Joseph Thacker photograph
- Language
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English
- Genre/Form
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Photograph.
- Extent
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1 folder
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Joan Lanier
Contains a postwar photograph of Nuremberg, Germany.
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Record last modified: 2018-09-04 13:18:17
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn49833
Also in Joseph A. Thacker collection
The collection consists of a Nazi banner and a photograph relating to the experiences of Joseph A. Thacker during World War II, when he served as a solider in the 80th Infantry Division of the United States Army in Germany.
Date: 1945 May
Large gold striped Nazi swastika banner retrieved by a US soldier from a Nazi Party building in Berchtesgaden
Object
Extremely large Nazi banner with a swastika and gold stripes retrieved by 21 year old Joseph Thacker, an American soldier, from the wall of a Nazi Party building in Berchtesgaden, Germany, the location of Hitler's retreat, the Berghof, in the Bavarian Alps. It was the last of several war trophies that Joe sent home to his parents and he told them that he removed it from a wall at Hitler's headquarters. Berchtesgaden had a complex of buildings, including an SS barracks and residences of other influential Nazi leaders. The complex was secured on May 4 by the 7th Infantry Regiment who permitted French troops and the 101st Airborne access late that afternoon. Joseph was deployed in France in October 1944, and rose to staff sergeant in the 80th Infantry Division. The Division moved through Germany to Austria in April-May 1945, but was not officially engaged at Berchtesgaden. After Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, Joseph was placed on occupational duty.
