Buchenwald Concentration Camp Liberation - 3rd Army
Details:
Next to the entry parking lot between former prisoner guard buildings. Monument
An information table.
The sign remembers the liberation of the camp by the XX Corps of the 3rd US Army.
From the US Holocaust Museum website:
The 6th Armored Division and the Liberation of Buchenwald
After fording the Werra River and advancing deeper into the German state of Thuringia, the 6th Armored Division overran the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. When the US troops arrived, the SS guards had fled and the prisoners had taken control of the camp. Several inmates had left the camp in the interim in order to contact the US troops in the vicinity. They approached members of the 6th Armored Division with information about the camp. The first US troops arrived in Buchenwald shortly thereafter, to be greeted by the cheers of the liberated prisoners. The "Super Sixth" reported that some 21,000 inmates were still in the camp. In the days preceding the camp's liberation, the SS had evacuated thousands of inmates on death marches.
Special thanks to Joakim Steinweden of the Association of the U.S. Army, GEN C. W. Abrams Chapter (Germany) and of the U.S. Military Vehicle Club e.V.
Monument Text:
The text on the sign is written in German, English and French. The English reads:
In memory of the soldiers
of
the XXth Corps
of the 3rd US Army
On 11 April 1945, units of the 3rd US Army's XXth Corps
reached the Buchenwald concentration camp. The SS fled. Political
inmates of the International Camp Committee tock control
of the grounds. Buchenwald was liberated. In the days and weeks
that followed, US Army doctors and medical orderlies were
primarily responsible for rescuing and caring for the survivors.
The Americans also recorded inmate testimonies, opened the
camp to international delegations, and informed the world public
about the crimes committed there.
Photo of the 120th Evacuation Hospital in action.
