| 2 liberated inmates in the Little Camp. The Schutzstaffel (SS) set up a provisional quarantine area on the northern edge of the camp, below the stone barracks, in 1943. From here, the numerous subcamps of Buchenwald were to be supplied with workers. Cordoned off from the main camp, this zone included 12 windowless horse stalls originally planned for the Wehrmacht, which lacked sanitary facilities. Instead of beds there were simply 4-level, shelf-like boxes constructed from raw wood. Each of these stalls was originally intended for about 50 horses. In the Little Camp, however, about 1,000, and sometimes even 2,000 people had to stay here. In 1944, the SS had 5 additional tents erected. The Little Camp originally served the purpose of setting inmates apart for forced labour in the subcamps of Buchenwald. In early 1945 it became an overcrowded place, where people wasted away and died. In less than 100 days, some 6,000 people died here before the camp was liberated. Most of them were Jewish inmates who had been brought to Buchenwald with transports from Auschwitz and Groß-Rosen. The remains of paths and foundations that have now again been made visible bear testimony to how improvised and primitive the living conditions were in the Little Camp. A series of 13 color slides of the liberated Buchenwald Konzentrationslager (“Concentration Camp”) have survived. They were taken by Technician 5th Class Ardean R. Miller III (September 20, 1915 – December 17, 1984) of the 165th Signal Photographic Company, 1 of the United States Army’s only 4 color photographers in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO). He later referred to his assignment to photograph the liberated Buchenwald camp as the worst he had ever faced in his career. Miller later said that the order to photograph Buchenwald was the worst he ever received. On April 18, 1945, a week after the liberation of the camp, he took a series of color photos there. According to his wife Norma Renouf Miller (May 11, 1924 – October 27, 2007), he only rarely talked about his impressions later on, and when he did, it was “with disbelieving horror.” The images haunted him his rest of his life. The pictures taken by Miller were not put to use for many years. It was not until the 1990s that they were rediscovered and published. Today, the Miller’s photos grants the spectator special visual access to the liberated camp. The black-and-white photos present a prevalent sense of temporal distance and documentary character, the color photos create a surprising closeness to reality, making Miller’s slides unique images of the days following the liberation of the Buchenwald Konzentrationslager. Miller was 1 of the 1st of the United States Army’s color photographers, and the most experienced. He had already been working with the color film developed by Kodak since the late 1930s. For the United States Army, the employment of color photography in 1945 was an experiment to which not much significance was attached. He attended Hobart College and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Following completion of his studies, he worked as a photographer for the advertising department of Eastman Kodak. In 1937, he received the Leica Award for Excellence; in 1939, his photos were featured at the World’s Fair in New York. Miller volunteered for military service but was deferred because of a sight impairment. He was drafted in 1941. On account of his professional experience he was transferred to the Army War College in Washington, District of Columbia, and put to work photographing American army bases. He specialized in very large-scale color photographs. In 1943, Miller went to Europe, initially to photograph the preparations for the invasion in England, collaborating with Technician 5th Class Albert Norris Stevens (November 11, 1907 – December 16, 1951). In the years that followed, Miller’s photographic subjects included Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and Carl A. Spaatz (June 28, 1891 – July 14, 1974), commander of Strategic Air Forces in Europe; the 1st encounter between American and Soviet troops in Torgau on 25 April 1945, and the German surrender in Reims on May 7, 1945. After the war, Miller worked as a freelance advertising photographer in Florida. His customers included Coca-Cola, Hilton, Ford, Pan American Airways, and National Geographic. He died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1984. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1993.jpg |
| Image Size | 255.16 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1365 x 2048 |
| Photographer | Ardean R. Miller III |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 1, 1945 |
| Location | Konzentrationslager Buchenwald |
| City | Weimar |
| State or Province | Thuringia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | Buchenwald Memorial Museum |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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