| Original caption: “Survivors in Buchenwald cheer in front of a portrait of Stalin upon the liberation of the camp.” Fenced in with barbed wire, the Soviet Prisoner of War camp 1st included 6, and then only 3, wooden barracks. In late October 1941, the Schutzstaffel SS transferred the 1st 2,000 Soviet prisoners of war to Buchenwald. The forced labor planned for them did not take place. The SS isolated the prisoners and withheld rations. Within a few months, 1 in 3 had perished from disease or hunger. Beginning in 1942, the prisoners of war were forced to work in the quarry or on constructing the Buchenwald railroad line. The SS also leased them as workers to companies in the surrounding area. The Soviet prisoners of war had different uniforms than the other inmates in the concentration camp. They formed small units, military style, and made up the core of the underground resistance organization. The Soviet Prisoner of War camp was maintained through April 1945. An average of several 100 inmates were held at the camp. A detachment of troops under the command of United States Army Captain Frederic Keffer (May 23, 1919 – December 6, 1992), intelligence officer from Combat Team 9, Combat Command A, 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division, United States 3rd Army, with Technical Sergeant Herbert Gottschalk (July 7, 1917 – August 6, 1985), a German-speaking soldier from his intelligence section, as well as driver Sergeant Harry Ward (April 30, 1921 – September 26, 1984) and gunner Private 1st Class James Hoyt (May 16, 1925 – Aug 11, 2008) and 2 escaped Soviet prisoners, arrived at Buchenwald Konzentrationslager (KZ; “Concentration Camp”) in their M8 Greyhound armored car on April 11, 1945, at 1515 Hours (now the permanent time of the clock at the entrance gate). The soldiers were given a hero’s welcome, with the emaciated survivors finding the strength to toss some liberators into the air in celebration. Overnight, the Soviet section of the camp, containing Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Turkmen, Tajiki, and other representatives of the Communist Union Republics, drew portraits of Premier and Dictator Joseph Stalin (December 6, 1878 – March 5, 1953). The Soviet artists in Buchenwald recreated the Socialist Realist style, down to the buttons in his jacket. After the war, Soviet Prisoners of War were repatriated. What happened to them is a matter of some debate among historians. About 40 percent of the 1 1/2 1,000,000 soldiers sent back to the Soviet Union were returned to military service. 8 percent were sent for prison terms in the Gulag. Over 6 percent may have been executed. Ostracized and forgotten by their country, they were denied benefits and pushed to the margins of society once they completed their service and were granted amnesty after Stalin’s death. Given the radio broadcasts by Radio Moscow promising amnesty in Stalin’s name in April 1945, it is unlikely that these men were aware of the fates that awaited them back in the motherland. Buchenwald was the Nazi holding center for German Communists as well. Because of this, Buchenwald’s history was well documented after the war in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (GDR – “German Democratic Republic”). The Politburo, the highest governing body of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) that ruled the GDR, decided in 1950 “to erect a Thälmann Memorial.” For Buchenwald, this meant that the entire camp with all its barracks was torn down. Only the crematorium, as the site of the murder of the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD – “German Communist Party”) chairman Ernst Thälmann (April 16, 1886 – August 18, 1944), the gate building, and the western and eastern guard towers were to be preserved. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0898.jpg |
| Image Size | 277.66 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1708 x 1247 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 12, 1945 |
| Location | Konzentrationslager Buchenwald |
| City | Weimar |
| State or Province | Thuringia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | 208-AA-206-12 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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