Buchenwald was a Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg Hill near Weimar, Thuringia, Germany, in July 1937.
The first commandant was Karl Otto Koch, whose second wife Ilse was known as The Bitch of Buchenwald, one of the cruelest figures of the Holocaust.
Mass killings of prisoners of war took place in the camp, and many inmates died during medical experiments, or fell victim to arbitrary acts perpetrated by the SS.
The camp was largely evacuated by the Nazis as Allied troops approached the area, and was finally occupied by the U.S. 3rd Army on April 11, 1945 with minimal resistance.
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