Posted on 01/24/2015 2:12:32 PM PST by lowbridge
This is the poignant moment when a man rescued from the hell he endured at the hands of the Nazis met his saviour and gave him a salute almost 70 years later.
Joshua Kaufman first saluted his rescuer Daniel Gillespie. Then he kissed his hand and finally, he fell to his feet, exclaiming: 'I have wanted to do this for 70 years. I love you, I love you so much...'.
Kaufman, now 87, was a 'walking corpse' on April 29 1945 when U.S. Army soldier Gillespie, 89, marched in with his comrades to liberate the charnel house that was the Dachau concentration camp near Munich.
Gillespie, a machine gunner with the 42nd 'Rainbow Division,' moved to block 11 of the infamous complex which was the first camp built by the Nazis to house its enemies in 1933.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Pictures at link
Wonderful photos! Definitely worth a visit to the website.
But everyone knows the halocaust was faked on a movie set right?”s”
Emotional. Wonderful!
I visited Dachau many years ago.”Spooky” doesn’t even *begin* to describe the experience.
My Father in Law was the first Allied Officer through the gates of Dachau. He would never speak of the horrors he saw there.
Incredible, just incredible. Make sure you have something to dry the eyes with before you look in on the photos and the rest of the story.
Gillespie, a machine gunner with the 42nd 'Rainbow Division,' moved to block 11 of the infamous complex which was the first camp built by the Nazis to house its enemies in 1933.
Very touching story!
I don't want to dampen the joy of this reunion, but I am interested in checking out the historical accuracy of it.
I know that the 42nd Rainbow Division was indeed at Dachau about this time, because my dad was in the 42nd, and took some revolting photos of the camp that he brought home with him and would show to me when I was a youngster.
But in my reading on WWII, I've never seen the Rainbow Division get any specific mention for liberating Dachau, whereas other units have. Then again, I'm not sure of April 29, 1945 (one day before Hitler's suicide), as the accepted date of the liberation; IIRC, it is generally said to have occurred a few days earlier.
If there are any historians - professional or amateur - who can clear this up, please let me know.
Would you know what Division he was in? (Please see my post # 9.)
I won’t clear any of the confusion up, but add to it. Because certain soldiers arriving at death camps, and seeing and smelling the environs, knew what was done and who was responsible, they sought out the nearest perpetrators. And shot them, without taking them prisoner as they were supposed to if the guards/officers surrendered. Photos of the days after liberation document the time (by virtue of shadows from buildings, etc.) and could be used to match up who was where and when and tie them to “premature” executions. That could lead to courts martial.
So there may be intentional misstatement of dates and whereabouts in the immediate hours and days following liberation.
My grandfather did time in Dachua in 1938 and in Stadelheim (still in use) from ‘42 until November ‘44. Never being allowed to speak with him (Commies took over where he lived) I sought out those who knew of events such as this one. I do not know if what I was told was completely true or completely false, but I would understand it if there was even some slight truth. “They had it coming.” And the ones who served up some early justice were protected by the “fog” of war — deservedly so in the eyes and nostrils of those who first entered.
Thank your relative for his service.
Me too. Even prepared for it, I found it unbelievable that people could build such a place.
GreyFriar is a military Historian.
Justice — the 42nd didn’t receive any publicity of what it did in WWII, especially compared to WWI. I had 3 great-uncles in it then.
April 29, 1945
The 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions and the 20th Armored Division of the US Army liberate approximately 32,000 prisoners at Dachau. A short summary is at:
http://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/liberation-of-dachau
Here is the Holocaust Museum’s webpage on the liberation of the various camps http://www.ushmm.org/search/results/?q=liberators
Also, Dachau had many sub-camps; the main camp wasn’t that large, perhaps 2x4 small town ‘city blocks’. I visited it during my tour in Germany.
Link to Dachau page of the WWII 42nd Inf Div Veteran’s page:
http://www.rainbowvets.org/wwii#dachau
Liberation of Dachau Concentration Camp
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg and sworn in on January 30, 1933. Hitler immediately urged President von Hindenburg to dissolve the German Parliament (the “Reichstag”) and hold new parliamentary elections with the hope of achieving a National Socialist majority and eliminating the Communist opposition. However, just four weeks later on February 27th, there was an arson fire at the Reichstag Building, which Hitler used as evidence that the Communists were beginning to plot against the German Government. The next day Hitler convinced President von Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree that suspended civil liberties and allowed the government to institute mass arrests of Communists and anyone else that they felt was a threat to the Nazi Party.
The internment of Political Prisoners gave rise to the need for “Concentration Camps”, the first of which was established on March 22, 1933, in the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich. The camp was located at the site of an abandoned WWI munitions factory and the first prisoners were housed in the old factory buildings. The operation and construction of Dachau was used as the model for other Nazi Concentration Camps. By 1937 new Barracks had been built (by the prisoners themselves) and the camp had accommodations for up to 5,000 people. In the 12 years the camp was used by the Nazis, over 200,000 prisoners were held there at some time and there are over 31,000 registered deaths at the camp, with many more deaths not registered.
In late April 1945, after fierce battles in Wurzburg, Schweinfurt and Furth, the Rainbow Division was advancing toward Munich. On April 29 General Henning Linden and his aide, Lieutenant Cowling arrived in Dachau and were enroute to meet up with the 222nd Infantry for the push into Munich. They were informed that just off the main road was the Dachau Concentration Camp. According to their Official Reports, each dated May 2, 1945, prior to finding the camp they discovered a railroad track with 30-50 boxcars all stacked with emaciated dead bodies. Their party proceeded to the Camp and as they approached the main gate a German lieutenant along with another German soldier and a Red Cross worker came forward with a flag of truce. While the American soldiers covered them, the German officer said he wished to surrender the camp.
General Linden officially accepted the surrender of the camp in the name of the Rainbow Division for the United States Army. General Linden sent Lt. Cowling into the camp for an inspection and he sent another officer to the 222nd to bring back two companies as soon as possible. At the time there were over 30,000 prisoners at the camp. After Dachau was liberated, the US Seventh Army took over the administration of the camp. A team of army doctors and other military personnel was formed as Displaced Persons team number 115 to take care of the prisoners and they arrived on April 30th with truckloads of food and medical supplies. On May 2nd, the 116th Evacuation Hospital arrived, followed by the 127th Evacuation Hospital, to give medical aid to the sick prisoners.
Agreed, ‘spooky’ is too weak a word to summarize the atmosphere there.
I'll try to check out some other sources and see if they agree.
A longer piece on the Holocaust Museum site about the 42nd Infantry Division and the liberation of Dachau.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006164
And other web pages on this topic:
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauLiberation/LiberationDay3.html
http://www.45thinfantrydivision.com/index14.htm
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauLiberation/LiberationDay.html
Thank you for your posts and links on the liberation of Dachau. Very informative. I read somewhere that Eisenhower told our troops to take lots of photographs of these camps, because “otherwise no one will believe this.”
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