The SS left behind accounts of the number of prisoners and people coming to and leaving the camp, categorizing those leaving them by release, transfer, or death.
These accounts are one of the sources of estimates for the number of deaths in Buchenwald.
According to SS documents, 33,462 died.
These documents were not, however, necessarily accurate: Among those executed before 1944, many were listed as "transferred to the Gestapo".
Furthermore, from 1941, Soviet POWs were executed in mass killings.
Arriving prisoners selected for execution were not entered into the camp register and therefore were not among the 33,462 dead listed.

One former Buchenwald prisoner, Armin Walter, calculated the number of executions by the number of shootings in the spine at the base of the head.
His job at Buchenwald was to set up and care for a radio installation at the facility where people were executed; he counted the numbers, which arrived by telex, and hid the information.
He says that 8,483 Soviet prisoners of war were shot in this manner.

According to the same source, the total number of deaths at Buchenwald is estimated at 56,545.
This number is the sum of:
Deaths according to material left behind by the SS: 33,462
Executions by shooting: 8,483
Executions by hanging (estimate): 1,100
Deaths during evacuation transports (estimate): 13,500
This total (56,545) corresponds to a death rate of 24 percent, assuming that the number of persons passing through the camp according to documents left by the SS, 240,000 prisoners, is accurate.
The SS left behind accounts of the number of prisoners and people coming to and leaving the camp, categorizing those leaving them by release, transfer, or death. These accounts are one of the sources of estimates for the number of deaths in Buchenwald. According to SS documents, 33,462 died. These documents were not, however, necessarily accurate: Among those executed before 1944, many were listed as "transferred to the Gestapo". Furthermore, from 1941, Soviet POWs were executed in mass killings. Arriving prisoners selected for execution were not entered into the camp register and therefore were not among the 33,462 dead listed.
One former Buchenwald prisoner, Armin Walter, calculated the number of executions by the number of shootings in the spine at the base of the head. His job at Buchenwald was to set up and care for a radio installation at the facility where people were executed; he counted the numbers, which arrived by telex, and hid the information. He says that 8,483 Soviet prisoners of war were shot in this manner.
According to the same source, the total number of deaths at Buchenwald is estimated at 56,545. This number is the sum of:
Deaths according to material left behind by the SS: 33,462
Executions by shooting: 8,483
Executions by hanging (estimate): 1,100
Deaths during evacuation transports (estimate): 13,500
This total (56,545) corresponds to a death rate of 24 percent, assuming that the number of persons passing through the camp according to documents left by the SS, 240,000 prisoners, is accurate.
Buchenwald concentration camp