US 7TH ARMY LIBERATED DACHAU 70 YEARS AGO TODAY
Munich, Germany (JFK+50) Seventy years ago today, April 29, 1945, the first Nazi concentration camp, Dachau, located ten miles northwest of Munich, was liberated by the United States 7th Army's 45th Infantry Division.
The camp, which opened on March 22, 1933, had been both a model for other Nazi camps and a "school of violence" for the SS guards who worked there. Dachau was also the first to use prisoners for medical experimentation.
American soldiers found thirty railroad cars full of bodies at the camp.
It its' twelve years of horror, Dachau saw more than 200,000 Europeans incarcerated and 41,500 executed.
According to tradition, a commemoration of the liberation of the camp will be held on the first Sunday following April 29th. This year that will be May 3rd.
Survivors and liberators will join together to remember the event and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will speak.
SOURCE
"Dachau," www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/
Munich, Germany (JFK+50) Seventy years ago today, April 29, 1945, the first Nazi concentration camp, Dachau, located ten miles northwest of Munich, was liberated by the United States 7th Army's 45th Infantry Division.
The camp, which opened on March 22, 1933, had been both a model for other Nazi camps and a "school of violence" for the SS guards who worked there. Dachau was also the first to use prisoners for medical experimentation.
American soldiers found thirty railroad cars full of bodies at the camp.
It its' twelve years of horror, Dachau saw more than 200,000 Europeans incarcerated and 41,500 executed.
According to tradition, a commemoration of the liberation of the camp will be held on the first Sunday following April 29th. This year that will be May 3rd.
Survivors and liberators will join together to remember the event and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will speak.
SOURCE
"Dachau," www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/
US Soldiers at Dachau Gate (1945)
