Resistance within Buchenwald
In response to the abominable living conditions and the SS terror, a powerful underground organization was created in the last years of the activity of the camp--a sort of network of resistance. Numerous prisoners sentenced to death by the SS were hidden within the camp, a factor that was made possible by the overcrowding of Buchenwald (Buchenwald (Germany)).
Among the various groups of prisoners held at Buchenwald, the Communist political prisoners were the ones that formed and organized the underground movement of resistance that managed to sabotage the work in the ammunition factories and smuggle weapons into the camp. Several of its members engaged in saving other inmates' lives. Among them were Walter Kraemer who illegally smuggled a Jewish prisoner out of the "Small Camp" for medical treatment and who was killed because he refused to orders of the SS doctor; Willi Bleicher who rescued Stefan, the three-year-old son of the Polish Jewish doctor Dr. Zacharia Zweig; Wilhelm Hammann who was the head of Barrack 8 where the children were held and who had the children replace the patches identifying them as Jews; and Walter Sonntag who prevented the evacuation of the Jews in his Barrack -- Block 49 -- on April 6, 1945, thus saving them from the death march. The resistance within Buchenwald managed to slow down the evacuation of prisoners from the camp on death marches as the American forces approached, and when the Americans liberated Buchenwald, there were 21,000 survivors (Buchenwald Concentration Camp and the Rescue of Jews).
The German Communist Party planted its members in the central posts available to inmates, to support one another, and to have a say in developments within the camp. Until 1938, the internal administration of Buchenwald was mainly in the hands of these Communist political prisoners (Buchenwald Concentration Camp). The underground resistance organization in Buchenwald, whose members held key administrative posts in the camp, saved many lives by obstructing Nazi orders and delaying the evacuation of prisoners on the death march (Buchenwald).
Among the various groups of prisoners held at Buchenwald, the Communist political prisoners were the ones that formed and organized the underground movement of resistance that managed to sabotage the work in the ammunition factories and smuggle weapons into the camp. Several of its members engaged in saving other inmates' lives. Among them were Walter Kraemer who illegally smuggled a Jewish prisoner out of the "Small Camp" for medical treatment and who was killed because he refused to orders of the SS doctor; Willi Bleicher who rescued Stefan, the three-year-old son of the Polish Jewish doctor Dr. Zacharia Zweig; Wilhelm Hammann who was the head of Barrack 8 where the children were held and who had the children replace the patches identifying them as Jews; and Walter Sonntag who prevented the evacuation of the Jews in his Barrack -- Block 49 -- on April 6, 1945, thus saving them from the death march. The resistance within Buchenwald managed to slow down the evacuation of prisoners from the camp on death marches as the American forces approached, and when the Americans liberated Buchenwald, there were 21,000 survivors (Buchenwald Concentration Camp and the Rescue of Jews).
The German Communist Party planted its members in the central posts available to inmates, to support one another, and to have a say in developments within the camp. Until 1938, the internal administration of Buchenwald was mainly in the hands of these Communist political prisoners (Buchenwald Concentration Camp). The underground resistance organization in Buchenwald, whose members held key administrative posts in the camp, saved many lives by obstructing Nazi orders and delaying the evacuation of prisoners on the death march (Buchenwald).