A survivor sits on a stool inside a barrack in Nordhausen, surrounded by corpses.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 60017

Date: April 1945
Locale: Nordhausen, [Thuringia] Germany
Photo Designation: MAJOR CONCENTRATION CAMPS 1940-45 -- Dora-Mittelbau Sub-camps -- Nordhausen -- LIBERATION -- Survivors/Medical Care
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Diane Kathryn Lavett

Biography: William Bostwick Curtis III was in the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, during the Second World War. He had been a spy behind enemy lines earlier in the war and his specialty was ordinance. Bill was the official army photographer as the first wave of US Army entered Nordhausen and, earlier, possibly Buchenwald. His rank was 1st Lieutenant at that time, but he remained in the army and eventually retired as a full colonel. He was ordered to hand over all photographs and negatives but obviously did not comply. Bill never discussed his experiences during the Second World War, but he was haunted the rest of his life by them.
Keyword: CONCENTRATION CAMPS
CORPSES
DORA-MITTELBAU
NORDHAUSEN
SUB-CAMPS
SURVIVORS
Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Diane Kathryn Lavett
: Record last modified: 2020-06-22 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1174672

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