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American troops with the 82nd Airborne Division look on as German exhume corpses from a mass grave.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 76892

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    American troops with the 82nd Airborne Division look on as German exhume corpses from a mass grave.
    American troops with the 82nd Airborne Division look on as German exhume corpses from a mass grave. The original Signal Corps caption "NEW NAZI HORROR CAMP DISCOVERED. One of the worst Nazi concentration camps uncovered by Allied troops was liberated at Wobbelin, Germany, a small town five miles north of Ludwigslust and 90 miles northwest of Berlin. Soldiers of three Allied units -- the 82nd U.S. Airborne Division, the Eighth Infantry Division of the Ninth U.S. Army and airborne troops of the Second British Army -- entered the camp and found sick, starving inmates barely surviving under indescribable conditions of filth and squalor. They found hundreds of dead prisoners in one of the buildings while outside, in a yard, hundreds more were found hastily buried in huge pits. One mass grave contained 300 emaciated, disfigured corpses. The dead included Poles, Russians, Frenchmen, Belgians, Dutchmen and Germans, all of whom had been working as slave laborers for the Nazis. It is estimated that at least 150 of the original 4,000 prisoners succumbed daily, mostly from starvation and savage treatment at the hands of Nazi SS troops who operated the camp. Some of the bodies found were burned almost beyond recognition and systematic torture of the inmates was revealed by the physical condition of most of the survivors. Military Government officers immediately ordered leading citizens of nearby Ludwigslust and other towns to march through the camp and witness the atrocities committed by representatives of the German Government. Most of the civilians disclaimed any knowledge of the camp's existence despite the fact that many of the prisoners worked in the area. The local residents later were made to exhume the bodies from the mass graves at the camp and provide decent, respectable interment of all dead prisoners. Two hundred were buried in the public square of Ludwigslust May 7, 1945, and an equal number were buried in the garden of the highest Nazi official of Hagenow. Eighty more were laid to rest in the town of Schwerin. BIPPA EA 66636 THIS PHOTO SHOWS: German civilians of Ludwigslust and nearby communities are forced to exhume the bodies of the Nazi atrocity victims from a mass ... Wobbelin concentration camp. These ... reburied the victims in the town ... gslust. Troops of the 82nd U.S. ... witness and direct the proceedings ... Photo ETO-..."

    Overview

    Caption
    American troops with the 82nd Airborne Division look on as German exhume corpses from a mass grave.

    The original Signal Corps caption "NEW NAZI HORROR CAMP DISCOVERED. One of the worst Nazi concentration camps uncovered by Allied troops was liberated at Wobbelin, Germany, a small town five miles north of Ludwigslust and 90 miles northwest of Berlin. Soldiers of three Allied units -- the 82nd U.S. Airborne Division, the Eighth Infantry Division of the Ninth U.S. Army and airborne troops of the Second British Army -- entered the camp and found sick, starving inmates barely surviving under indescribable conditions of filth and squalor. They found hundreds of dead prisoners in one of the buildings while outside, in a yard, hundreds more were found hastily buried in huge pits. One mass grave contained 300 emaciated, disfigured corpses. The dead included Poles, Russians, Frenchmen, Belgians, Dutchmen and Germans, all of whom had been working as slave laborers for the Nazis.

    It is estimated that at least 150 of the original 4,000 prisoners succumbed daily, mostly from starvation and savage treatment at the hands of Nazi SS troops who operated the camp. Some of the bodies found were burned almost beyond recognition and systematic torture of the inmates was revealed by the physical condition of most of the survivors. Military Government officers immediately ordered leading citizens of nearby Ludwigslust and other towns to march through the camp and witness the atrocities committed by representatives of the German Government. Most of the civilians disclaimed any knowledge of the camp's existence despite the fact that many of the prisoners worked in the area.

    The local residents later were made to exhume the bodies from the mass graves at the camp and provide decent, respectable interment of all dead prisoners. Two hundred were buried in the public square of Ludwigslust May 7, 1945, and an equal number were buried in the garden of the highest Nazi official of Hagenow. Eighty more were laid to rest in the town of Schwerin.

    BIPPA EA 66636

    THIS PHOTO SHOWS: German civilians of Ludwigslust and nearby communities are forced to exhume the bodies of the Nazi atrocity victims from a mass ... Wobbelin concentration camp. These ... reburied the victims in the town ... gslust. Troops of the 82nd U.S. ... witness and direct the proceedings ...
    Photo ETO-..."
    Date
    1945 May 06
    Locale
    Woebbelin, [Mecklenburg] Germany
    Photo Credit
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

    Rights & Restrictions

    Photo Source
    National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
    Copyright: Public Domain
    Source Record ID: 111-SC-266522 (Album 1610)
    Second Record ID: 153-Case files 1944-49--box 313--file 12-639 to 12-646
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
    Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
    Provenance: Arnold Bauer Barach
    Source Record ID: Collections: 1989.27

    Keywords & Subjects

    Record last modified:
    2012-11-08 00:00:00
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/pa11139

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