At the end of April 1945, the American army liberated the Dachau concentration camp. The pictures of the mass extermination of people seen by the soldiers made such a strong impression on them that they dealt with part of the SS men right in the camp and did not interfere with the prisoners to settle scores with their tormentors. These events became known as the "Dachau Massacre". In May 1945, an investigation into this incident was held, but a decision was made at the highest level not to punish the military for this failure.
Liberation
At 11 am on April 29, the 3rd Battalion of the 157th Infantry Regiment of the 45th American Division, having overcome several sniper ambushes, approached the western gate of the Dachau concentration camp.
By this time, most of the guards had already left the camp. Selected Nazis from the SS-Totenkopfverbände (special units that guarded concentration camps) fled on April 28th. The last commandant of Dachau, Martin Weiss, also fled with them (flight did not help him, after the war he was executed for numerous crimes). The SS remained in the camp, who were imprisoned in a disciplinary prison for various offenses. Together with them were Hungarians from the 26th SS Waffen-Grenadier Division and a group of wounded Wehrmacht soldiers stationed in a local hospital. They probably didn't have enough transport to evacuate.
At the beginning of the twelfth hour, the Americans found the "train of death" at the western gate. This was the name of the trains into which the bodies of the dead prisoners were unloaded for shipment to the crematorium. The sight shocked the soldiers. 40 wagons full of naked human bodies. The dead were extremely emaciated and looked like skeletons. As one of the Americans recalled, it was the most terrible sight in his entire life. Many soldiers felt sick, some went into uncontrollable hysterics.
At this time, from the opposite end of the train, a group of four SS men moved towards the Americans, intending to surrender. They obviously chose not the best time for this, the soldiers, shocked by what they saw, did not even begin to enter into negotiations with them. They were told to get into the car, after which Lieutenant Walsh shot everyone.
Surrender
At 11:20 am, the first American soldiers entered the camp. According to the memoirs of the camp prisoner Neren Gun, the events unfolded as follows. SS-Obersturmführer Heinrich Skodzenski came out to meet the Americans in a dandy SS uniform and boots polished to a shine and shouted: "Heil Hitler!" The contrast between him and the American officers, unshaven and "rumpled" after several days of fighting, was so impressive that they simply went berserk. An American officer spat in his face and shouted "Schweinhund!" ("swinedog") shot him in the head with a pistol.
This story is popular in journalism, but is disputed by professional researchers. In addition, the process of surrender was filmed by numerous American correspondents and a completely different person was captured in the photo, whose identity was reliably established.
It was SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker, the senior officer remaining in the camp. He arrived at the camp only at the beginning of April 1945, together with a group of prisoners who were driven on foot from Neckarelz to Dachau. In mid-April, he also led the "death march" of 1,700 prisoners from Gessenthal to one of the Dachau complexes.
Vicker is present in the photographs in various parts of the camp, which means that he remained alive for at least a few more hours after the arrival of the Americans. However, in the city prison of Dachau, where all the surviving prisoners were placed, he was not. Officially, he was considered missing. According to the testimony of two surviving German guards, Vicker was killed by one of the American soldiers.
Avenger's Hour
Around noon, American soldiers began sorting prisoners. The SS men were taken to one column, the Wehrmacht soldiers (mainly from among the wounded who remained in the hospital) and the hospital staff were taken to another.
At the same time, another group of soldiers entered the camp through another gate. There was shooting. The fire was fired by several SS men who sat in the camp tower (about 5-6 people). After a brief skirmish, the tower was captured. The survivors were shot next to the building.
Selected SS men (about 70 people) were taken to the coal yard. Along the way, several people were killed, and even a specially conducted investigation did not allow us to find out the circumstances of their death. In the courtyard, the prisoners were left against the wall under the supervision of a machine gunner.
As soon as Lieutenant Colonel Sparks, who commanded the battalion, left the yard, a machine-gun burst rang out. An Indian machine gunner nicknamed Bird's Eye fired. Sparks immediately ran back and fired several shots into the air with his pistol to stop him. According to the recollections of the officer, the machine gunner was hysterical, sobbing and shouting that the prisoners were trying to escape. The machine gunner was taken away, and another shooter took his place - with stronger nerves. As a result of this shooting, 17 people were killed and several more were injured.
After another departure of Sparks, a group of prisoners came to the coal yard, armed with shovels and clubs. They began beating up some of the SS men. Some soldiers tried to stop them, others did not interfere with the beatings. As stated in the materials of the American investigation, they turned away and pretended not to notice what was happening.
Night of blood
By the evening of April 29, the liberators left Dachau. Their place was taken by a guard company, engineers came. The prisoners were sent back to the barracks. There was a typhus epidemic in the camp, and the Americans closed it for quarantine.
On the first night after the liberation of Dachau, about 300 prisoners died in the camp. Some of them were killed for collaborating with the Germans. The rest died of disease and exhaustion. According to Neren Gun, several previously starving prisoners died from overeating.
The next day, local residents were brought from the surrounding settlements, who were involved in unloading the bodies from the "death train". Not far from the camp, several large trenches were dug by bulldozers, in which the dead prisoners of the camp were buried. Some of the bodies were buried at the Leitenberg cemetery, and wagons with corpses were specially transported through the city center so that residents could clearly see the cruelty of German concentration camps.
Orthodox Easter and final liberation
In 1945 Orthodox Easter fell on May 6th. The camp was still closed for quarantine, but among the prisoners there were 18 clergymen: Serbs, several Russians and Greeks. They received permission to hold a festive service, for which they were given a separate room. They tried to get vestments, candles and icons for the service through the Americans who were going to Munich. However, due to the confusion that reigned there, the messengers could not find anyone in the local Orthodox parishes.
Having built an impromptu vestment from hospital towels, the clergy held a service with the participation of the prisoners. As one of the witnesses later recalled, in the history of the Orthodox Church, perhaps, there was no more unusual Easter service.
Despite the quarantine and the efforts of American doctors, the typhoid epidemic for a long time could not be brought under control. In May 1945, more than 2,000 prisoners died from the disease. In June, typhus began to decline, during this month 196 people died. Only in the middle of the summer of 1945, two months after the end of the war, did all the prisoners of Dachau finally gain freedom.
How many people were executed
In 1986, a book was published by Howard Buechner, a former American army medic who participated in the liberation of the camp. In the book with the telling title "Hour of the Avenger" he picturesquely talks about how American soldiers that day executed every single German and Hungarian (with 40 people killed by former prisoners).
In May 1945, the American army conducted an investigation into the ill-treatment of prisoners. The commission found that on the day of the liberation of Dachau, about 50 SS men and other camp workers were killed. 10-12 of them were killed by former prisoners, the rest were shot by the Americans. Lieutenant Colonel Sparks maintained throughout his life that his soldiers shot no more than 30 people. And the rest of the prisoners were imprisoned in the city of Dachau, located next to the camp. The party of prisoners, on the orders of Sparks, was accompanied by Lieutenant Walsh and Chaplain Lowe.
For obvious reasons, the surviving guards of the concentration camp after the war did not talk about their service. But at least two SS survivors and one medic are known. Another survivor, Hans Linberger, left a short memoir of the events of that day, in which he corroborated Sparks' earlier testimony. Linberger was in a group of SS men who opened fire with a Bird's Eye machine gun, but survived and was not even wounded.
Although the investigation identified by name almost all those who took part in the executions, General Patton ordered the case to be closed, citing the difficult psychological state of the soldiers who saw horrific pictures of death during the liberation of the camp. The materials of the investigation were classified for almost 50 years. They were published only after the release of the sensational book "Hour of the Avenger".
Western gate in KL "Dachau". photo - May 1945.
US military personnel are now widely accused of killing almost five hundred prisoners of war during the liberation of Dachau. I decided to sort it out. And yes, this is a very difficult post. Below is a story about the murders and photographs of dead bodies.
Aerial view of Dachau (the camp itself is in the background), photo taken in May 1945.
10:45 Soldiers under the command of 1st Lt. L.R. Stewart and 1st Sgt. Robert Wilson of L Company reaches a footbridge defended by a lone German machine gunner. After shooting off about one tape, the German retreats, and Company I, under the command of 1st Lt. Jack Bushyhead crosses the bridge. Tanks and infantry from L Company remain to clear Dachau and continue the advance on Munich.
10:55 The reconnaissance patrol reaches the outskirts of the concentration camp, but was fired upon by the enemy. And a jeep with four servicemen sent to accept surrender - turns around and leaves, being also fired upon.
11:00 Americans from Company I make it to the west gate. On the railway line, near the camp, they found a train: about forty wagons full of dead bodies:
"These people were filling the wagons. There were bullet holes all over, apparently from shelling on the way to Dachau. (There is version that the train from Buchenwald to Dachau was fired upon by American aircraft, and the dead people found in the cars were killed during this raid. Moreover, the bullet holes were much larger than from German small arms - my note). Most of the soldiers just stood silent and did not believe what was happening. We saw people being torn to pieces in battle, burned to pieces, and died in many different ways, but we weren't prepared for that. Some of the dead lay with their eyes open. It seems that they looked at us and said: "Why are you taking so long?" - from the memoirs of Private John Lee, a soldier 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th US "Thunderbird" Division.
"We were riding in a jeep with guards and a few hundred yards before the camp saw a railroad track leading to the camp with a lot of open wagons. When we crossed the track and got out, we saw the most terrible sight that I have ever seen before of this time. The wagons were loaded with corpses. Most of them were naked, and they were all skin and bones. Their legs and arms were only a couple of inches in diameter, and they had no buttocks at all. Many of them had bullet holes in their backs. head .... I could not even speak. - from a letter to the parents of First Lieutenant William Cowling, who accompanied Brigadier General Henning Linden from the 42nd Rainbow Division and journalists who were on their way to accept the surrender of the camp. (This was around 11:45 a.m., a little after Company I discovered the train.).
11:00 - 11:15 Along the train, four SS men were walking towards the soldiers from Company I, trying to surrender. They were shot on the spot, on the orders of Lieutenant William Walsh, an officer in Company I (according to other sources, he shot them with his own hand):
11:20 American soldiers enter the camp through the western gate:
The photo was taken after April 29th (a large photo of these gates is at the very beginning of the post)
Dachau concentration camp prisoners greet American soldiers. A photo from here
"At the beginning of our entry into the camp, the soldiers of Company I, all the fighting, hardened veterans, became extremely distraught. Some wept, others raged. About thirty minutes passed before they were able to restore order and discipline. During this time, those more than thirty thousand prisoners the camps, the survivors began to understand the full meaning of the events.They poured from the crowded barracks by the hundreds, soon reaching the holding barbed wire fence.They began to shout "Americans!!!" in such a cry that it soon turned into a roar.At the same time time, several bodies were rushing about in the crowd, torn apart by a hundred hands. Later, I was told that they were killing "informers" (obviously, we are talking about "kapos" - prisoners who collaborated with the camp administration - my note). After about ten minutes, screaming, the prisoners calmed down ." - from the memoirs of Felix L. Sparks, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th US "Thunderbird" Division.
11:25 Soldiers discover mountains of corpses near the crematorium and in the rooms around it. A gas chamber disguised as a shower room is also found. .
All the photos below, put by me under 11:25 , made in Dachau already in May 1945. But the soldiers of Company I saw exactly this picture:
11:30 American soldiers reach the entrance to the hospital building. At least a hundred Germans were taken out of the hospital, including staff, including women. The company commander, First Lieutenant Jack Bushyhead and Lieutenant William Walsh, with the help of Polish prisoners, sort out prisoners of war and separate the SS men:
(my note - it is worth noting that the concentration camp itself was inside buildings of the trainingSS complex, so that both the disciplinary prison and the hospital were outside the camp).
Gate leading from the complex to the camp:
The ones with the inscription on the gate "Work makes you free":
At the same time, the Germans surrendered throughout the complex, they were also sorted and built into columns:
Some former prisoners at the same time try to attack the Germans, and kill them. Also, at least one SS man was shot dead by the Americans.
11:30 -13:00 At the same time, soldiers of the 42nd "Rainbow" division - scouts and soldiers of the 222nd regiment - enter the camp. They were met with guard fire from tower "B". The soldiers fired a volley at the tower, after which the guards surrendered. They were built. What happened next we will probably never know. But the fact is that the American soldiers opened fire on the already captured SS men. Six dead were left lying at the tower:
, as well as three were later fished out of the canal:
All three photos above are Sgt. John N. Petro, 232 Infantry, E Company
12:00
Resistance has largely ceased and order has been temporarily restored. 358 German soldiers taken prisoner, many of them wounded Waffen SS soldiers from a military hospital.
From 50 to 75 prisoners are brought to the coal yard next to the hospital and lined up along the wall. German prisoners of war remain under the supervision of a machine gun crew and several soldiers from I Company. A photographer is also present - Arland B. Musser, 163rd Signal Photographic Company.
12:05 Lieutenant Colonel Felix L. Sparks makes his way to the center of the camp, where there were SS men who had not yet surrendered. He did not have time to get far when he heard the shouts of the soldiers "They are trying to leave!" , and then firing from a machine gun.
Col. Buechner tested on May 5, 1945 in the investigation conducted by Lt. Col. Joseph Whitaker. The following is a transcript of his testimony:
Date: 5 May 1945. By: Lt. Col. Joseph M. Whitaker, IGD, Asst. Inspector General, Seventh Army.
The witness was sworn.
363Q. Please state your name, rank, serial number and organization.
A. Howard E. Buechner, 1st Lieutenant, MC, 0-435481, 3rd Bn., 157th Infantry.
(The witness was advised of his rights under the 24th Article of War.)
364 Q. Do you remember the taking of the Dachau Concentration Camp?
A. Yes, sir.
365 Q. Were you the surgeon of the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry, at that time?
A. Yes, sir.
366 Q. Did you see or visit a yard by the power plant where some German soldiers had
been shot?
A. I did, sir.
367 Q. Can you fix the hour at which you saw this?
A. Not with certainty, but I would judge about 4:00 o "clock in the afternoon.
368 Q. What day?
A. I can't give the exact date.
369 Q. Describe to me what you saw when you visited this yard.
A. We learned that one of our companies had gone through the camp and that it was
something to see out there. So, we got on one of the jeeps to visit there and we were
delayed for some time by the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry,
because he didn't know whether the place had been cleared. When we got there we saw
a quadrangular enclosure; there was a cement wall about ten feet high and inside this
enclosure I saw 15 or 16 dead and wounded German soldiers lying along the wall.
370 Q. Did you determine which were dead and which were wounded?
A. I did not examine any of them, sir, but I saw several of them moving very slightly.
371 Q . Did you make any examination to determine whether or not those who were not
dead could be saved?
A. I did not.
372 Q. Was there any guard there?
A. There was a soldier standing at the entrance of this yard whom I assumed to be a
guard.
373 Q. Do you know the soldier or what company he was from?
A. No, sir.
374 Q. Do you know whether or not any medical attention was called for these wounded
German soldiers?
A. I do not.
Everything. The curtain. He gave out all the horrifying details only in 1986.
Video footage:
Liberation of Dachau in Color by brest44
- one of the first concentration camps in Germany. Founded in March 1933 near Munich. It became the first "experimental testing ground" where a system of punishments and other forms of physical and psychological abuse of prisoners was worked out.
Before the outbreak of World War II, political opponents of the Nazi regime were kept in Dachau, primarily communists, socialists, clerics opposed to the regime, etc. During the war, Dachau gained ominous fame as one of the most terrible concentration camps in which medical experiments were carried out on prisoners.
Only in 1941-1942, about 500 experiments on living people were carried out there. Many prisoners of Dachau worked as free labor in the surrounding industrial enterprises, including the factories of the IG Farbenindustry concern.
During the existence of the Dachau concentration camp, about 250 thousand people from 24 countries passed through it. Of these, 70 thousand died. Among the tortured - 12 thousand Soviet prisoners of war. At the time of liberation, there were 30,000 prisoners in the camp.
An underground organization of prisoners headed by the International Committee operated in the camp. The International Committee was led by communists and leaders of the social democratic movement, such as Oscar Muller (later vice-president of the German Resistance Committee), Raymond Prunier and Edgar Franchot (France), Joseph Lauscher (Secretary of the Vienna City Committee of the Communist Party of Austria, member of the Central Committee), Franz Lauscher (member of the Central Committee of the Austrian Communist Party), etc.
The Russian underground committee in the Dachau concentration camp was formed in the autumn of 1943. The Soviet Resistance group was led by Lieutenant Colonel Illarion Panov.
A military department was created to prepare an armed uprising, it was headed by Major General Sergei Vishnevsky.
The center of the underground was the infirmary. The underground workers distributed reports of the Soviet Information Bureau, selected reliable people and created combat groups for an armed uprising.
The prisoners who worked in the weapons workshop carried pistols in parts to Dachau. Among the faulty weapons in the workshop were machine guns and rifles, ready at any moment for battle.
In April 1945, the camp commandant received a telegram signed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, which ordered the camp to be evacuated, and if it was impossible, to be liquidated.
In the underground, preparations for an uprising began. In the infirmary, a cache of dressings was organized in case the wounded needed help.
In the camp, old-timers underground arrested several kapos (guards, prisoners who worked for the administration) and hanged them all.
On April 29, 1945, the Dachau concentration camp was liberated by units of the 45th Infantry Division of the 7th American Army.
After the camp was liberated, the former prisoners took an oath to fight against fascism, in whatever form it manifested itself.
The established International Dachau Committee (CID) is still functioning today. The CID represents all former prisoners, survivors and victims of the Dachau camp between 1933 and 1945. He conducts active anti-fascist propaganda, maintains the Dachau Memorial Complex (museum, archive, library). The CID also attracts the younger generation of anti-fascists to its activities.
SS Untersturmführer (lieutenant) Heinrich Wicker (left) and Red Cross representative Victor Maurerof (in the center, you can see the staff of the white flag he holds) are trying to surrender the Dachau camp to the Americans
The Dachau massacre took place in the Dachau concentration camp (Germany) on April 29, 1945, during World War II. American soldiers from the 45th Infantry Division of the US, which is part of the 7th Army and prisoners of the camp, without trial or investigation, brutally killed 560 German prisoners of war and civilians, most of whom were machine gunned down in the style of the American mafia.
The description of the surrender is described by Brigadier General Henning Linden, in a memorandum by Major General Harry J. Collins entitled "Report on the Surrender of the Dachau Concentration Camp":
"As we approached the southwest corner, three men marched out with a white flag. We met them about 75 meters north of the southwest corner. The three men were representatives of the Swiss Red Cross, Victor Maurer, and two SS soldiers who said that they were the camp commandant and his assistant. They came here on the night of April 28 to take over the authority to surrender the concentration camp to the advancing Americans. The representative of the Swiss Red Cross said that about 100 SS guards remained in the concentration camp, who laid down their arms, with the exception of the SS men in tower... He asked that there would be no shots. He also reported about 42,000 "half-mad" prisoners, many of whom were infected with typhus... He asked what officer's position I was in. I replied: "I am assistant commander of division 42- 4th Infantry Division and will accept the surrender of the concentration camp to the United States Army…” (Lt. Col. Felix L. Sparks)
At 0600 hours American scouts approached the outskirts of the concentration camp. Obersturmführer Heinrich Skodzensky tried to surrender the camp to the Americans, but was shot dead. According to the memoirs, the Americans were furious that the SS men came out to surrender in perfectly clean uniforms with polished boots.
At present, it is not possible to establish which unit of the American Army first entered the camp, because many US Army servicemen of various ranks contradictoryly claim that the laurels of the liberators belong to them. Many war correspondents were also present at the scene of the events, who naturally "saw everything with their own eyes." If we add to this the stories of "miraculous survivors", then the chronology of the liberation of the camp is woven into an intricate myth.
The commander of the SS garrison, Lieutenant Heinrich Skodzensky, immaculately dressed, went out to meet the Americans and, after saluting, addressed the commander of the 45th Thunderbird GI division, Colonel Jackson in English with the words: “I am the commander of the camp guard. I have the authority to surrender the camp to you."
In many sources, Heinrich Skodzienski appears as the last commandant of Dachau, who held this position for only one day. The actual commandant of Dachau, Obersturmführer Eduard Veiter, left the camp on April 26th - shortly before the American invasion.
The author of The Day of Deliverance, Michael Selzer, points out that Skodzenski was dressed in full dress black SS uniform and clean shiny boots, and this solemnity and accuracy unnerved the Americans.
According to the testimony of the surrendered Heinrich Skodzienski and three other soldiers, Lieutenant William P. Walsh, commander of Company "I" of the 157th Infantry Regiment, ordered the "death train" to be brought into the car near the rear entrance to the concentration camp, and personally shot them. Private Albert S. Pruitt then climbed into the car and finished off the groaning wounded with "Mercy Shots" from his rifle - these were the first victims of the massacre.
The Germans, through the mediation of the Red Cross, are negotiating with General Henning Linden on the terms of handing over the camp to the Americans. Depicted from left to right: concentration camp commandant Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker (almost covered by an assistant in a cap), P. Levy, a Belgian journalist (in a helmet, with a scarf around his neck), Red Cross representative Dr. Victor Maurer (from the back, with a flagpole), General Henning Linden (in helmet) and some American soldiers. Maurer holds a white flag over his head.
The transfer of the camp to the Americans was carried out by SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker and Red Cross representative Victor Maurer. It is not known whether Heinrich Wicker was at the same time "acting" camp commandant or simply, as a senior officer, independently took over the responsibility for transferring the camp to the jurisdiction of the US Army.
From 15 April 1945, according to archival documents, Wicker headed the training center "Kampfgruppe Sud", a 250-man unit formed from guards who had previously served in Neckarelz, Kochendorf and Hessental - subcamps of Natzweiler.
Belgian journalist P. Levy translates General Linden's question to Wicker
The newly appointed commandant of the Dachau camp, Heinrich Wicker (in the background, wearing a cap, was in office for only a few hours. Prior to that, he was a combat officer, transferred to rear work due to injury). The representative of the Red Cross holds a white flag over his head
The Germans surrender to the Americans
Surrendered camp guards
The security garrison of Dachau consisted mainly of Luftwaffe soldiers, who for various reasons were sent from the front line to the rear and were only nominally assigned to the Waffen SS unit.
The first group is led to the execution. The prisoners show the American soldiers the guards. Lieutenants William Walsh (fourth from left, with his back to the camera) and Bashihid, organized the selection of prisoners for those who served in the Wehrmacht and those who were in the SS. Then a group of about 200 SS men moved to the coal yard near the boiler room. On the way, watches, rings, mechanical pencils, pens and money were taken from all Waffen-SS at gunpoint. They were shot immediately from various types of weapons - machine guns, carbines and pistols.
In the Dachau hospital, there were wounded Wehrmacht soldiers and teenagers from the Volkssturm: several hundred people. The Americans also took away the hospital staff - doctors and nurses, and the wounded - those who could not walk, dragged them off their beds - a total of 358 people. Immovable invalids were shot on the spot. The doctors, pharmacist and medical staff wore white coats with Red Cross armbands. The head doctor of the hospital, Dr. Schroeder, called the Americans to order, but he was beaten and his skull was fractured. This group included all camp staff, including school teachers. The group was executed on the orders of Lieutenant Jack Bushyhead.
Vicker with an assistant and Red Cross representative Maurer. Viktor Maurer is one of only two Germans left alive.
Heinrich Wicker and Viktor Maurer, bottom left, on the parapet, General Linden
The bodies of six guards killed by the Americans at the base of the tower B. April 29, 1945
An American soldier near the bodies of the SS executed by American troops during the liberation of Dachau
The guards were separated from other prisoners by Lieutenant Walsh and lined up against the wall of the hospital in the coal yard next to the boiler room (a heap of coal is visible on the right). There they began to shoot with rifles and machine guns. The picture shows about 60 killed and wounded German guards lying at the base of a long wall (only a quarter of the total length of the wall is visible). Four German soldiers are still standing alive next to their fallen comrades, who were shot seconds before this photo was taken. In the center, a machine gunner crouched by a Browning M1919A4 machine gun in .30-06 caliber.
On the right is a hospital building with a huge Red Cross sign on the roof. The photo was taken at approximately 2:47 pm. (Photo: W. Arland Musser, US Army. Courtesy National Archives, Washington, DC/ US Army photo SC 208765)
Dan Dougherty, who at the time was a 19-year-old soldier and also involved in the shooting, told the Jewish Weekly News from Northern California in April 2001 that when the second group was brought in to be shot, there were about 10 journalists who looked at piles of SS corpses. Here is a quote from his interview:
"This pile of corpses was about 2 or 3 feet high and 15 feet across. And they were SS men. One of the corporals of my company pulled out a hunting knife and cut off the finger of one of the corpses. He wanted an SS ring for a souvenir."
It is believed that Lieutenant Felix Sparks tried to stop the execution of the SS, but it is more likely that he led them. It seems that Sparks has fired all the cartridges in the magazine and the bolt of his pistol remained in the rearmost position. Other Americans keep firing. Photo courtesy of Arthur W. Lee Jr.
M1919 A4 is a regular heavy machine gun for all branches of the US Army. Patron.30-06 US.
Full length: 1041 mm. Barrel length: 610 mm. Weight: 14.05 kg. Feeding system: belt for 250 rounds. Rate of fire: 500 rds / min.
Execution victims
Shot prisoners
The Americans examine the executed to mercifully finish off the wounded.
The bottom photo was taken from almost the same angle as the top one, it is noticeable that the number of corpses has increased.
The corpses of the executed SS men. The SS uniform, shoulder straps and chevrons are clearly visible.
The unscrupulous scumbags from Yad Vashem, the Holocaust propaganda center, posted the previous photo on their website with the caption "Dachau, Germany, 1945, after liberation. Bodies of prisoners thrown in a corner."
Killed Germans lie against the wall. The nearest shot is a Wehrmacht soldier, an eagle is visible on his chest and buttonholes, a cap lies nearby.
American soldiers mocked dead Germans
Shot Germans on the ground near the eastern wall of the camp. April 29, 1945. Photo by John Petro
Shot Germans in camouflage at the eastern wall of the camp.
Photo Sgt. John N. Petro, 232 Infantry, E Company
Shot Germans at the eastern wall of the camp.
Contrary to the stubborn belief, Dachau contained not only "poor Jews to be exterminated." At the time of the capture of the camp by the Americans, Jews made up no more than 5% of the total number of prisoners. A third of the camp's prisoners were criminals and professional criminals serving various terms in the camp.
At this time, the released prisoners emptied the warehouses of the camp administration and celebrated their release with good wine. Pay attention to the man in the center in the bottom row - he will appear in the next two photos. April 29, 1945. Arland Musser. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park.
American soldiers did not interfere with the possession of weapons by the already released prisoners and their torture and murder of captured Germans - both guards and soldiers of the regular troops. Many German prisoners were beaten to death with shovels and other improvised means. Former prisoners also tore apart guards from among the prisoners who collaborated with the administration (the so-called "kapos"), their number is unknown.
Drunken prisoners use a shovel to lynch a guard named Weiss, who has only a few seconds left to live, he was lucky only that the prisoner did not have a chainsaw in his hands. In the background, heaps of executed Germans are visible, on the left near the wall there are three guards who will now be shot. Behind the killer's right shoulder, the roof of a one-story hospital for staff is visible, from where the wounded were pulled out for execution.
(Photographer unknown, probably Arland B. Musser, US Troops. Reproduction from "Day of the Americans" by Nerin Gun).
The Germans laid down their weapons, and some of the prisoners picked them up, although according to another version they were armed by the Americans. The drunken prisoner with the rifle is the same as the one in the top photo, speaking in a threatening manner to a captured Hungarian soldier while a young American soldier looks on in amazement. The fate of this and other prisoners is sealed.
The mutilated bodies of the guards were dotted with the entire territory of the camp.
Shot guard
German corpses were everywhere
The bodies of two dead SS men near the railway tracks
What lies on the ground was once Heinrich Wicker
A former prisoner admires the bodies of the guards floating in the moat.
April 29, 1945 Dachau, Germany. Credit:US HMM, courtesy of John and Patricia Heelan
The lynching prisoners threw some of the bodies into the moat surrounding the camp.
Shattered Skull Guard
Guard dogs were also killed
In 1991, the US National Archives declassified a document - a note by Lieutenant Howard Buechner. According to his report, the events at Dachau on April 29, 1945 developed as follows:
6:00 a.m. The new commandant of the camp, SS-Obersturmführer Heinrich Skodzensky, ordered his subordinates to surrender. At that time, about 560 people were under his command, some of them were wounded in the hospital.
10:55 SS guards laid down their arms and raised their hands. Commandant Skodzenski went out to meet the Americans, but was killed while trying to surrender the camp.
11:00 Parts of the third battalion of the 45th American division enter the camp.
11:30 American soldiers kill 122 German POWs, mostly guards. The escaped prisoners kill about 40 more guards, some of them with improvised means.
12:00 Wounded Wehrmacht soldiers and teenagers from the Volkssturm were lying in the Dachau hospital: several hundred people. The Americans also took away the hospital staff - doctors and nurses, and the wounded, those who could not walk, were dragged from their beds - a total of 358 people.
12:05 A machine gunner nicknamed “Birdeye” suddenly shouted: “They are trying to escape!” and opened fire with a Browning machine gun, killing 12 prisoners.
14:45 The remaining 346 captured German soldiers and hospital staff - helpless and unarmed - were shot by machine guns at block C on the orders of Lieutenant Jack Bashihid. At least one German soldier was beaten with prisoners with a shovel in the same place. The wounded were finished off with single shots. No one was left alive.
The commander of the execution, Lieutenant Howard Buechner himself, dryly reflected this event in a staff note "The fate of the Dachau garrison", indicating the total number of victims - 560 people.
On the aerial photograph it is marked: "A" - the place of execution (the first and the second were carried out in the same place - in the coal yard next to the boiler house); "B" - the place of execution of six SS soldiers who surrendered without a fight of tower "B", in the same place in the canal they fished out the corpse of one of them.
Medical Sergeant Ralph Rosa and his subordinates drew a diagram of the massacre
The bodies of the dead remained in the coal yard until May 3, 1945, while the incident was investigated by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Whitaker - Assistant Inspector General of the 7th Army. A report titled "Investigation into Alleged Mistreatment of German Guards at Dachau" was filed on June 8, 1945. It was classified.
The documents of the killed Germans were destroyed, and the medallions were removed. Their bodies were buried in an unknown place by captured soldiers. This was a violation of the Geneva Convention on the identification of fallen enemy soldiers, the prohibition of burials in unmarked graves and forced labor in the burial of the dead.
The Americans flagrantly violated the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and committed a war crime. None of the participants in the massacre was punished, the charges were dropped by General Patton (General Patton). When the crime investigation was over, General George S. Patton ordered that all evidence such as affidavits, photographic negatives, photographs, etc. brought to him, he put all this incriminating evidence in a metal wastebasket, set it on fire with his own hand in the presence of his officers, and said: "Gentlemen, this incident is now closed." The results of the investigation of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Whitaker (Lt. Col. Joseph Whitaker) dated June 8, 1945 were classified for many years.
Total camp guards:
Shot on the spot - 122
Killed by prisoners - 40
Shot from machine guns - 346 + 12
Killed in battle - 30
Missing - 10
____________
Total: 560
Ironically, most of the camp's regular guards left him earlier. The SS men shot by the Americans at Dachau were members of the Waffen-SS, transferred from the Eastern Front a few days before the liberation of the camp, their specific task was to hand it over to the Western allies. They probably considered this appointment away from the Red Army as a very happy occasion and had nothing to do with what was happening in Dachau.
This is how an American photographer saw the Dachau prisoners. They are not at all like the skeletal corpses of those who died of typhus. One third of the prisoners were criminals.
On April 29, 1945, the Dachau concentration camp was liberated by units of the 45th Infantry Division of the 7th American Army. On this day, the Dachau massacre took place: during the capture of the concentration camp, American soldiers from the 45th US Infantry Division, which is part of the 7th Army, killed and wounded German prisoners of war. (Caution! The material may seem unpleasant or intimidating.)
Dachau is one of the first concentration camps in Nazi Germany. For 12 years, more than 240 thousand prisoners passed through it, 70 thousand of whom died. Dachau is notorious for its medical experiments on prisoners. Doctors from all over the Reich studied at Dachau the abilities of the human body: survival at low temperatures, exposure to gases or low pressure. With these experiments, they intended to create a universal soldier. Himmler himself regularly visited Dachau with inspections to oversee the progress of the experiments.
History of appearance
In February 1933, the Reichstag was set on fire. Hitler, who had received the position of Reich Chancellor two days earlier, accused the Communists of using this event to increase the influence of his own party. A state of emergency was introduced for a period of five years and a new law "On the Protection of the People and the State" was adopted. This law became the basis for the creation of a special place of detention for political opponents of the Reich. This is how Dachau was born.
At first, more than 10,000 members of the Communist Party were sent to the camp, but then the law was smoothly extended to all other "polluting the Aryan race" according to racial theory. This list included Jews, drug addicts, gypsies, the mentally ill, homosexuals, the homeless, and even those who refused to serve in the army.
The original gate of the camp with the inscription "Work sets you free". After this artifact was stolen and discovered in Norway only two years later, it was placed in a museum.
Monument to the dead on the main square of the camp
captives
The life of the prisoners of Dachau was not much different from the life of the prisoners of other concentration camps. They were used as free labor: the unfortunate built roads, mined stones and drained swamps. During the war, they were taken to military factories to collect equipment and ammunition. There were so many prisoners in concentration camps that their labor was sold to private companies.
Upon arrival at the camp, the prisoners were deprived of all rights. They were given a striped robe with a colored label depending on the category: gypsy, Jew, political prisoner, and so on. Some were shot as soon as they arrived at the camp. Usually such a fate awaited Soviet soldiers.
Dressing room, one per barrack, where up to 1600 people lived
Washbasins
Experiments on people
Backbreaking work was not the worst thing that the prisoners of Dachau faced. Numerous medical experiments were carried out here on people in order to determine the ability of the human body to survive. The prisoners who were subjected to these experiments rarely survived.
The infamous gas chamber
View outside. Holes in the wall for cans of gas
The course and results of each experiment were carefully documented. Doctors opened the bodies and described the causes of death, drew conclusions about which parts of the human body were especially vulnerable. By the way, the experiments of the Nazis on living people subsequently formed the basis of many medical discoveries of the 20th century. This fact is rarely mentioned because it sounds like some kind of justification for the Holocaust.
Crematorium building
Some of the experiments carried out at Dachau
Head injury experiment. The person was tied to a chair and hit on the head with a hammer every few seconds with increasing force. The goal was to find out the maximum impact force that the skull can withstand, and to determine the moment when a person can no longer be saved from death.
Freezing experiments. Prisoners were immersed in a cell with cold water, bringing the body temperature to extremely low values. If the test subject survived, they tested ways of escaping from hypothermia. According to the results of the experiments, it turned out that hypothermia at the back of the head leads to death faster, so foam inserts were added to the helmets of the Luftwaffe pilots, which kept their heads afloat in the event of a crash in the cold sea.
A ditch with water stretched along the perimeter of the camp. When approaching the fence, which was energized, the guards opened fire to kill
Sterilization experience. German scientists were looking for the most effective way to sterilize groups of people at minimal cost, including with the help of radiation. The reason was the law according to which homosexuals, the mentally ill, alcoholics and other "harmful to the Aryan race" people were to be subject to mandatory sterilization. Most often, the drugs caused bleeding or cancer.
Experiments with blood clotting. Prisoners were forced to take various drugs to improve blood clotting, and then shot or cut off their limbs. The goal was to find a cure that would allow the soldiers to survive with a lot of blood loss.
Massacre at Dachau
On April 29, 1945, the American army captured Dachau. The soldiers were dismayed by what they saw. In front of the entrance to the camp were more than 40 wagons filled with corpses. The bodies were littered with almost the entire territory of Dachau. There are two versions of what happened next.
According to one version, the Americans machine-gunned all 560 camp employees that evening near the wall of a coal mine, without waiting for an official order. Judging by the memoirs of some of the participating soldiers, they were shocked by the cruelty that their distraught colleagues did.
Another version is no less cruel. According to her, American soldiers gave pistols and shovels to some prisoners to finish off captured camp staff. It is terrible to imagine with what cruelty the prisoners dealt with those who tortured them for many years.
Poplar alley, planted by relatives of prisoners as a sign of memory
Be that as it may, the Dachau massacre was immediately assessed as a war crime, but then the American military governor who came to power in Bavaria removed all charges from the soldiers for what had happened.
Monument "Think about how we died here"
Loading...