Buchenwald Resistance The Buchenwald Resistance was a resistance group of prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp . It involved Communists , Social Democrats , and people affiliated with other political parties , unaffiliated people , and Christians . Because Buchenwald prisoners came from a number of countries , the Resistance was also international . Members tried to sabotage Nazi efforts where they could , worked to save the lives of inmates who were children and in the last days of the camp , with many Nazi s fleeing the approaching allied troops , they tried to gain control of the camp itself . After liberation , the prisoners created documents related to their experiences and formed an international committee to look after the welfare of survivors . Forms of resistance . Certain administrative duties in the concentration camp s were given by the SS to " prisoner functionaries " . Originally , these tasks were assigned to criminal prisoners , but after 1939 , political prisoners began to displace the criminal prisoners , though criminals were preferred by the SS . Political prisoners took over important positions as " prisoner functionaries " until liberation . The criminal functionaries were known for their brutality , which they used in order to impress the SS guards and improve their own lot . They were hated by other prisoners , who were eventually able to bring them down by uncovering evidence of theft from camp warehouses . After the German - Soviet non - aggression treaty of August 1939 , the ideological antagonism between the Nazis and the Communists was temporarily mollified . The SS knew that Communists were able to organize people and that they had an international network , which , from the point of view of the concentration camp direction , was useful because after the start of the war , Buchenwald had a multilingual prisoner population . When Germany later invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 , the Communist prisoners at first lost these positions , but later managed to win them back . To strengthen camp cohesion , the Communist kapos made sure that prisoner functionaries were from every country . They also worked with Social Democrats and middle class politicians to set up the People ' s Front policy of the Comintern . The scope of the " red " ( Communist ) kapo s was narrow . They were always under threat of being stripped of their responsibilities and of being killed . Nonetheless , as prisoner functionaries , they had a certain mobility and freedom of action , which they used , in whatever means possible , to preserve the lives of other prisoners . The main area of the red kapos ' work was in the " office of the labor statistics " , the camp infirmary and as camp guard surrogates . In the office of labor statistics , the prisoner work details were planned and lists were made as to which prisoners were in which outside work detail . They could , for example , place specific Resistance fighters on work details to infiltrate the notorious Dora - Mittelbau camp . A prisoner could hardly survive longer than 6 weeks in the camp ' s tunnels . Nonetheless , prisoners like Albert Kuntz managed to build a resistance organization that committed sabotage of the V - 2 rocket s . In the camp infirmary , kapos were able to briefly " hide " other prisoners from the SS . On occasion , they were able to send a prisoner there whose life was under immediate threat and have the records show the person as having died , then secretly give that prisoner the identity of another prisoner who had , in fact , recently died . One kapo , Robert Siewert , himself a bricklayer , was able to convince the SS to allow Polish children to be trained as bricklayers , of which the Nazis had need for their many construction projects , thus saving a number of boys from certain death . International Buchenwald Committee . The Committee began as an underground conspiracy of prisoners from the concentration camp , but still exists today . With the arrival of political prisoners from the various countries under Nazi occupation , the German political prisoners found contacts with members of the respective national organizations . The International Camp Committee ( ICC ) was organized under the leadership of the German Communist , Walter Bartel and it became the conspiratorial center of political anti - Nazi resistance at the camp in July 1943 . The founding and meeting place of the ICC was a screened room in the infirmary . Under its leadership , an International Military Organization of Buchenwald was also formed . At the end of the war , as American troops were closing in on the camp , most of the guards and higher Nazi officers of the camp fled . The prisoners were able to mount a camp - wide rebellion and liberate the camp just prior to the Americans ' arrival . Two American intelligence officers , Egon W . Fleck and First Lieutenant Edward A . Tenenbaum reported coming across a unit of thousands of armed prisoners , marching in formation outside the camp on April 11 , 1945 . Minors saved from extermination . There were hundreds of children and teenagers at Buchenwald whose lives were saved . The film " The Boys of Buchenwald " examines their efforts to re - join society after their experience as Nazi prisoners . The French film " La Maison de Nina " also examines the topic of children survivors . A few of those saved were : Buchenwald Popular Front Committee . Anti - fascists in Buchenwald built a united front composed of members from different parties . In 1944 , they succeeded in building a German " Popular Front Committee " . This was a clandestine organization within the camp . The main members were Hermann Brill of the Social Democratic Party ( SPD ) as chairman , Dr . Werner Hilpert from the Zentrumspartei , later the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) , Ernst Thape from the SPD and Walter Wolf of the ( KPD ) . Documents . After the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11 , 1945 , there were several prisoners ' groups that made resolutions and declarations . Declaration of the Popular Front Committee . On April 19 , 1945 , at the memorial rally of the international camp committee in honor of Buchenwald ' s dead , the People ' s Front Committee presented its resolution before 21 , 000 survivors . Buchenwald Oath . Contents . The core of the Buchenwald Oath is : " We will take up the fight until the last culprit stands before the judges of the people . Our watchword is the destruction of Nazism from its roots . Our goal is to build a new world of peace and freedom . This is our responsibility to our murdered friends and their relatives . After the Buchwald Oath was read aloud , the prisoners raised their hands and said , " We swear " . Reception . The Buchenwald Oath was , for the Communist Resistance fighters , an important symbol in the fight against fascism . The role of Communist functionary prisoners is the subject of controversial debate , also because they were exploited by the German Democratic Republic ( GDR ) . In the GDR , the Resistance was viewed within the framework of socialist anti - fascism . The achievements of the Communist Resistance fighters were glorified while other Resistance fighters and the fate of the Jewish victims were little discussed . In contrast , in West Germany , the contribution of the Communists was hardly mentioned . In recent years , the question of how much the functionary prisoners cooperated with the SS and how much they themselves were part of the tyranny in the camp has also been much discussed . Buchenwald Manifesto . Contents of the Buchenwald Manifesto . The Buchenwald Manifesto , written by doctor of law Hermann Brill and others , calls for the eradication of fascism through specific measures , for the establishment of a People ' s Republic , labor reform ( e . g . the eight - hour day and the right to form trade unions ) , for socialization of economy , peace and rights through reparations , humanism , freedom of education , the arts and " socialist unity " . The Manifesto stated ( in part ) the following : The Buchenwald Manifesto ended with the following words : Signatories . The Manifesto was signed by Heinz Baumeister ( Dortmund ) ; Gottlieb Branz ( Munich ) Dr . Hermann Brill ( Berlin ) ; Benedikt Kautsky , ( Vienna ) , Karl Mantler ( Vienna ) , Erich Schilling ( Leipzig ) , Ernst Thape ( Magdeburg ) , among others from Germany and other countries . Buchenwald Communist Party Resolution . At the time of liberation , the clandestine Buchenwald KPD consisted of 629 prisoners from 22 different district branches . Added to that were 111 new candidates for membership . Another 59 prisoners were not accepted for membership for failure to fulfill party obligations . The party began to function legally again and on April 22 , 1945 , held a delegates ' meeting at Buchenwald , where the recent experiences were evaluated and a plan of action for the future was proclaimed . The document referred to fascism and war as " attempt of German monopoly capitalism , to " overcome the economic crisis by means of a brutal , fascist dictatorship and an imperialist war " . This was to entrench German monopoly capital as a dominant power in the world . The resolution said further ,