Together with its many satellite camps, Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps established within the German borders of The Buchenwald concentration camp was constructed in about five miles northwest of the city of Weimar in east-central Germany. It was located in a wooded area on the northern slopes of the Ettersberg, a hill north of the city of Weimar. Before the Nazis rose to power, Weimar was primarily associated with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Goethe was a leading European literary figure and a product of German liberal tradition in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
It was in Weimar that Goethe made his home. Weimar was also known as the birthplace of German constitutional democracy, the Weimar Republic β During the Nazi regime , Weimar became associated with the Buchenwald concentration camp. Prisoners lived in the Buchenwald main camp. This area was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wire fence, watchtowers, and a chain of sentries outfitted with automatic machine guns.
Inside the main camp, there was a notorious punishment block, known as the Bunker. It was located at the entrance to the main camp. This is where prisoners who violated camp regulations were punished and often tortured to death.
It also eventually had a railway station, brothel, and crematorium. SS guard barracks and the camp administration compound were located in the southern part of the camp.
Women were not part of the Buchenwald camp system until The presence of female prisoners significantly increased in Most of the early inmates at Buchenwald were political prisoners, people who had been arrested for some form of political opposition to the Nazi regime.
