During the history of Buchenwald concentration camp, thousands of people were imprisoned.

• Roy Allen, American pilot
• Jean Améry, Austrian-Belgian writer
• Robert Antelme, French writer
• Jacob Avigdor, before World War II Chief Rabbi of Drohobych, afterward Chief Rabbi of Mexico
• Conrad Baars, psychiatrist
• Fritz Beckhardt, German-Jewish World War I fighter pilot
• Fritz Behr, German politician (SPD, SED), educator and literary scholar who would become mayor of Weimar
• Robert Benoist, French world champion motor racing driver and member of the British Special Operations Executive, executed on 9 September 1944
• Bruno Bettelheim, Jewish Austrian-American child psychologist
• Józef Biniszkiewicz, Polish socialist politician
• Jan Bissinger, German-Polish Forestry Engineer, Polish WWII Fighter
• Léon Blum, Jewish French politician, pre-and post-war long-term French prime minister
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Protestant theologian and prominent member of the Confessing Church
• Boris Braun, Croatian University professor
• Rudolf Brazda, the last known surviving homosexual deported to the camps; died in 2011
• Rudolf Breitscheid, former member of the SPD and leader of its faction in the Weimar Reichstag, died in the camp in 1944
• Christopher Burney, British officer and Special Operations Executive (SOE) operative
• Marian Ciepielowski, Polish physician
• Robert Clary, French actor, Corporal Louis LeBeau in the Hogan's Heroes television series
• René Cogny, French general
• Seweryn Franciszek Światopełk-Czetwertyński, Polish politician
• Édouard Daladier, French politician, former head of the French government
• Marcel Dassault, French aviation entrepreneur who founded the Dassault Group
• Hélie de Saint Marc, member of the French resistance, later involved in the attempted Algiers putsch of 1961
• Léon Delarbre, French artist and museum curator
• Laure Diebold, French resistant, Compagnon de la Libération
• Willem Drees, Dutch politician and prime minister, held as hostage in Buchenwald from 1940 to 1941
• Ernest Emanuel Israel Dreyfus, painter who emigrated to London and then to Chicago, Illinois
• Franz Ehrlich, German architect, designer of the Buchenwald entrance gates
• Marian Filar, Polish Jewish concert pianist and virtuoso.
• Ludwik Fleck, Polish serologist and philosopher of science.
• Henri Frager, French resistance member, second in command of CARTE, then head of DONKEYMAN network
• Josef Frank (politician), Czech communist
• Carl Simon Fried, physician, radiologist, poet
• Joseph Friedenson, writer and editor
• Frans Frison, Belgian resister, transported from Breendonk.^[1]
• August Froehlich, German Roman Catholic priest active in resistance movement against the National Socialism
• Henry P. Glass, Austrian Architect and Industrial Designer, transferred from Dachau in September 1938, released in January 1939, moved to the US
• Albin Grau, film producer (Nosferatu, 1922)
• Maurice Halbwachs French sociologist, died in the camp in 1945
• Max Hamburger [nl], Dutch psychiatrist
• Bertrand Herz, French engineer, president of IKBD (International Committee Buchenwald Dora and commandos)
• Curt Herzstark inventor of the Curta calculator, hand-held, hand-cranked mechanical calculator
• Heinrich Eduard Jacob, German writer
• Paul-Émile Janson, Belgian politician, former Prime Minister of Belgium, died in the camp in 1944
• Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt, died in Soviet custody in 1947.
• Léon Jouhaux, French trade unionist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• Józef Kachel, Scout leader, head of the pre-war Polish Scouting Association in Germany
• Imre Kertész writer, 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient
• Eugen Kogon, anti-Nazi activist, later Christian Socialist, professor, broadcaster and author
• Phillip (Phil) J. Lamason, Squadron Leader, Royal New Zealand Air Force
• Leon Lasota, (born 1921) Polish resistance fighter and political dissident. Successfully escaped the camp after three years of internment. Subsequently assisted the Allies as a translator.
• Yisrael Meir Lau (born 1937), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
• Hermann Leopoldi, Austrian composer and entertainer
• Fritz Löhner-Beda, Austrian lyricist
• Artur London, senior Czech communist and writer, future government minister
• Jacques Lusseyran, blind French memoirist and professor
• Princess Mafalda of Savoy, the daughter of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, died in the camp in 1944.
• Henri Maspero, French Sinologist, pioneering scholar of Taoism, died in the camp in March 1945
• Karl Mayr, Adolf Hitler's immediate superior in an Army Intelligence Division in the Reichswehr, 1919–1920, died in the camp in 1945
• Mel Mermelstein
• Paul Morgan, Austrian actor, died in the camp in 1938
• Joseph F. Moser, American pilot
• Ferdinand Münz (1888-1969), chemist. The inventor of EDTA.
• John H. Noble, American-born gulag survivor and author; Family owner of the Praktica Camera factory, Dresden 1945
• Louis Nouveau, French, member Pat O'Leary escape line
• Andrée Peel, Member of the French resistance
• Rudolf Perth, Austrian politician and Jew 1938.
• Harry Peulevé, an agent of the SOE who managed to escape Buchenwald with F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas.
• Henri Christiaan Pieck, Dutch painter and twin brother of Anton Pieck
• Karl Plättner, Communist
• Paul Rassinier, considered the father of Holocaust denial
• Jean Riboud, French corporate executive and former chairman of Schlumberger
• Jakob Rosenfeld, minister of health under Mao
• Herbert Sandberg, artist, designer, publisher of Ulenspiegel
• Paul Schneider, German pastor, died in the camp in 1939
• Jorge Semprún, Spanish intellectual and politician and culture minister of Spain (1988–91)
• Jura Soyfer, Austrian poet and dramatist, died in the camp in 1939
• Boris Taslitzky (1911- 2005), French painter.
• Ernst Thälmann, leader of the Communist Party of Germany, died in the camp in April 1944
• Jack van der Geest, escapee
• Fred Wander, Austrian writer
• Ernst Wiechert, German writer
• Elie Wiesel, Romanian Jewish French-American writer, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize recipient
• F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, Royal Air Force Wing Commander and British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, codenamed "The White Rabbit"
• Petr Zenkl, Czech National Social Party politician, deputy Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia (1946–1948)
• Icilio Zuliani, Italian footballer, died after liberation in 1945
• Horia Sima, imprisoned in a humane section of the camp alongside other Iron Guard members