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The bodies of summarily executed SS personnel lie in the foreground behind the crematorium, while behind them the corpses of prisoners are visible.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 82594
The bodies of summarily executed SS personnel lie in the foreground behind the crematorium, while behind them the corpses of prisoners are visible.

The bodies of summarily executed SS personnel lie in the foreground behind the crematorium, while behind them the corpses of prisoners are visible.

Date
1945 April 29 - 1945 May 05
Locale
Dachau, [Bavaria] Germany
Photo Designation
MAJOR CONCENTRATION CAMPS 1940-45 -- Dachau -- LIBERATION -- Summary Justice/Revenge
Photo Credit
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of George J. Camins

About This Photograph

Event History
On April 29, 1945 members of the 1st Company, 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry, under the command of Lt. Col. Felix L. Sparks, entered Dachau. There they discovered a train of 36 boxcars bearing the corpses of prisoners who had been transferred to Dachau from other camps in the last weeks of the war. As the soldiers advanced, they found stacks of bodies in other parts of the camp and thousands of emaciated survivors. They rounded up the remaining camp guards as they found them. At some point, it was reported, one of the Gis blurted out, "No prisoners!" Approximately 60 guards were then lined up against a wall and gunned down by members of the 1st Company. Others were shot in one of the boxcars or beaten to death outside with the participation of a few survivors. Pfc. John Lee and others from the unit were later summoned by military investigators to give testimony about the killings and to supply photographs. A report was written and submitted to General George Patton, commander of the 3rd Army, who chose not to take any action. The report, a copy of which was deposited in the National Archives, remained secret until 1991, when it was quietly declassified.

[Source: Wood, David, "For Memorial Day, A Painful Inquiry into the Grim Nature of War," May 22, 2001 (e-mail submission from david.wood@newhouse.com)]

See https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005214.
See Also "Dachau Main Camp" in Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, Volume 1, Part A.
See Also https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131.

Keywords and Subjects

Rights and Restrictions

Photo Source
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Provenance: George J. Camins
 
Record last modified: 1996-05-01 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1034907