| Original caption: “American soldiers on a tour of the infamous Buchenwald Concentration Camp at Weimar, Germany, listen to an english-speaking prisoner as he tells how the S.S. guards tortured and killed some of his comrades. Many thousands of prisoners were said to have died in this room, they were hanged by their heads from the hooks around the walls and beaten to death. An elevatior at the other end of the room hoisted the bodies upstairs to the crematory.” Former prisoners explain how the Schutzstaffel (SS) strangulation in the execution cellar of the crematorium. A dummy is dressed in a striped prison uniform. Note club hanging on the wall. Hooks allowed for multiple prisoners to be beaten at the same time. As the front rapidly approached the Buchenwald Konzentrationslager (“Concentration Camp”) on the Ettersberg Hill, the Nazis made a last-ditch effort to cover up their atrocities. The prisoners in the camp jail were murdered during the night of April 10, and the surviving inmate orderly was assigned to clean up the bloodstains. In the execution room adjoining the crematorium, they removed the meat hooks used for hanging bodies, cemented in the holes, and covered up the blood-spattered walls with a fresh coat of white paint. In their haste, however, the SS did not completely finish the job of hiding the evidence. After liberation, an American medical officer reported seeing 4 hooks still in the wall and partially filled holes for 44 more, as well as a bloodstained club. And when the ropes in the crematorium were not quick enough on the job, the victims of the Nazis were hanged on hooks and beaten to death. As of December 1942, shootings occurred in the horse stable. No fewer than 7,500 Russian prisoners of war were shot in the horse stable. Prisoners of war who had been shot were often still alive on their delivery into the crematorium. Indeed, sometimes they even rose up on the bier and spoke to the Kapos cleaning up the blood. Once a prisoner of war who had been brought in on a cartload of corpses spoke to 1 Kapo with the words, “Comrade, give me your hand.” He was naked and bloody like all the prisoners of war who had been shot, and he had been sitting upon a pile of naked corpses. In such cases the SS who stood at the ready sprang up and killed the victim with blows or a shot from a revolver. The Kapos knew 2 to 3 hours beforehand via the political department that shootings were about to occur; however, they were not told the number. The crematorium stood at 1st under SS-Oberscharführer (“SS Technical Sergeant”) Kott (???? – ????). After February 1942 SS-Hauptscharführer (“SS Master Sergeant”) Emil Pleissner (May 23, 1913 – November 26, 1948) was also assigned to the crematorium. On May 24, 1942, SS-Oberscharführer Kott went to Ravensbrück and was replaced by SS-Unterscharführer (“SS Sergeant”) Hermann Helbig (June 7, 1902 – November 19, 1948). In spring 1942, SS-Hauptscharführer Pleissner was replaced by SS-Oberscharführer Walter Wernstedt (1914 – Fate Unknown). As of February 1943, prisoners of war were no longer shot but hanged in the crematorium. They were driven into the courtyard of the crematorium in an SS truck, then led into the basement, where hooks for hanging had been attached to the walls. There were 48 such hooks. The prisoners of war only rarely put up a fight as they were led to the execution site; as a rule they were paralyzed by fear. On April 4, 1942, a circular letter arrived at the camp commandant’s office from the chief of the central office of Section D, Concentration Camps, Obersturmbannführer (“SS Lieutenant Colonel”) Arthur Liebehenschel (November 25, 1901 – January 24, 1948). It contained the following: “The Reich SS leader and chief of German police (Himmler] has decreed that in his orders for punishment by whipping (for male and female prisoners alike in protective or preventive custody), if the word severe is included, the execution of the punishment is to be upon the naked bottom. In all other cases, execution of punishment is to follow the previous orders of the Reich leader.” In principle the camp administration had to seek confirmation for punishment by whipping from Berlin. Nevertheless, up to the takeover of command of Buchenwald by Camp Commandant Oberführer (“SS Colonel”) Hermann Pister (February 21, 1885 – September 28, 1948) in 1942, the practice was that the prisoner 1st “went on the whipping block” and received the desired number of blows. Afterwards the procedure was performed once again — this time officially – upon receipt of confirmation from Berlin. If they did not enthusiastically volunteer for the job, sergeants were commanded to carry out the punishment by whipping. If 1 of them showed signs of sympathy or insufficient force, then the specialist SS-Unterscharführer (“Sergeant”) Martin Sommer (February 8, 1915 – June 7, 1988), the “Hangman of Buchenwald,” intervened, lending his experienced hand to blows aimed especially at the kidneys. A camp doctor attended the procedure. Only 4 or 5 cases are known where camp doctors stopped the delivery of further blows in the interests of the prisoner – in 1 case by (“SS Captain”) Doctor Gustav Busse (January 24, 1911 – ????), when Sommer, claiming the victim (who had to count aloud the lashes with the cane) had cheated, wanted to start all over again on a nearly finished whipping. For a time prisoners themselves were forced to carry out the punishment of whipping on their comrades. Some lacked the courage to face the consequences of refusal; others were not unhappy to volunteer. The political prisoners refused or else dealt the blows in a manner that did not suit the SS; for the most part they were then condemned to receive the same punishment themselves. If SS officers turned the beating into a private pleasure – laying prisoners over tables and chairs in their “workrooms” and thrashing them with whips — it was naturally impossible to prepare any self-defense. Otherwise, something could still be hastily devised. For example, 1 could put on thick underwear or a layer between the underpants and shirt. If, however, a prisoner was caught doing this, he received the blows on his naked bottom. The comrades in the prisoners’ hospital always did everything possible to get the frightfully mauled victims back on their feet and nurse them to health. Hanging from a tree was feared even more than the whipping block. As long as there were still woods left in camp, condemned inmates were hung from trees for anywhere from half an hour up to 3 hours and longer. They had their arms pulled up high behind their backs so their toes no longer touched the ground. Arms could be rendered useless for months afterwards, if the inmate survived at all. Horrible cries echoed through the camp when the SS went around with dog whips and lashed the unfortunate victims over their entire bodies. If the inmates did not die, they almost always came away with severe injuries for life. The punishment exercises imposed upon entire work details and whole blocks at a time were also so violent that many, understandably, could not endure them. Exercises often lasted for hours at a time on the uneven ground of roll call square, with its scattered potholes and network of drainage channels. The exercises represented an evil combination of the normally sadistic Prussian barracks drill with the usual concentration camp practices. The punishment of standing at attention was spiced by the SS with its favorite “variations.” The maximum penalty that could be levied for an actual or an alleged offense was, with the exception of the already described regulation on caning, in no way fixed. Rather, even when the entire camp had been sentenced — or especially in such cases — the punishment was entirely up to the mood and the whim of the SS. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0587.jpg |
| Image Size | 146.58 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1122 x 879 |
| Photographer | Ardean R. Miller III |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 18, 1945 |
| Location | Konzentrationslager Buchenwald |
| City | Weimar |
| State or Province | Thuringia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | 111-C-10 67 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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