21 19:05, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Elie Wiesel at Buchenwald?

The picture at the top of the page on the right hand side says Elie Wiesel can be seen in a photo taken from Buchenwald. Elie Wiesel is the author of the book Night, a true account story of his life during the Holocaust, and I happen to have read a large portion of the book just last night. I read nothing about Buchenwald. He was taken straight from the ghetto in Hungary to Auschwitz-Birkenau, what I recall to be a four-day train ride. Buchenwald is in Germany, and Auschwitz is in Poland. Not only did he mention nothing of Buchwald, but Buchenwald is a very illogical checkpoint to go through on your way from Hungary to Poland. Someone might care to research this further and either correct or remove the photograph and its caption.

I've learned Wiesel was taken from Auschwitz to Buchenwald near the end of the war. This subject can be deleted.

Aftermath documentation??

This entire section lacks documentation and is subject to deletion. Can anyone provide credible citations? Thanks.Skywriter 22:13, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Second Request for Documentation

My request for documentation was reverted by HanzoHattori who does not seem to grasp the need for and requirement for documentation. The above request for documentation is reinstated and I ask this new and apparently inexperienced user to please avoid labeling colleagues as "trolls" or "vandals" as this is both off-putting and can quickly lead to troubles. Thank you. Skywriter 18:54, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Liberated by uprising of Communist prisoners

It wasn't "evacuated" - the guards fled. Communists were previously priviledged, and they all wore worker's caps or berets. They were also relatively well fed.

Someone correct this. HanzoHattori 11:58, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Bad English or true, in which case, where's the source?

It was used to house German prisoners, and Soviet records indicate that over 7,000 died.

Sound like the 7000 German prisoners died here. Is this correct? Source?

While we're at it this article seems to lack source all over, no?

Yes, 7,113 Germans died in Special camp #2 at Buchenwald between 1945 and 1950. My source is "Buchenwald, A tour of the memorial site" purchased at the Buchenwald memorial. Sorry...no ISBN on the guide book. Motorfix 23:09, 23 October 2006 (UTC)