During the history of

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

, thousands of people were imprisoned.

List of prisoners

Frans Frison, Member of the Belgian Resistance from Mechelin/Malines, transported from Breendonk. Died 2002 Kilkinny, Ireland. http://www.getuigen.be/Getuigenis/Peeraer-Jef/tkst.htm * Roy Allen, American pilot *

Jean Améry Jean Améry (31 October 191217 October 1978), born Hanns Chaim Mayer, was an Austrian-born essayist whose work was often informed by his experiences during World War II. His most celebrated work, ''At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survi ...

, Austrian-Belgian writer *

Robert Antelme Robert Antelme (5 January 1917, Sartène, Corse-du-Sud – 26 October 1990) was a French writer. During the Second World War he was involved in the French Resistance and deported. In 1939 he married Marguerite Duras. Their child died at birth in 1 ...

, French writer *

Jacob Avigdor Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Avigdor (also Jacob) (1896–1967) was a Polish-Mexican rabbi, author and Holocaust survivor. Prior to the Holocaust he served as Chief Rabbi of Drohobych - Boryslav in Poland, and after the war, as rabbi of the Ashkenazi comm ...

, before World War II Chief Rabbi of Drohobych, afterward Chief Rabbi of Mexico *

Conrad Baars Conrad W. Baars, M.D., (January 2, 1919 – October 18, 1981) was a Catholic psychiatrist. His most prominent work is with Dr. Anna Terruwe in the study of the human emotional life. Their general idea is that many emotional disturbances in a h ...

, psychiatrist *

Fritz Beckhardt Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridolin a ...

, German-Jewish World War I fighter pilot * Fritz Behr, German politician (SPD, SED), educator and literary scholar who would become mayor of Weimar * Robert Benoist, French world champion motor racing driver and member of the British Special Operations Executive, executed on 9 September 1944 * Bruno Bettelheim, Jewish Austrian-American child psychologist *

Józef Biniszkiewicz Józef Biniszkiewicz (; March 9, 1875https://www.google.com/search?q=J%C3%B3zef+Biniszkiewicz+9+marca+1875&client=ms-android-samsung&prmd=imnv&sxsrf=AJOqlzXpeJTPMsZvRewH14sBQJ-6WthoLw:1676631749300&source=lnms&tbm=bks&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie6tf-s5z9AhWT7 ...

, Polish socialist politician *

Léon Blum André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...

, Jewish French politician, pre-and post-war long-term French prime minister * Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Protestant theologian and prominent member of the Confessing Church *

Boris Braun Boris Braun (20 August 1920 – 7 October 2018) was a Croatian University professor, Holocaust survivor and member of the Jewish community in Zagreb. Early life Braun was born to Šandor and Elizabeta ( née Mautner) Braun, members of a notable ...

, Croatian University professor *

Rudolf Brazda Rudolf Brazda (26 June 1913 – 3 August 2011) was the last known concentration camp survivor deported by Nazi Germany on charges of homosexuality. Brazda spent nearly three years at the Buchenwald concentration camp, where his prisoner uniform ...

, the last known surviving homosexual deported to the camps; died in 2011 *

Rudolf Breitscheid Rudolf Breitscheid (2 November 1874 – 28 August 1944) was a German politician and leading member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. Once leader of the liberal Democratic Union, he joined the SPD in ...

, former member of the SPD and leader of its faction in the Weimar Reichstag, died in the camp in 1944 *

Christopher Burney Christopher Arthur Geoffrey Burney MBE (1917 – 18 December 1980) was an upper-class Englishman who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. Biography In 1941, Pierre de Vomécourt organized AUTOGYRO, one of the fi ...

, British officer and Special Operations Executive (SOE) operative *

Marian Ciepielowski Marian Ciepielowski (30 August 1907–1 February 1973) was a Polish physician and scientist. A survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, he is best known for his activity as a saboteur within the camp's vaccine production unit. Ciepielows ...

, Polish physician * Robert Clary, French actor, Corporal Louis LeBeau in the ''Hogan's Heroes'' television series *

René Cogny René Cogny (25 April 1904, Saint-Valery-en-Caux – 11 September 1968) was a French Général de corps d'armée, World War II and French Resistance veteran and survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp, Buchenwald and Mauthausen-Gusen concentratio ...

, French general *

Seweryn Franciszek Światopełk-Czetwertyński Prince Seweryn Franciszek Światopełk-Czetwertyński (; b. 18 April 1873 in Warsaw – 19 June 1945 in Edinburgh, Scotland) was a Polish landowner, entrepreneur and politician. He belonged to a cadet branch of the Czetwertyński family, historica ...

, Polish politician * Édouard Daladier, French politician, former head of the French government * Marcel Dassault, French aviation entrepreneur who founded the Dassault Group *

Hélie de Saint Marc Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc or Hélie de Saint Marc, (11 February 1922 – 26 August 2013) was a senior member of the French resistance and a senior active officer of the French Army, having served in the French Foreign Legion, in particular at t ...

, member of the French resistance, later involved in the attempted Algiers putsch of 1961 * Léon Delarbre, French artist and museum curator * Laure Diebold, French resistant, Compagnon de la Libération * Willem Drees, Dutch politician and prime minister, held as hostage in Buchenwald from 1940 to 1941 * Ernest Emanuel Israel Dreyfus, painter who emigrated to London and then to Chicago, Illinois *

Franz Ehrlich Franz Ehrlich (28 December 1907 in Reudnitz near Leipzig – 28 November 1984 in Bernburg) was a German architect, calligrapher and graphic designer. He was a student at the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1927 to 1930. Ehrlich was a Communist and was ...

, German architect, designer of the Buchenwald entrance gates *

Marian Filar Marian Filar is the name of: * Marian Filar (pianist), Polish pianist *Marian Filar (politician) Marian Filar (6 October 1942 – 1 June 2020) was a Polish lawyer, academic and politician who served as a member of the Sejm from 2007 to 2011. ...

, Polish Jewish concert pianist and virtuoso. * Ludwik Fleck, Polish serologist and philosopher of science. * Henri Frager, French resistance member, second in command of CARTE, then head of DONKEYMAN network * Josef Frank (politician), Czech communist * Carl Simon Fried, physician, radiologist, poet *

Joseph Friedenson Joseph Friedenson ( yi, יוסף פֿרידענזאָן, 1922–2013) was a Holocaust survivor, Holocaust historian, Yiddish writer, lecturer, and editor of '. Friedenson was born in Łódź, Poland in April, 1922, to Rabbi Eliezer Gershon, an act ...

, writer and editor *

August Froehlich August Froehlich (26 January 1891 – 22 June 1942) was an Upper Silesian Roman Catholic priest. In his pastoral activity he opposed National Socialism. He campaigned in the name of German Catholics and of Polish forced labourers. He died in Dach ...

, German Roman Catholic priest active in resistance movement against the National Socialism * Henry P. Glass, Austrian Architect and Industrial Designer, transferred from Dachau in September 1938, released in January 1939, moved to the US *

Albin Grau Albin Grau (December 22, 1884 in Leipzig-Schönefeld – March 27, 1971) was a German artist, architect and occultist, and the producer and production designer for F.W. Murnau's ''Nosferatu'' (1922). He was largely responsible for the look and ...

, film producer ('' Nosferatu'', 1922) * Maurice Halbwachs French sociologist, died in the camp in 1945 * {{Interlanguage link multi, Max Hamburger (psychiatrist), nl, Max Hamburger, lt=Max Hamburger, Dutch psychiatrist *

Bertrand Herz Bertrand may refer to: Places * Bertrand, Missouri, US * Bertrand, Nebraska, US * Bertrand, New Brunswick, Canada * Bertrand Township, Michigan, US * Bertrand, Michigan * Bertrand, Virginia, US * Bertrand Creek, state of Washington * Saint-Bert ...

, French engineer, president of IKBD (International Committee Buchenwald Dora and commandos) *

Curt Herzstark Curt Herzstark (January 26, 1902 – October 27, 1988) was an Austrian engineer. During World War II, he designed plans for a mechanical pocket calculator (the ''Curta''). Life and career Herzstark was born in Vienna, the son of Marie and Samuel ...

inventor of the Curta calculator, hand-held, hand-cranked mechanical calculator * Heinrich Eduard Jacob, German writer *

Paul-Émile Janson Paul-Émile (Paul Emil) Janson (30 May 1872 – 3 March 1944) was a francophone Belgian liberal politician and the prime minister from 1937 to 1938. During the German occupation, he was arrested as a political prisoner and died in a German concen ...

, Belgian politician, former Prime Minister of Belgium, died in the camp in 1944 * Léon Jouhaux, French trade unionist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate *

Józef Kachel Józef Kachel (6 September 1913 – 1983) was a Polish Boy Scouts Scoutmaster in Germany, a member of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), and a Member of the Polish Parliament Biography Born in Beuthen in Upper Silesia, Kachel came from ...

, Scout leader, head of the pre-war Polish Scouting Association in Germany * Imre Kertész writer, 2002

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

recipient *

Eugen Kogon Eugen Kogon (2 February 1903 – 24 December 1987) was a historian and Nazi concentration camp survivor. A well-known Christian opponent of the Nazi Party, he was arrested more than once and spent six years at Buchenwald concentration camp. Kogon ...

, anti-Nazi activist, later Christian Socialist, professor, broadcaster and author * Phillip (Phil) J. Lamason, Squadron Leader, Royal New Zealand Air Force * Leon Lasota, (born 1921) Polish resistance fighter and political dissident. Successfully escaped the camp after three years of internment. Subsequently assisted the Allies as a translator. * Yisrael Meir Lau (born 1937),

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel The Chief Rabbinate of Israel ( he, הָרַבָּנוּת הָרָאשִׁית לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Ha-Rabbanut Ha-Rashit Li-Yisra'el'') is recognized by law as the supreme rabbinic authority for Judaism in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Co ...

Hermann Leopoldi Hermann Leopoldi (born ''Hersch Kohn''; 15 August 1888 – 28 June 1959) was an Austrian composer and cabaret star who survived Dachau and Buchenwald. Einzi Stolz, wife of composer Robert Stolz, remembered him thus: :"Leopoldi was for us all ...

, Austrian composer and entertainer * Fritz Löhner-Beda, Austrian lyricist * Artur London, senior Czech communist and writer, future government minister Buchenwald Executions 13143

* Jacques Lusseyran, blind French memoirist and professor * Henri Maspero, French Sinologist, pioneering scholar of Taoism, died in the camp in March 1945 * Karl Mayr, Adolf Hitler's immediate superior in an Army Intelligence Division in the Reichswehr, 1919–1920, died in the camp in 1945 *

Mel Mermelstein Melvin Mermelstein (born Moric Mermelstein; September 25, 1926 – January 28, 2022) was a Czechoslovak-born American Holocaust survivor and autobiographer. A Jew, he was the sole-survivor of his family's extermination at Auschwitz concentration ...

* Paul Morgan, Austrian actor, died in the camp in 1938 * John H. Noble, American-born gulag survivor and author; Family owner of the Praktica Camera factory, Dresden 1945 *

Andrée Peel Andrée Peel (3 February 1905 – 5 March 2010) was a member of the French Resistance during the Second World War who worked against the German occupation of France. She was known as Agent Rose, a code name shared with Eileen Nearne. Early lif ...

, Member of the French resistance * Rudolf Perth, Austrian politician and Jew 1938. *

Harry Peulevé Harry Peulevé LdH CdeG MdeR DSO MC (29 January 1916 – 18 March 1963) was a Special Operations Executive agent who undertook two missions in occupied France and escaped from Buchenwald concentration camp. Early life Henri Leonard Thoma ...

, an agent of the SOE who managed to escape Buchenwald with

F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas Wing Commander Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas, (17 June 1902 – 26 February 1964), known as "Tommy", was a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent in the Second World War. Codenamed "Seahorse" and "Shelley" in the SOE, Yeo-Thomas ...

. * Henri Christiaan Pieck, Dutch painter and twin brother of Anton Pieck *

Karl Plättner Karl Plättner (3 January 1893 – 4 June 1945) was a German communist, militant social revolutionary and author. Biography Youth and education Karl Robert Plättner was born into poverty in Ballenstedt on the northern edge of the Harz moun ...

, Communist * Paul Rassinier, considered the father of Holocaust denial *

Jean Riboud Jean Riboud (15 November 1919 – 20 October 1985) was a French socialist, corporate executive and the chairman of Schlumberger, the largest oilfield services company in the world. He was a member of the French Resistance during World War II and s ...

, French corporate executive and former chairman of

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

Jakob Rosenfeld Jakob Rosenfeld (January 11, 1903 – April 22, 1952), known in China as General Luo or Luo Shengte, was a Holocaust survivor and urologist who fled to Shanghai, China due to the repression he faced in Austria, which had been annexed by Naz ...

, minister of health under Mao *

Herbert Sandberg Herbert Sandberg (April 18, 1908 – March 18, 1991) was a German artist and caricaturist. He was best known for his caricatures in the satirical magazine, ''Ulenspiegel'', which he co-founded and art directed. He is also well known for his drawin ...

, artist, designer, publisher of '' Ulenspiegel'' * Paul Schneider, German pastor, died in the camp in 1939 * Jorge Semprún, Spanish intellectual and politician and culture minister of Spain (1988–91) *

Jura Soyfer Jura Soyfer (8 December 1912, Kharkov, Russian Empire – 15/16 February 1939, Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany) was an Austrian political journalist and cabaret writer. Life Jura Soyfer was the son of the industrialist Vladimir Soyfer a ...

, Austrian poet and dramatist, died in the camp in 1939 * Boris Taslitzky (1911- 2005), French painter. * Ernst Thälmann, leader of the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

, died in the camp in April 1944 * Jack van der Geest, escapee * Fred Wander, Austrian writer *

Ernst Wiechert Ernst Wiechert (18 May 1887 – 24 August 1950) was a German teacher, poet and writer. Biography Wiechert was born in the village of Kleinort, East Prussia, (now Piersławek, Poland). He was one of the most widely read novelists in Germany ...

, German writer *

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel b ...

, Romanian Jewish French-American writer, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize recipient *

, Royal Air Force Wing Commander and British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, codenamed "The White Rabbit" * Petr Zenkl, Czech National Social Party politician, deputy Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia (1946–1948) *

Princess Mafalda of Savoy Princess Mafalda of Savoy (19 November 1902 – 28 August 1944) was the second daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife Elena of Montenegro. The future King Umberto II of Italy was her younger brother. Biography Princess Mafa ...

, the daughter of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, died in the camp in 1944. *

Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt (11 January 1901 – 18 February 1947) was the last ruler of the Duchy of Anhalt. Biography He was born in Dessau, the son of Duke Eduard of Anhalt (1861–1918) and Princess Louise Charlotte of Saxe-Altenburg ...

, died in Soviet custody in 1947. *

Ferdinand Münz Ferdinand Münz (1888-1969) was an Austrian chemist who first synthesized EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) at the IG Farben in 1935, patented both in Germany (anonymously) and in the USA (with his name), with the aim of producing a citric a ...

(1888-1969), chemist. The inventor of EDTA. Buchenwald concentration camp