These stories always remind me of my Dad’s outfit liberating the Austrian Death Camp at Ebensee, where the first tank in gave bread to a survivor, only to see him drop dead from the shock of eating it. They quickly learned that ice chips were all they could give the sufferers at first.
Astonishing. Your father must be one of those who was able to "talk about it."
Bless your father’s memory- what a witness to that horror, and glad he was able to speak of it to friends and family. An aside, from my education- the medical rescuers of death camp survivors quickly learned they could not just “feed regular food” to the starving. These skeletons had no vitamins onboard to process the nutrition. And so (and this is in UN websites now) they developed a type of, well, gruel/porridge, which was packed with water soluble vitamins, none bulk producing soluble fiber and major digestible carbohydrates and long chain fatty acids/fats to be slowly introduced to those remaining. Saved a lot of lives as these progressed under their care.
The poor starving survivors gave up their last “adrenalin” if you will with the sheer happiness of being freed, and no physical capability to hold down regular food to gain nutrition from it. Appalling conditions. God Bless the US soldiers who helped these people back.