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.
When I was stationed in Japan I discovered that swastikas were decorations on some of the older Japanese temples. The guides at these temples claimed they stood for infinity, or something like that.
“Work sets you free.”
Not my words.
Was there in 2007. Got on the train in Munich which took us right to Dachau (the town).
My understanding is that the camp is a required field-trip for the school kids in the Munich area.
Upon further inquiry, to correct my memory, I found that in Buddhism the swastika stands for good luck or well being.
It was all pure slave labor, the idea was to work them to death and produce armaments such as V2s.
Even though there was sabotage, it more or les worked.
Wasn’t Dachau the model prison camp the Germans used as a show and film them having a pretty good life for the Red Cross?
You're thinking of Thereisienstadt, which was located in Czechoslovakia.
#42. The “swastika” symbol of angular bent lines was also Buddhist and possibly Hindu in origins. I saw them on old graves in So. Vietnam in the Mekong Delta and possibly on some buildings in Taipei.
Nothing sinister about them until the Nazis appropriated them.
Saw it in about ‘68. I was just a kid but it really affected me. It was very disturbing but I learned that people are capable of incredible evil and I never forgot it. Coupled with schools that taught us the true horrors of fascism, dictatorships and totalitarianism vs. the American way, I’m sure it sealed in my mind why this country and our heritage is worth every effort to preserve.
They don’t teach that these days. They are erasing it all from collective memory. Which means it is very likely to happen again in some fashion. What a damned shame that is.
Around 1967, when I was 13, my Dad was stationed in Germany. Once summer he took us on a history tour of Germany and surrounding countries. Dachau was one of the places we visited. Left a lasting impression on me.
As horrible as Auschwitz was, and it was indeed horrible, there was a modicum of hope, if it can be called that in that if you were fit enough and determined to stay alive you had a chance if you could be put to work. At Treblinka there was no hope at all, for the fit or the sick and weak. Treblinka existed for no other reason then killing. It was straight off the cattle cars and straight to the gas.
Thanks for the correction. I remember seeing a soccer match, people working with crafts, people having fun. They said that by the time the film was released, all the people shown in it were already dead.
I believe the actual death toll at Dachau was around 60,000. Even after it being liberated there were many inmates who were too sick and weak and simply died.
Yes, we are seeing history repeat itself because the vast majority of Left-leaning idiots are ignorant. For now, it just cool to be out there protesting against the Jews. In Germany a Jew cannot walk around with a kippa anymore, despite the “Multi-cultural” march...
Dachau, the town, voted heavily against Hitler back when voting still happened. So it was like making Freepers go tour Obama’s mess.
I was there about when you were there under similar circumstances. I was a tough dude but coming out my eyes were wet. What a horrible place. Did you see the pile of shoes? Anyone that worked there should spend eternity in the worst hell imaginable. The victims should live on feather-beds in Heaven.
Yup, exactly the same here. It was my first visit to Dachau in 1968 and I saw a German woman walking down the street looking for all the world like she was actually afraid the carload of GIs (that's us) would ask her where it was. Must've been a common occurrence on her way to the Nazi meeting down the street. So I pulled over and asked, "Wo ist Dachau, bitte?" Boy, did that ever p*** her off! We couldn't have been half a mile away, but she wasn't about to help us. If you ask me, we let the Germans off waaaay too easy after WWII. They've never demonstrated the least bit of genuine contrition for the millions of innocent lives they took.
Indeed
I’ve thought that Jewish liberals should have to visit these camps
Maybe then the evils of unchecked centralized government headed by false political idols might sink into their heads
You know, camps liberated by those mostly Christian boys? Disproportionately from Flyover Country?
Yeah, those people
One of my brothers was a German POW and that camp was forced to walk several miles to a railhead to be moved to another camp as the allies neared. Patton eventually liberated them near Berlin. He was a bombardier on a B17...
or the Big Red One, when Mark Hamill keeps firing at the German in the oven.
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