Working During the Winter Holidays
There were many ways to exterminate prisoners by work in Buchenwald, the official goal of Buchenwald was the destruction of the prisoners by that work. During the entire summer of 1937, the SS forced the prisoners to use their “free time” to carry huge stones from the quarry to the camp. Those who had the misfortune to carry stones that were too small in the eyes of the SS, were immediately killed. Thousands of prisoners died during the construction of the road leading from the foot of the Ettersberg to the entry of the camp. This road was called “Blood Street ” by the prisoners. Later, dozen of prisoners were chained to huge four-wheel carts and had to pull enormous loads to the camp while forced to sing by the SS. The SS used to call those prisoners the “Singing Horses”.
There were 63,084 prisoners in Buchenwald in December 1944, and the population reached 80,436 in late March 1945.