Oral history interview with Charles Froug

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1992.A.0123.1.1 | RG Number: RG-50.035.01.0001

Overview

Interview Summary: Charles Froug, a medical officer in the United States Army during World War II, discusses his memories of the liberation of Dachau concentration camp; being the general surgeon with an evacuation hospital; being stationed in Rosenheim during the last week of April 1945; coming upon the open gates of Dachau and seeing the conditions of the camp and inmates; the Jewish and political prisoners (including Lutheran and Catholic clergy members); the crematoria; how he and the other Jewish members of the unit, about 18 doctors, went to the camp to say the Kaddish prayer for the dead; how 8,000 people were marched from the city to dig a large, single grave (200 by 50 by 10 feet); his commanding officer having the mayor of Rosenheim arrested and interrogated; being transferred to Lake Kimze (Chiemsee); treating American and German soldiers with equal priority; going to Hof, Germany; how much angrier they were after finding Dachau, since they had no knowledge of any of the camps beforehand; speaking to the B'nai B'rith about his experiences during his first week home; the fate of the 800 people saved at Dachau; speaking with inmates in Dachau during the first day there; prisoners dying from starvation and typhus; and Barbi's trial and his attorney's reference to French cruelty to the Algerians.
Interviewee: Charles Froug
Interviewer: Renate Frydman
Date: interview: 1987 May 12

Physical Details

Language: English
Extent: 2 videocassettes (VHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
Conditions on Use: No restrictions on use

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Concentration camp inmates--Medical care. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Jewish soldiers--United States. Physicians. Starvation. Typhus fever. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. World War, 1939-1945--Medical care. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American. World War, 1939-1945--Veterans--United States. Men--Personal narratives. Medical personnel
Geographic Name: Chiem, Lake (Germany) Dachau (Germany) Hof (Hof, Germany) Rosenheim (Bavaria, Germany) United States.
Personal Name: Froug, Charles.
Corporate Name: B'nai B'rith Dachau (Concentration camp) United States. Army

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: Renate Frydman conducted the interview with Charles Froug on May 12, 1987, in cooperation with the Wright State University Television Center with support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch received the tapesof the interview in 1992. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes via transfer from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch in February 1995.
Special Collection: The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive

Record last modified:: 2023-11-16 08:08:01
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn507329

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Contains oral history interviews with Holocaust survivors, concentration camp liberators, rescuers, a child of Holocaust survivors and a German exchange student from the Dayton, Ohio, area

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