Ed Murrow reports from London to CBS Radio Network, April 15, 1945. Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps established by the Nazis. The field was built in 1937 in a wooded area on the northern slope of the Etterberg, about five miles northwest of Weimar in central eastern Germany. During the Nazi regime , "Weimar" came to be associated with the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Murrow reports...on the aftermath of The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.

Buchenwald was opened for male prisoners in July 1937. Women were not part of the system of camps of Buchenwald until 1944. Prisoners were confined to the northern part of the field in an area known as the main camp, while the barracks of the guards of the SS and the administrative compound of the field were located in the southern part. The main camp was surrounded by an electrified barbed wire fence, watchtowers, and a chain of sentries equipped with automatically activated machine guns. The jail, also known as the Bunker, was located at the entrance to the main camp. The SS carried out shootings in the stables and hangings in the crematorium area.