The number of deaths in the Buchenwald concentration camp is estimated to have been 56,545, a mortality rate of 20% averaged over all prisoners transferred to the camp between its founding in 1937 and its liberation in 1945. Deaths were due both to the harsh conditions of life in the camp and also to the executions carried out by camp overseers. According to the records of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) in charge of overseeing the camp, the total number of deaths was 33,462; however, this tabulation does not include prisoners executed before 1944 (euphemistically listed as "transferred to Gestapo"), prisoners who were executed immediately upon arrival at the camp, or mass killings of Soviet prisoners of war. Background The Buchenwald concentration camp was established in 1937, 10 kilometers from Weimar. The prisoners of the camp were Jews, political prisoners, religious prisoners and prisoners of war. They came from Russia, Poland, France, Germany, Austria, Ukraine and other countries. The American army liberated Buchenwald on 11 April 1945. In the days before, thousands of the prisoners were evacuated by the retreating German camp guards. An estimated 13,500 prisoners died in this evacuation process. Death count calculation One cause of the deaths in the concentration camp Buchenwald was illness due to the harsh conditions in the camp. Furthermore, many were murdered. The two primary methods of murder were shooting in the back of the head and hanging. The SS accounts of prisoners coming to and leaving the camp provide one source for the estimate of the number of deaths in Buchenwald. These numbers were divided into three categories: releases, transfers, and deaths. According to this material, 33,462 died in Buchenwald. There are flaws, however, in these accounts. For example, people executed before 1944 were listed as ”transferred to Gestapo”. Newly arrived prisoners who were sent for immediate execution were not listed in the camp register. From 1941, the mass killings of Soviet prisoners of war went unrecorded. One former prisoner of Buchenwald, Armin Walter, made a calculation of the number of executions by shooting in the back of the head. While incarcerated, he was instructed to set up and maintain a radio installation in the facility where the executions took place. He counted the numbers, which came via telex, and hid this information. He says that 8,483 Soviet prisoners of war were shot in this manner. In "Buchenwald: Mahnung und Verpflichtung: Dokumente und