After the liberation of Dachau
Nerin E. Gun, a Turkish journalist who
was a prisoner at Dachau, wrote the following in his book entitled
"The Day of the Americans" about what happened after
the camp was liberated on April 29, 1945:
Nobody slept that night. The camp
was alive with bonfires and we all wanted to bivouac out of doors,
near the flames. Dachau had been transformed into a nomad camp.
The Americans had distributed canned food, and we heated it in
the coals of the fires. We also got some bread, taken from the
last reserves in the kitchens. But I for one was not hungry,
and most of us did not think of eating. We were drunk with our
freedom.
[...]
Hitler was to commit suicide only
the next day; yet, from the moment of our liberation, from five-thirty
in the afternoon until midnight of that last Sunday in April,
three hundred prisoners were to die.
Gun did not explain how these 300 prisoners
died on the night of the liberation of the camp, but he did write
that the prisoners had weapons and that the International Committee
of Dachau had made sure that the prisoners who had cooperated
with the German guards were not allowed to escape. Others may
have died from eating too much of the canned food and chocolate
given to them by the Americans, and undoubtedly there were deaths
among the 900 prisoners sick with typhus in the infirmary.
Gun's description of the aftermath continues:
The gates of the camp had been locked
again, and the liberators of the first hour, on their way again,
were already far off, toward Munich, toward the south, pursuing
their war. Guards had been placed on the other side of the barbed
wire. No one was allowed out any more, Already, at the end of
this first day, the Americans wondered what they would do with
his rabble of lepers.
We continued to sing, to laugh, to
dream, before the flames of the bonfires. We knew nothing as
yet of the three hundred dead, twice the daily average of the
last weeks before the liberation. We could not foresee that this
figure would go even higher in the months to come and that our
captivity was still far from being over. We could not admit that
there were some among us who would never leave Dachau alive,
as its inexorable law demanded. Dachau was to become in a way
the symbol of all Europe, which believed itself freed, but was
really only changing masters.
Newspaper reporters
view bodies at Dachau, May 3, 1945
Newspaper reporters and American Congressmen
were brought to see the bodies of prisoners who had died after
the liberation. The photo above shows bodies laid out in rows
on the east side of the camp.
On May 9, 1945, a group of 30 prominent
people in the town of Dachau were brought to the camp to see
the bodies. A film, made during their visit, was included in
a movie called Todesmühlen (Death Mills). This movie was
part of the re-education of the German people, who were made
to feel personally responsible for what happened in the concentration
camps. According to Peter Wyden, in his book "The Hitler
Virus," a few of the notables, who were forced to view the
corpses, fainted. Some cried and many shook their heads. Most
of them turned away, eager to avoid the scene. Afterwards, they
were heard to whisper, "Unglaublich!" (Unbelievable.)
The photo below shows one of the emaciated
bodies that was on display.
Emaciated body of Dachau
inmate after the liberation
According to Sybille Steinbacher, who
wrote a book entitled "Dachau: The Town and the Concentration
Camp," the US Army commandant of the town after the liberation
spoke angrily to the 30 Dachauers on the day that they were brought
to see the camp. He told them, "As punishment for the brutality
that the town tolerated next door to it, it should be sacked
and turned into ashes!"
The town priest, Father Friedrich Pfanzelt,
who was among the visitors, pleaded with the Americans not to
destroy the town. In a series of articles in 1981, a Dachau newspaper
named the Dachauer Nachrichten wrote about how the priest saved
the town: "On his knees, the prelate pleaded for mercy for
Dachau."
According to Peter Wyden, author of "The
Hitler Virus," 90 percent of the residents of Dachau were
Catholic. Regarding Father Pfanzelt, Wyden wrote: "Then,
from the pulpit of his St. Jacob's Church three days later, the
priest set in motion Dachau's great trauma, the protestation
of innocence, the denial of guilt that would never leave the
community."
St. Jakob's church
and adjacent Baroque building
Of all people, Father Pfanzelt should
have been aware of the atrocities committed inside the Dachau
concentration camp. According to Wyden, "For years the SS
had extended him the privilege of conducting Sunday services
in the KZ. And he had reciprocated with many ingratiating letters
(which Steinbacher found) and had taken pride in his cordial
relations with most of the camp commandants."
Father Pfanzelt died in 1958 without
ever confirming or denying that he had saved the town from the
wrath of the Americans. Today, Dachau is a beautiful town and
St. Jacob's Church still stands. This beautiful Baroque church
is shown in the photo above. No one knows if this story is true
or not, but it is possible that Father Pfanzelt really did save
Dachau from the same fate as Oradour-sur-Glane in France, which was destroyed
by SS soldiers because the residents of the town were believed
to be aiding the French resistance.
The photograph below shows German civilians
burying the bodies on Leitenberg hill. According to author Peter
Wyden, "Leading party members were made to bury the dead."
Wyden also wrote that "the Americans recruited Dachau women
to clean up the boxcars of the death train." Some of the
bodies were so decomposed that they were falling apart, as the
photograph shows.
Civilians burying decomposed
bodies at Leitenberg
Photo credit: Donald
E. Jackson, 40th Combat Engineer Regiment
The Official Report by the U.S. Seventh
Army devoted a lot of space to The Townspeople. According to
the Report, the townspeople would tell the Americans: "Wir
sind aberall belogen worden." (We have all been lied to.)
The townspeople admitted that they knew the Camp existed, that
they saw work-details of inmates passing through the streets
under guard, that "in some instances" (particularly
in the years 34 and 35) the SS behaved brutally - towards the
townspeople, according the The Official Report.
"Was konnten wir tun?" (What
could we have done?) According to the Official Report, this statement
would seem to represent the most popular attitude in the town
of Dachau at present. The townspeople told the Americans that
in the last years of the war, large numbers of the concentration
camp guards had been drafted into the SS against their will.
The following quote is from The Official
Report by the U.S. Seventh Army:
Several inmates also told the story
of how, in last October, a whole SS Regiment was recruited -
from of all sources, the inmates of Dachau Concentration Camp.
These men were all Reichsdeutsche and under 40 years old. They
were given no choice.
[...]
Although the population as a whole
realized the utter bestiality of the SS and the nauseating occurrences
beyond the barred gates of the Camp, they were afraid even to
say anything - much less do anything - because the shadow of
the Camp hung over them as well.
[...]
These people admit that the town as
a whole did a thriving business as a result of the presence of
the Camp and its attendant SS "Bonzen" (Big Shots)
- and it is perhaps not without significance that the most outspoken
anti-Nazis were people who, so to speak, could afford to be so
by reason of the fact that their business did not bring them
in daily contact with the SS.
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This page was last updated on March 18,
2008
After the liberation of DachauNerin E. Gun, a Turkish journalist who was a prisoner at Dachau, wrote the following in his book entitled "The Day of the Americans" about what happened after the camp was liberated on April 29, 1945: Nobody slept that night. The camp was alive with bonfires and we all wanted to bivouac out of doors, near the flames. Dachau had been transformed into a nomad camp. The Americans had distributed canned food, and we heated it in the coals of the fires. We also got some bread, taken from the last reserves in the kitchens. But I for one was not hungry, and most of us did not think of eating. We were drunk with our freedom. [...] Hitler was to commit suicide only the next day; yet, from the moment of our liberation, from five-thirty in the afternoon until midnight of that last Sunday in April, three hundred prisoners were to die. Gun did not explain how these 300 prisoners died on the night of the liberation of the camp, but he did write that the prisoners had weapons and that the International Committee of Dachau had made sure that the prisoners who had cooperated with the German guards were not allowed to escape. Others may have died from eating too much of the canned food and chocolate given to them by the Americans, and undoubtedly there were deaths among the 900 prisoners sick with typhus in the infirmary. Gun's description of the aftermath continues: The gates of the camp had been locked again, and the liberators of the first hour, on their way again, were already far off, toward Munich, toward the south, pursuing their war. Guards had been placed on the other side of the barbed wire. No one was allowed out any more, Already, at the end of this first day, the Americans wondered what they would do with his rabble of lepers. We continued to sing, to laugh, to dream, before the flames of the bonfires. We knew nothing as yet of the three hundred dead, twice the daily average of the last weeks before the liberation. We could not foresee that this figure would go even higher in the months to come and that our captivity was still far from being over. We could not admit that there were some among us who would never leave Dachau alive, as its inexorable law demanded. Dachau was to become in a way the symbol of all Europe, which believed itself freed, but was really only changing masters. Newspaper reporters and American Congressmen were brought to see the bodies of prisoners who had died after the liberation. The photo above shows bodies laid out in rows on the east side of the camp. On May 9, 1945, a group of 30 prominent people in the town of Dachau were brought to the camp to see the bodies. A film, made during their visit, was included in a movie called Todesmühlen (Death Mills). This movie was part of the re-education of the German people, who were made to feel personally responsible for what happened in the concentration camps. According to Peter Wyden, in his book "The Hitler Virus," a few of the notables, who were forced to view the corpses, fainted. Some cried and many shook their heads. Most of them turned away, eager to avoid the scene. Afterwards, they were heard to whisper, "Unglaublich!" (Unbelievable.) The photo below shows one of the emaciated bodies that was on display. According to Sybille Steinbacher, who wrote a book entitled "Dachau: The Town and the Concentration Camp," the US Army commandant of the town after the liberation spoke angrily to the 30 Dachauers on the day that they were brought to see the camp. He told them, "As punishment for the brutality that the town tolerated next door to it, it should be sacked and turned into ashes!" The town priest, Father Friedrich Pfanzelt, who was among the visitors, pleaded with the Americans not to destroy the town. In a series of articles in 1981, a Dachau newspaper named the Dachauer Nachrichten wrote about how the priest saved the town: "On his knees, the prelate pleaded for mercy for Dachau." According to Peter Wyden, author of "The Hitler Virus," 90 percent of the residents of Dachau were Catholic. Regarding Father Pfanzelt, Wyden wrote: "Then, from the pulpit of his St. Jacob's Church three days later, the priest set in motion Dachau's great trauma, the protestation of innocence, the denial of guilt that would never leave the community." Of all people, Father Pfanzelt should have been aware of the atrocities committed inside the Dachau concentration camp. According to Wyden, "For years the SS had extended him the privilege of conducting Sunday services in the KZ. And he had reciprocated with many ingratiating letters (which Steinbacher found) and had taken pride in his cordial relations with most of the camp commandants." Father Pfanzelt died in 1958 without ever confirming or denying that he had saved the town from the wrath of the Americans. Today, Dachau is a beautiful town and St. Jacob's Church still stands. This beautiful Baroque church is shown in the photo above. No one knows if this story is true or not, but it is possible that Father Pfanzelt really did save Dachau from the same fate as Oradour-sur-Glane in France, which was destroyed by SS soldiers because the residents of the town were believed to be aiding the French resistance. The photograph below shows German civilians burying the bodies on Leitenberg hill. According to author Peter Wyden, "Leading party members were made to bury the dead." Wyden also wrote that "the Americans recruited Dachau women to clean up the boxcars of the death train." Some of the bodies were so decomposed that they were falling apart, as the photograph shows. The Official Report by the U.S. Seventh Army devoted a lot of space to The Townspeople. According to the Report, the townspeople would tell the Americans: "Wir sind aberall belogen worden." (We have all been lied to.) The townspeople admitted that they knew the Camp existed, that they saw work-details of inmates passing through the streets under guard, that "in some instances" (particularly in the years 34 and 35) the SS behaved brutally - towards the townspeople, according the The Official Report. "Was konnten wir tun?" (What could we have done?) According to the Official Report, this statement would seem to represent the most popular attitude in the town of Dachau at present. The townspeople told the Americans that in the last years of the war, large numbers of the concentration camp guards had been drafted into the SS against their will. The following quote is from The Official Report by the U.S. Seventh Army: Several inmates also told the story of how, in last October, a whole SS Regiment was recruited - from of all sources, the inmates of Dachau Concentration Camp. These men were all Reichsdeutsche and under 40 years old. They were given no choice. [...] Although the population as a whole realized the utter bestiality of the SS and the nauseating occurrences beyond the barred gates of the Camp, they were afraid even to say anything - much less do anything - because the shadow of the Camp hung over them as well. [...] These people admit that the town as a whole did a thriving business as a result of the presence of the Camp and its attendant SS "Bonzen" (Big Shots) - and it is perhaps not without significance that the most outspoken anti-Nazis were people who, so to speak, could afford to be so by reason of the fact that their business did not bring them in daily contact with the SS. 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