Posted on 04/29/2018 7:21:26 PM PDT by Rummyfan
On April 29, 1945, the U.S. Seventh Army’s 45th Infantry Division liberates Dachau, the first concentration camp established by Germany’s Nazi regime. A major Dachau subcamp was liberated the same day by the 42nd Rainbow Division.
Established five weeks after Adolf Hitler took power as German chancellor in 1933, Dachau was situated on the outskirts of the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich. During its first year, the camp held about 5,000 political prisoners, consisting primarily of German communists, Social Democrats, and other political opponents of the Nazi regime. During the next few years, the number of prisoners grew dramatically, and other groups were interned at Dachau, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, and repeat criminals. Beginning in 1938, Jews began to comprise a major portion of camp internees.
Prisoners at Dachau were used as forced laborers, initially in the construction and expansion of the camp and later for German armaments production. The camp served as the training center for SS concentration camp guards and was a model for other Nazi concentration camps. Dachau was also the first Nazi camp to use prisoners as human guinea pigs in medical experiments. At Dachau, Nazi scientists tested the effects of freezing and changes to atmospheric pressure on inmates, infected them with malaria and tuberculosis and treated them with experimental drugs, and forced them to test methods of making seawater potable and of halting excessive bleeding. Hundreds of prisoners died or were crippled as a result of these experiments.
Thousands of inmates died or were executed at Dachau, and thousands more were transferred to a Nazi extermination center near Linz, Austria, when they became too sick or weak to work. In 1944, to increase war production, the main camp was supplemented by dozens of satellite camps established near armaments factories in southern Germany and Austria. These camps were administered by the main camp and collectively called Dachau.
With the advance of Allied forces against Germany in April 1945, the Germans transferred prisoners from concentration camps near the front to Dachau, leading to a general deterioration of conditions and typhus epidemics. On April 27, 1945, approximately 7,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to begin a death march from Dachau to Tegernsee, far to the south. The next day, many of the SS guards abandoned the camp. On April 29, the Dachau main camp was liberated by units of the 45th Infantry after a brief battle with the camp’s remaining guards.
As they neared the camp, the Americans found more than 30 railroad cars filled with bodies in various states of decomposition. Inside the camp there were more bodies and 30,000 survivors, most severely emaciated. Some of the American troops who liberated Dachau were so appalled by conditions at the camp that they machine-gunned at least two groups of captured German guards. It is officially reported that 30 SS guards were killed in this fashion, but conspiracy theorists have alleged that more than 10 times that number were executed by the American liberators. The German citizens of the town of Dachau were later forced to bury the 9,000 dead inmates found at the camp.
In the course of Dachau’s history, at least 160,000 prisoners passed through the main camp, and 90,000 through the subcamps. Incomplete records indicate that at least 32,000 of the inmates perished at Dachau and its subcamps, but countless more were shipped to extermination camps elsewhere.
“Visited Dachau about 30 years ago on a dreary,depressing winter day.I was at a loss for words then...just as I am now.”
I used to want to visit one of these places.
Not sure I would want to do that anymore.
I have a friend whose grandfather was liberated from Dachau by the 42nd & 45th Infantry Divisions & the 20th Armored Division of the United States Army. She wrote that her grandfather was born on April 28 but always celebrated April 29 as his birthday.
I watched Eisenhower’s films of the camps in YouTube. Hardest thing I had to watch. Shocking when German townspeople walked in and then out of the camp.
Oh yeah... Recommended reading, “From Swastika to Thunderbird”, a history of the 45th Division.
To summarize... Believe it or not, the swastika is a Native American symbol. It just has a different meaning in Native American lore other than "National Socialist Party".
My understanding is that it's associated with a sense of family and community, derived from logs in a campfire. Google some pictures of young Jackie Kennedy nee Bouvier and you'll see her as a teenager, dressed up for a costume party as an "Indian Princess", wearing a dress adorned with a Native American swastika.
I could drive you by one estate in northeastern Oklahoma that has swastikas on the gates, built before the war, and painted over to deemphasize them during the war.
So the swastika was actually every bit as Native American a symbol as the Thunderbird, although the Thunderbird was, and still is, an infinitely better unit insignia for obvious reasons.
No man has ever seen the Thunderbird and lived to tell about it, you know. :)
I visited Dachau also. It was on a bright sunny day in July. There was No birds singing, no noise- in short very strange. It seemed like even the animals stayed out of the area.
Very strange.
BBC Broadcast of Drone Flight Through Auschwitz
Chilling
Jasenovac was the worst of all
On 29 April 1945 Dachau was surrendered to Brig. Gen. Henning Linden of the 42nd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army by Untersturmführer Wicker.
No, this guy has done many, many speaking engagements, and his tale does not involve generals. There wasn’t a general on the front line smelling the burnt bodies, finding piles of dead, finding the emaciated prisoners. I’m fairly certain the general came up later.
The world said NEVER AGAIN
But Europe is drifting in that direction again.
This time they are letting the muslims do most, but not all, of the dirty work.
And to a lesser degree, Jew Bashing is on the rise in the USA too - especially among leftists, leftist colleges, etc.
Well then history has it wrong at every location I checked, as they all say the 45th & 42nd liberated Dachau.
My Opa was in buchenwald
With the full knowledge of the Catholic Church.
You just head out Dachauer Strasse to Dachau... You can take the S-Bahn too.
“Visited Dachau about 30 years ago on a dreary,depressing winter day.I was at a loss for words then...just as I am now.”
Same here. I was in the military and several of us took in Oktoberfest in Munich, and after some drinking went sight seeing. That Oktoberfest buzz was killed immediately when walking into “Arbeit Macht Frei”.
If that wasn’t enough, a tour bus showed up while we were there, full of the American soldiers who had liberated the camp, and their spouses.
We walked behind that group and just listened....
Dachau was so close to town, to civilization. Everyone had to know what was going on in there. Everyone.
I remember when we went to Poland several years ago, I had some trepidation about going to Auschwitz. Had a great time in Krakow the night before, but knew the next day was going to be a very sobering experience.
Nothing really prepares you for it, and I’ve seen a lot of movies and documentaries.
Reminds me of Stalag 17 where they all troop around singing "And we'll all be gay again, when Johnny comes marching home"
Liberals and perverting our language.
They played dumb...
Something that is So heinous as
The Death camps would have to be denied.
I visited Schindlers’ grave in Jerusalem,
The Death camps...don’t think I’ll go.
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