One of the first and biggest of the German Nazi concentration camps, established in 1937 near Weimar.
In World War II it held about 20,000 prisoners, most of whom worked as slave laborers in nearby factories. Though there were no gas chambers, many perished through disease, malnutrition, exhaustion, beatings, and executions. Inmates were used to test the effects of viral infections and vaccines. The commandant's wife was the infamously sadistic Ilsa Koch (1906?–1967), the "Witch of Buchenwald." See also Holocaust .