When was Buchenwald concentration camp established?

Buchenwald was a Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg [de] hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. 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 from all over Europe and the Soviet Union—Jews, Poles and other Slavs, the mentally ill and physically disabled, political prisoners, Romani people, Freemasons, criminals, homosexuals, and prisoners of war—worked primarily as forced labor in local armaments factories. The insufficient food and poor conditions, as well as deliberate executions, led to 56,000 deaths at Buchenwald of the 250,000 prisoners who passed through the camp. The camp gained notoriety when it was liberated by the United States Army in 1945; Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower visited one of its subcamps.

From 1945 to 1950, the camp was used by the Soviet occupation authorities as an internment camp, NKVD special camp Nr. 2. Today the remains of Buchenwald serve as a memorial and permanent exhibition and museum.