Culture

What US soldiers found at Dachau

  • liberated Dachau concentration camp (imago stock&people)

    The arrival of the US army

    On Sunday, April 29, 1945 Colonel Sparks gave the marching orders to the 3rd battalion of his infantry regiment. The US troops came from the West, advancing towards Munich. They didn't know exactly where Dachau, the concentration camp the Nazis set up in 1933, was located. When they discovered it, the troops encountered gruesome sights.

  • Liberation of Dachau concentration camp (picture-alliance/dpa)

    Atrocious conditions

    Just a few days prior, SS guards had hurriedly fled the camp. In the meantime, a railway train carrying concentration camp prisoners from the East had arrived. Most of its passengers had died of thirst or suffocated in the locked cars, while others were shot and killed in cold blood by the SS men. When they arrived, US soldiers found 2,300 human corpses in the cars.

  • Dachau concentration camp (picture-alliance/dpa)

    Under US army control

    After arriving, the US soldiers took over command of the camp with little gunfire. Yet, tragic incidents still occurred during the liberation of the prisoners. Some were accidentally electrocuted when they ran to the fences in joy to greet the US soldiers. Approximately 32,000 prisoners were found alive, most requiring medical care.

  • Dachau concentration camp: The prisoner pictured, Jean Voste from Belgian Congo, is shown wearing his uniform during liberation(picture-alliance/dpa/akg-images)

    Prisoners after the liberation

    The hygienic conditions in Dachau were catastrophic. Many prisoners were infected with typhoid and had scabies. Their striped concentration camp clothing, which would later become a symbol for the misery in Nazi camps, often hung on them in rags. Many prisoners did not have shoes. The prisoner pictured, Jean Voste from Belgian Congo, is shown wearing his uniform during liberation.

  • a prisoner talking to senior Nazi German military officers across a barbed wire fence in the Dachau Concentration Camp (Imago/ITAR-TASS)

    A march to death

    On April 14, 1945, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler (pictured here during an inspection during the camp's construction) ordered the immediate "complete evacuation" of the concentration camp. The SS camp administration forced about 7,000 inmates to embark on a so-called death march towards the south. Most did not survive.

  • Concentration camp Dachau main entrance gate (imago)

    A cynical slogan

    The gate of the main entrance to the Dachau concentration camp bore the inscription "Arbeit macht frei," or "work sets you free." This cynical Nazi slogan was later used in almost all National Socialist concentration camps. The motto was invented by Theodor Eicke, the first SS camp leader of Dachau. His "Dachau School" was also attended by Auschwitz commanders Rudolf Höss and Richard Baer.

  • A photograph showing prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp after it was liberated by US troops in 1945 (picture-alliance/dpa/ITAR-TASS/S. Krasilnikov)

    Shortly before the liberation

    When the rumor spread throughout the concentration camp that the US soldiers were right in front of the Bavarian town of Dachau, some prisoners joined together to form a resistance committee. They used the chaos in the overcrowded camp to deliberately sabotage the orders of the last remaining SS guards to join the death marches.

  • Young prisoners interned at Dachau concentration camp cheer the American troops who liberated the camp (Keystone/Getty Images)

    Celebrating the end of the war on May 8

    After the US army took over the administration of the liberated concentration camp in April 1945, army photographers staged pictures of cheering concentration camp prisoners and used them as a propaganda tool to depict US success. The photos depicted seemingly healthy children and young people, who were a minority at the camp. Most of the survivors could hardly stand on their feet.

  • Donald Greenbaum (right), who was among those who liberated Dachau at the time, met former Dachau prisoner Ernest Gross (left) at the memorial in Liberty State Park, New Jersey in 2015. (picture-alliance/dpa/Ch. Melzer)

    Touching reunions in the USA

    Years after the Second World War, former US soldiers who were present during the liberation of the concentration camp in 1945 met with former prisoners. Donald Greenbaum (right), who was among those who liberated Dachau at the time, met former Dachau prisoner Ernest Gross (left) at the memorial in Liberty State Park, New Jersey in 2015.


When the soldiers of the US Army reached the Dachau concentration camp gate, they had no idea what was behind it: over 30,000 prisoners, many of whom had died, starved to death.

  • Date 29.04.2020
  • Author Heike Mund (sh)