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Buchenwald summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Buchenwald.

Buchenwald , 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 labourers 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 Ilse Koch (1906?–67), the “Witch of Buchenwald.” See also Holocaust.

Nazi Party Summary

Nazi Party, political party of the mass movement known as National Socialism. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, the party came to power in Germany in 1933 and governed by totalitarian methods until 1945. Antisemitism was fundamental to the party’s ideology and led to the Holocaust, the

Holocaust Summary

Holocaust, the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this “the final solution to the Jewish question.” Yiddish-speaking Jews and survivors in the years

World War II Summary

World War II, conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—and the Allies—France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China. The war was in many

Germany Summary

Germany, country of north-central Europe, traversing the continent’s main physical divisions, from the outer ranges of the Alps northward across the varied landscape of the Central German Uplands and then across the North German Plain. One of Europe’s largest countries, Germany encompasses a wide

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Nazi Germany, Nazi SS troops marching with victory standards at the Party Day rally in Nuremberg, Germany, 1933. (Schutzstaffel, Nazi Party, Nurnberg)

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Nazi Party summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Nazi Party.

Nazi Party, German political party of National Socialism. Founded in 1919 as the German Workers’ Party, it changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party when Adolf Hitler became leader (1920–21). The nickname Nazi was taken from the first word of its full name, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. The party grew from its home base in Bavaria and attracted members from disaffected elements throughout Germany. It organized strong-arm groups (later the SA) to protect its rallies. Though the failed Beer Hall Putsch diminished the party’s influence, the effects of the Great Depression brought millions of new members, and in 1932 the party became the largest bloc in the Reichstag. After Hitler was named chancellor in 1933, he obtained passage of the Enabling Act, and his government declared the Nazi party to be the only political party in Germany and required bureaucrats to become members. The party controlled virtually all activities in Germany until Germany’s defeat in World War II (1945), after which the party was banned.

Third Reich Summary

Third Reich, official Nazi designation for the regime in Germany from January 1933 to May 1945, as the presumed successor of the medieval and early modern Holy Roman Empire of 800 to 1806 (the First Reich) and the German Empire of 1871 to 1918 (the Second Reich). With the onset of the Great

watchtower at Buchenwald concentration camp

Buchenwald Summary

Buchenwald, one of the biggest of the Nazi concentration camps established on German soil. Its name means “beech forest” in German, and it stood on a wooded hill about 4.5 miles (7 km) northwest of Weimar, Germany. Set up in 1937, it complemented the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen to the

Nürnberg trials Summary

Nürnberg trials, series of trials held in Nürnberg, Germany, in 1945–46, in which former Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals by the International Military Tribunal. The indictment lodged against them contained four counts: (1) crimes against peace (i.e., the planning, initiating,

Reinhard Heydrich Summary

Reinhard Heydrich was a Nazi German official who was Heinrich Himmler’s chief lieutenant in the Schutzstaffel (“Protective Echelon”), the paramilitary corps commonly known as the SS. He played a key role in organizing the Holocaust during the opening years of World War II. Heydrich’s father, who