Research

I chose the Buchenwald concentration camp because of the NHD’s theme rights and responsibilities. The prisoners of the concentration camps and prisoners of war in WWII had absolutely no rights. They were forced into labor camps, experimental camps, or death camps against their will. They ended up at these camps because of what they believed.

Buchenwald was a labor camp. The prisoners were asked to do labor or an immediate death. The ones that chose to work worked mainly in factories. There were a lot more male prisoners and guards than female prisoners. Later on the women were sent away to other camps or ghettos.

So many prisoners died at Buchenwald. An estimate to the total number of deaths was about 56,545 people. Most people died from diseases, starvation, or exhaustion. At least 1,000 Soviet Union prisoners of war were shot in the head when they first arrived. This was an example of how prisoners of war were treated worse than the actual concentration camp prisoners. Even though Buchenwald was a labor camp, there were small medical experiments they would conduct on the prisoners. The experiments the guards and “doctors” would conduct on the inmates were awful. They would expose them to poison and burns to see how much they could take until it became fatal. The doctors also would put them in freezing water for multiple hours to see how long the body could fight off hypothermia. All these experiments were held at Buchenwald, and Buchenwald was just a labor camp. 

Word Ward II was a horrible time to be known as a Jew, but most people don’t know that Hitler looked down so many other beliefs and religions upon. Even though this topic is so sad and gruesome I can’t wait to learn more about how it all happened.