Dachau massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dachau massacre took place in the area of Dachau concentration camp, near Dachau, Germany, on April 29, 1945 during World War II. The incident happened following the surrender of Dachau to soldiers of the 45th Infantry Division of the U.S. Seventh Army.
Contents |
[edit] Events
The last leader of the camp's prisoners was Oskar Müller (an imprisoned German anti-fascist), who later became Minister of Labor for Hesse. According to the report of Father Johannes Maria Lenz, Müller sent two prisoners to bring the U.S. Army to free the camp, because orders had come to kill all the prisoners.
[edit] Killings by the American soldiers
U.S. soldiers, shocked at what they discovered in the concentration camp, shot and killed an estimated 35 German SS-Totenkopfverbände guards as they attempted to surrender, including the crew of the Tower B. The other 515 were presumably either arrested, or managed to escape.
[edit] Railway station execution
At the camp's railway station the Americans found a train filled with human corpses. According to an investigation report, the slogan "we will take no prisoners here!" went around the U.S. soldiers. At the end of the railway, four SS men came to meet the Americans, and surrendered. They were led to the train and shot down by the company commander; since they were not immediately dead, others fired on the wounded men.
[edit] The hospital shooting
Adjoining buildings included a Waffen-SS training camp and a Red Cross-marked hospital housing wounded soldiers from the Eastern Front who had been found unfit for duty. US soldiers entered the hospital and ordered everyone out. The American GIs decided to separate the guards from Wehrmacht soldiers; however, this was not done carefully. It is alleged that those killed then included members of the regular Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS combat troops, as well as Axis volunteers from Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
As soon as the shooting started, the battalion commander, Colonel Felix L. Sparks, was alerted by the sound of gunfire and ran over to stop it, but nevertheless at least 12 were machine-gunned to death. According to the testimony of a German survivor SS-Oberscharführer Hans Linberger, the wounded were allegedly given razor blades by U.S. medics to "finish themselves off."
[edit] Killings by the inmates
After the hospital shooting, the U.S. soldiers allegedly gave a number of handguns to the now liberated inmates. It has been claimed by witnesses that they tortured and killed an estimated 40 more German soldiers, either SS guard-staff or regular troops. The same witnesses claim that many of the German soldiers killed by the inmates were beaten to death with shovels and other tools.
Numerous Kapo prisoner-guards were also allegedly killed by the inmates.[citation needed]
[edit] Investigation
Lt. Col. Joseph Whitaker, the Seventh Army's Assistant Inspector General, was subsequently ordered to investigate after witnesses came forward testifying about the massacre. The soldiers involved in shooting the POWs were court-martialed; however, General George Patton ordered that they receive no further punishment.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Goodell, Stephen, Kevin A Mahoney; Sybil Milton (1995). "1945: The Year of Liberation". Washington, D.C., U.S.A.: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. ISBN 0-89604-700-8
- Marcuse, Harold (2001). "Legacies of Dachau : The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp, 1933-2001". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55204-4
