Town in Germany. In 1937, the Nazis established a concentration camp there to provide slave labor for factories in central Germany. In November 1938, 10,000 German Jews arrived in Buchenwald; by 1944, the figure rose to nearly 100,000. Among the prominent political prisoners was the former French premier Leon Blum, who was liberated by American troops on April 11, 1945. Many inmates died of hunger, disease, and maltreatment. (See also Holocaust.)