Buchenwald Album - Photographs taken at Konzentration Lager Buchenwald Weimar, Germany, April 1945

Scope and content

The "album" contains 28 photographies which show liberated prisoners in their barracks and in the camp, the camp kitchen, the crematorium, an operating room, representations of camp punishments, as well as various views of the camp.
Furthermore, there are photographies of shrunken heads and tattooed skin.

Photograph No. 1: photographed layout plan of Concentration Camp Buchenwald, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 2: liberated prisoners in front of and in sleeping boxes 2 - 4 of Block 61 of the "Small Camp", 24 April 1945, photographer: Donald R. Ornitz.
Photograph No. 3: liberated prisoners of Block 61 of the "Small Camp", in the foreground a prisoner with a leg injury lies on a plank bed, in the background the sleeping boxes 1 - 4 are visible, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 4: liberated prisoners of Block 61 are standing around a potbelly stove, in the background the sleeping boxes 15 - 17 are visible, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 5: a member of the U.S. Army is standing in front of the incinerators in the crematorium, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 6: liberated prisoners of the "Small Camp" are sitting on the latrine, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 7: liberated prisoners of the "Small Camp" are sitting on the latrine, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 8: liberated juvenile prisoners are standing at a barbed wire fence of the "Small Camp", after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 9: liberated prisoners of the "Small Camp", to their left Blocks 53, 59, 62, 63 and 66, after 11 April 1945, unkown photographer.
Photograph No. 10: view into Block 61 of the "Small Camp", two liberated prisoners are looking from sleeping box 1, to their left lie the bodies of deceased comrades in a chamber which is seperated by a door only, after 11.04.1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 11: the Dutch prisoner Max Cantor (prisoner number 130831) in front of Block 58 in the "Small Camp" after liberation, after 11.04.1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 12: liberated juvenile prisoners are standing at the barbed wire fence of the "Small Camp", after 11.04.1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 13: doctors and male nurses are treating a liberated prisoner in the surgical suite of the SS-infirmary, 3rd from right is internist Miroslav Matousek (prisoner number 3780), who was incarcerated as a political prisoner, after 11.04.1945, unkown photographer.
Photograph No.14: piled up bodies of deceased prisoners in the inner courtyard of the crematorium, after 11.04.1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 15: view into the prisoner's kitchen, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 16: lamp from the SS headquarters of the camp, which was seized as piece of evidence for the expected Buchenwald trial and vanished without a trace later, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 17: a piece of tattooed human skin which was found in the SS headquarters of the camp and seized as a piece of evidence for the expected Buchenwald trial, 23 April 1945, photographer: Donald R. Ornitz.
Photgraph No. 18: piled up bodies of deceased prisoners in an open mass grave South of Bismarck tower, after 11 April 1945, photographer: Donald R. Ornitz.
Photograph No. 19: a former prisoner wearing a brassard "Lagerschutz" demonstrates utensils for killing prisoners used by the SS in the cellar of the crematorium, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 20: an unknown prisoner ambulance man is looking into the incinerators of the crematorium which contain human remains, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 21: two liberated prisoners in the quarry of Buchenwald, in the background the barracks of the "Waffen-SS" are visible, after 11 April 1945, unkown photographer.
Photograph No. 22: an armed liberated prisoner guarding civilians who are exhuming the remains of prisoners who were hastily buried by the SS in a mass grave South of Bismarck tower, between 11 and 13 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 23: an unknown member of the U.S. Army is holding a tattoo found in Buchenwald into the camera, the motif shows a knight fighting a dragon, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 24: two shrunken heads, which were detected in the "Pathological Department" after the liberation, standing on a table, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 25: reconstruction of the torture method of "tree-hanging" using a dummy prisoner on the parade ground, in the background the buildings for the locksmith's shop and the electrical shop, after 11 April 1945, unknown photgrapher.
Photograph No. 26: the liberated prisoner Joachim Wittschiebe (prisoner number 3614) is demonstrating a punishment widely used in the camp, using the reconstruction of the beating stand with a dummy prisoner, in the background the buildings for the locksmith's shop and the electrical shop, after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 27: three liberated children, (f.l.t.r.) Romek Wajsman (prisoner number 117098), Janek Szlajtsztajn (prisoner number 116543) und Dawid Perlmutter (prisoner number 116730), are standing with an older prisoner at the barbed wire fence of the "Small Camp", after 11 April 1945, unknown photographer.
Photograph No. 28: liberated prisoners and American soldiers are standing in front of the camp gate, 19 April 1945, unknown photographer.

Certified English descriptions of the contents of the photographies are to be found on their backside. They were created by Raymond Givens, Lt. Col. F.A., Investigating Officer. The detailed descriptions of the motifs of the photographies were created by Buchenwald Memorial.