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Liberation of Dachau by Japanese Americans
552nd Field Artillery Battalion 442nd RCT April 29th 1945

The war in Europe was coming to a close as the Allies raced across Germany to Berlin. Elements of the US 7th Army chased the remnants of the German army retreating into Germany. Among the fastest moving units was the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion a Nisei (Second generation Japanese American) unit that was originally attached to the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The 442nd won the most decorations for any American unit for its size during WW2. The unit would win 7 Presidential Citations (5 while rescuing the Lost Texas Battalion in France 1944), 20 Medals of Honor (America’s highest decoration for valor) and over 9000 Purple Hearts (decorations for wounds suffered in combat). The 522 had a reputation for having the fastest and most accurate fire in the US Army. They were hand picked by Gen. Eisenhower (Commander of Allied Forces in Europe) to help lead the attack into Germany.

The 522nd liberated several of the sub camps near Dachau and actually opened the main gate at the Dachau concentration camp. Some 5000 survivors of the Dachau concentration camp were liberated by elements of the 522 on April 29th 1945.

Dachau was established in 1933 as the Nazi regime rose to power. The infamous camp was in 12 years of existence with some 206,000 prisoners .Dachau had some 30 sub camps (smaller forced labor and/or POW camps) located near adjacent towns. It was the site of mass exterminations, executions, and death marches. Some 5000 inmates were liberated mostly Jewish, Russian, French, Polish civilians and Allied POW’s.

On April 29th 1945, Staff Sgt. George Oiye was member of a forward observer team (patrols to search for targets for artillery to shoot ) for artillery battery C leading the 7th Army racing into Germany. Elements of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion were spread out over a 30 mile radius. They had orders to destroy military targets in Munich and to demolish the headquarters of the dreaded SS. They also had warnings to be on the look out for top Nazis such as Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun (Hitler’s mistress). They chased the retreating German units,captured and disarmed them. According to 522 records they were the first Allied unit to reach Dachau.

Unintentional Liberators

"We weren't supposed to be there" said Oiye. Since they were spread out over such a wide area (30 KM) and Dachau was so big they simply ran into it. Japanese American soldiers shot the lock of the main gate of the outer perimeter fences. Then opened the barbed wire gates of the infamous crematorium the site were thousands of Jewish prisoners bodies were burned into ashes. The building had tall smoke stacks and large ovens with bodies smoldering still inside. Prisoners were often gassed or died of the harsh slave labor conditions at Dachau.

"A Hard Thing"

Oiye explained his reaction to visiting the infamous camp: He was mainly on the muddy roads out side the camp when it started to snow. "It was very cold and he saw the prisoners shivering. Some were in very bad shape,"emaciated, sick, diseased, bugs crawling on them and dying" He recalled the stripped suits they wore and some had no shoes. Oiye and his fellow soldiers gave the prisoners their extra gloves, bed rolls, and food. His reaction to the prisoners: "we were not prepared to deal with coming across a concentration camp." "We came across by accident and were not prepared. It was a hard thing" He remembered that he " felt bewildered, then angry and fearful. " Oiye explained the sense of guilt "that mankind had transgressed so far.... the worst case of sin I know of."

"War was one thing but that kind of treatment of mankind; thats is not normal" Oiye stated. Some of the 522nd soldiers found ladies handbags made of human skin. He could remember seeing "intricate" tattoos on these handbags. Gloves and lampshades were also found to made of human skin. Other soldiers reported that dozens of prisoners that were horribly tortured and murdered.

Ernie Hollenbeck was in his teens when he, his brothers, and father worked at Erlenbush a work camp in Nazi occupied Poland. His father was executed by Nazi guards when he cut his hand in a saw mill while cutting rail road ties. Nazi guards shot all laborers who could no longer work. Hollenbeck’s mother and sister were gassed at Auschwitz.

April 1945, a train carried Hollenbeck toward Dachau. They were forced to march 4 days on the road 70 miles to Dachau and anyone who dropped out of line was shot immediately by Nazi guards. "There were shootings left and right" Hollenbeck recalled. Many prisoners died along the way, " the Nazis often forced the wounded and sick to be buried alive". If prisoners did not assist in the burials they were shot. "The last couple of days were awful" said Hollenbeck.

Seeing Asian Soldiers

Some 6-7 miles from Dachau, Hollenbeck recalled seeing Asian looking soldiers in American uniforms racing along the roads toward Dachau. They did not stop along the roads but he meet them when he arrived at Dachau. There he was offered medicine, food and clothes.

Hollenbeck remembered that adults in the camp said not to take food from the Asian soldiers "it might be poisoned". He was scared at first and thought they might have been soldiers from Japan.

He remembered that the survivors were like zombies and when he was told that they were free he just could not comprehend it. Hollenbeck recalled that he did not know what the word "freedom" meant since he spend a large part of his life as a slave laborer. Later "we had to pinch ourselves to believe that we were free". said Hollenbeck. Hollenbeck stated that thousands of prisoners were killed each day at Dachau

Outside Dachau, Staff Sgt. Mamoru Araki of Battery C was busy manning his gun position when he first saw a number of prisoners coming toward them. He described them as being "run down, really in bad condition, haggard and dirty." They wore stripped clothing and were starving. He and some of his men passed over their extra C rations and cookies to the starving prisoners. Some of the prisoners were barely walking.
Araki noticed cattle that were "butchered up and nothing but bones"

He noted the puzzled looks the prisoners gave the Japanese American soldiers...

Right after the war had ended in Europe, Araki and other 522 soldiers were policing the area. He was given a tour of Dachau by one of the camps survivors. Araki was horrified when he found a "30 by 30 building that looked like a shower" "There was a peeping window where the Nazi’s could look inside" He was told that people were corralled into this gas chamber and then their bodies placed into large ovens to be cremated. There was also a "freezer chamber used to test on Jews"
Araki then "realized what a shame it was". He was horrified and remembers the foul odor the ovens gave. Some with bodies still inside. "How can anybody do that to a human being" said Araki

"How can the younger generations believe this happened? It must be so "hard to comprehend it"

The liberation of Dachau is fairly well known in the Japanese American community but largely unknown to outsiders. It is one of the biggest ironies of the Second World War. World War Two was idealized as a war of democracy over fascism yet it is so ironic that some of the liberators of these horrible death camps were people of color in American uniform...... Buchenwald was liberated by African American soldiers a few weeks before the liberation of Dachau.. April 11th, 1945 by the 761st Tank Battalion.

Japanese American soldiers serving in US Army liberated holocaust survivors from Nazi death camps at Dachau in 1945. They were the first soldiers to arrive at the main gates and helped chase the Nazis away thus saving thousands of lives. The holocaust survivors at Dachau were liberated by soldiers who were a not free people in their own country. Many of the Japanese American soldiers families and relatives were behind barbed wire in US style concentration camps.

Both Holocaust survivors I spoke to have concerns about the recent wave of hate crimes in the United States. Yanina Cywinska warned "do not allow this (Holocaust) to happen again" She encouraged people to speak out and "be very sensitive to cruelty." "Silence is worse than a bullet....silence is approving what is happening" around us.

Burt Takeuchi
Nihonmachi Outreach Committee