After World War II, Buchenwald served as a Soviet internment camp from 1945 until 1950. While the majority of these prisoners were suspected Nazis or sympathizers with the Third Reich, there were also many common criminals as well as political opponents of the new Soviet rule. Used in the bloody de-Nazification process, Buchenwald again became synonymous with suffering and death.

Today the debate surrounding the victims of this internment camp can be explained along political lines. The conservative right political parties have petitioned for a plaque or memorial statue inside the camp gates recognizing those who lost their lives during the time Buchenwald served as a station for the corrupt process of de-Nazification. The right feels that both groups of people as well as those who lost their lives on the same site during the Third Reich should be represented together as victims of oppressive regimes.

The left views the possibility of these two groups being memorialized on the same plaque as offensive. While it has been proven that the Soviets interned men not because of their affiliation with Nazism, but because of their opposition to Communism, the majority of the victims did hold Nazi sympathies and the left feels it would be sacrilegious to honor the victims of the Third Reich and their murderers in the same space.

Please see Historyfor the preWWII history of Buchenwald

Concentration camp buildings should be restored on their former sites.

Concentrations camps should be preserved in their current state.

Preservation sites are the most thought provoking memorials.

The memorial statues outside the camp are the most effective.