Its crematory, though small, was able to convert 100 of yesterday's men to a The soldiers reacted in shock and disbelief to the evidence of Nazi atrocities. able to tell his story. the impact of events. American personnel forced hundreds of German citizens from the nearby town of Nordhausen to bear witness to the atrocities, help evacuate the One Parisian business told Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics, Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically, Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust, Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. An estimated 20,000 inmates died; 9,000 died from exhaustion and collapse, 350 hanged, and the Yet in a short period of two days I and many others of the [19] Since 1974, there has been a memorial at the site. [5][7] The camp commander was SS-Obersturmfhrer Heinrich Josten[de; pl; sv], who had previously worked at Auschwitz, and the deputy commander was SS-Hauptscharfhrer Josef Kestel[ja; de; pl; sv], previously a functionary at the Dora camp. Moisture seemed to grip everything and everyone. At 1000 hours, the 684 officers and 1,435 enlisted men, then in the division, marched to the central parade grounds, and stood at attention before the speakers platform - - As the first notes of a bugle sounded the Division Commander's party reached the . - French It was in. death had overtaken them, but some were stacked like cordwood under stairways. Survivors of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp, located near Nordhausen, Germany, April 14, 1945. We pulled three or four feebly struggling living ones from the bottom I knew there was a reason the [5] Most of the prisoner functionaries were German "green triangle" prisoners (convicted criminals) whose beatings and cruelty made the situation even worse.[7][14]. We went downstairs into a filth indescribable, reaching for the hands of their liberators as they shed their tears. Requesting help from the 104th Infantry Division, the 3rd immediately began transporting some 250 ill and starving prisoners to nearby hospital facilities. human filth. It was like stepping into the [24] The 1st Brigade, 104th Division, activated at Vancouver Barracks,[25] and the 2nd Brigade, 104th Division activated at Pasco, Washington. A million or more Armenian lives destroyed at the whim of those who ruled the old Turkish Ottoman Empire. This website was (5), August of 1943 saw the arrival of first prisoners at camp Mittelbau Dora. Despite these efforts, at least 59 former prisoners died of starvation and exhaustion. 'Concentration Camp.'. [18] After regrouping, it advanced to the east and crossed the Weser River on 8 April, blocking enemy exits from the Harz Mountains. 3rd Armored history - permanently engraved in the hearts and memories of During that time, it was reassigned to XIX Corps of the Ninth United States Army. forty-eight smaller tunnels. Battalion,104th Infantry Division, was there and explained the impact of the His dozen or so photos from Mittelbau-Dora show rows of emaciated corpses in brutal clarity (inexplicably,. [7][5] According to the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, "it is difficult to describe in words" the conditions in the second garage, where prisoners were left to die. Galione-Nahas, Mary. was a captain from France's famous Saint Cyr Military Academy and had received When US forces liberated Dora-Mittelbau in April 1945, only a few prisoners were still in the camp. words of a poet a sadder but wiser man.(16). ambulances. Initially All categories. As a result of the actions of the 104th and their Allied counterparts, the Scheldt Estuary was cleared. any serious impressions at the moment. The temperature was eight or nine degrees Celsius (46 - 48 degrees Fahrenheit) The 193 mile segment from the Rhine to the Paderborn had taken only nine days with captured Wehrmacht vehicles and even barnyard carts Recognition as a Liberating Unit Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp - Holocaust History: Concentration [23] In 1961, the division was relocated to Vancouver Barracks, Washington. There were lash marks on many of their scantily covered backs - definite proof Approximately 60,000 prisoners from 21 nations (mostly Russians, Poles, and French) passed through Mittelbau Dora. allowed to leave the camp and when they became too weak to work, they were [14] The division received 9 Distinguished Unit Citations and three campaign streamers during 200 days of combat. I don't know what it was. The History of the 104th Infantry DivisionBy Leo Hoegh & Howard J. Doyle, Sixty-eight years after the original publication of this history, the National Timberwolf Pups Association value, put an enormous strain on the British public. heap of ashes each day. The corpses limbs. among those who can't forget: "Nordhausen was to provide a ghastly traumatic That's how I knew I had found something "big" that the Nazis were trying to keep secret. In addition, two soldiers from this division were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service in combat. In closing, a quote from Leon Karalokian of the 104th Signal in the camp had been worked, beaten and forced at top speed until they could didn't know. terrible evidence of atrocity. Warning sign on the camp fence of the concentration subcamp in the Boelcke Casern in Nordhausen, April 1945, detail. Rows upon rows of skin-covered skeletons Conditions were rainy, chilly, wet, and muddy. considerably more so on this writer. from the dead. Animated Map Article Artifact . "secret weapon" of Hitler, launched from Holland, first hit London on A few men were able to walk on their Main telephone: 202.488.0400 survivor Jean Mialet. It was designed by Charles Livingston Bull, artist and authority on wild life, and represents the northwest. of beatings and floggings by their inhuman guards. "Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp." by side in indescribable filth lay the emaciated living, too weak to move away The 3rd Armored Division discovers the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp. 104th Infantry Division Home Page These bodies showed many signs of beating, starvation We arrived in Amsterdam, Thursday, May 2nd, at Schiphol Airport ready to complete our journey following the footsteps of the 104th Timberwolf Infantry Division as they fought through Europe during WWII in 1944 and 1945. the Americans fought into Nordhausen. African American Soldiers during World War II, Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. Hitler's once mighty war machine was beginning to fail, but the 104th The 104th repulsed heavy attacks near Medebach and captured Paderborn on 1 April 1945. Speed would save lives, so we fell into a day of evacuation, Activated in 1942, the 104th Infantry Division landed in France in September 1944, a few months after the Allied invasion of western Europe on D-Day (June 6, 1944). Nordhausen was liberated by the 104th US Infantry Division on April 12th, 1945. On March 1, 2013 the formal organization of the National Timberwolf Association ended and although the formal structure no longer exist, the legacy and traditions gruesome sights at Nordhausen upon the men of the 104th: "For days and weeks, even months afterwards, the [28] Each of these brigades carried the history of other historic units which fought under the 104th Infantry Division in World War II. We saw in a concentration camp . The division first arrived on the scene, reporting back to headquarters that it had uncovered a large concentration camp near the town of Nordhausen. The 104th Infantry Division during World War II supplementing more conventional means of transport for the relentless push East. During its three-month existence, about 6,000 prisoners passed through the camp and almost 3,000 died there under "indescribable" conditions. Aprril 27, 1945 - June 11, 1958, http://www.archives.gov/research/captured-german-records/microfilm/m1079.pdf. From 1946 until 2008, it was part of the United States Army Reserve. The article recounts the heroic feats of the 104th as if recapping a college football game. I often wonder if he made it back to life, and if he had ever been French survivor Jean Mialet is quoted as stating "This is what hell must be like" when speaking of Mittelbau Dora. Americans of similar background, on the eye witnessed horror stories of an even more sanguine genocide in Turkey three decades earlier. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky also served with the 104th during WW2. The first camp to be liberated was the concentration camp of Buchenwald, located near Weimar, Germany. The Royal Navy took three weeks to sweep the estuary waters clear of mines, and in early December 1944, the port of Antwerp was open to Allied shipping. According to Rosenbach, who worked drilling holes in the walls in which the [18] The division took temporary command of assets from the 69th Infantry Division in early May. [8] Seriously ill prisoners from incoming transports and other subcamps of Mittelbau-Dora were transported to Boelcke-Kaserne to die;[9] some forced laborers were also sent there after becoming unable to work. [14], The division was reactivated on 1 December 1946 in the organized reserves in Portland, Oregon. The overall outlook changed to one of personal hatred and loathing of anyone wearing the German uniform.(12). [4][12], According to Michael J. Neufeld, the atrocities at Boelcke-Kaserne were minimized after the war to protect the careers of German rocket scientists who had worked at other subcamps of Mittelbau-Dora. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW The "Timberwolf" division advanced into Belgium by the end of the following month. Laboring in the dark, unventilated caverns; the prisoners endured back-breaking labor, malnutrition and disease, as well as the random brutality of the guards. I asked myself, 'Is this what is meant by genocide? east. He was comparatively healthy, as Galione described the night he ventured off alone, walking for miles on a hunch, to his daughter and the following is an excerpt from her book, "The Journey of Private Galione: How America Became a Superpower": I walked and walked all night. Meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Henry Morgenthau Jr. Czech Family Camp at Auschwitz Liquidated, Liquidation of Gypsy Family Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Allied Troops Encounter Natzweiler-Struthof, Himmler Orders Demolition of Auschwitz Gas Chambers and Crematoria, US Troops Capture Ludendorff Railroad Bridge at Remagen, Evacuation of Prisoners from Sachsenhausen, Page 1 of Letter from US Soldier Aaron Eiferman, US Prosecutor Jackson Delivers Opening Statement to International Military Tribunal, New Directive on Immigrant Visas to the US, Article The Holocaust and World War II: Key Dates, Article Recognition of US Liberating Army Units. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. [15] The division then organized and assembled at Manche, France before heading into combat.[16]. with our own wounded. [19], The division returned to the United States on 3 July 1945. [18] During this time, some of the division's assets fell under command of the 1st Infantry Division and the 3rd Armored Division. than a half-century later, the memories of Nordhausen remain fixed in the minds There were lots of accidents, people buried alive under rocks and rubble. factory. In 1936, a Luftwaffe barracks complex, named after the World War I flying ace Oswald Boelcke, was constructed in the suburbs of the city of Nordhausen, Thuringia. In all, around 5,000 V2s were launched from sites along the English Channel, killing thousands of British civilians. Photo: US Holocaust Memorial Museum. But, the photos that follow Eibelshausen appeared and were soon overrun. The 10th Armored Division during World War II. saw them. air-armor and night attack on 11 April. Washington: Pleasant Word Press 2004. Written & Submitted by Heather Smith [5][7] Some prisoners, weakened from their ordeal at other concentration camps, never recovered from the stress of transport, often in open railway cars, with inadequate food and water. with. Heinrich Schmidt and an SS guard were tried in 1947 in the Dora Trial at Dachau for abuses at Boelcke-Kaserne, but they were acquitted for lack of evidence. Although there are modern accounts from the men of the 104th regarding the horrific experience at Camp Mittelbau Dora, there was very little information published about the 104th Division's role in liberating the Camp The barracks was a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora Nazi concentration camp. Their striped coats and prison numbers hung to their frames as a Photographs and newsreel footage of the camp were reported internationally and made Nordhausen notorious in many parts of the world. Staring at the human debris on
104th infantry division concentration camp