On April 29, 1945, two divisions of US Seventh Army, the 42nd Rainbow Division and the 45th Thunderbird Division, marched into the Dachau concentration camp and liberated the inmates. In another week, World War II would come to an end in Europe.
Lt. Col. Walter Fellenz, 42nd Infantry Division of the US Seventh Army said, “Several hundred yards inside the main gate, we encountered the concentration enclosure, itself. There before us, behind an electrically charged, barbed wire fence, stood a mass of cheering, half-mad men, women and children, waving and shouting with happiness - their liberators had come! The noise was beyond comprehension! Every individual (over 32,000) who could utter a sound, was cheering. Our hearts wept as we saw the tears of happiness fall from their cheeks.”
Death trap
The Dachau concentration camp was established in 1933, five weeks after Adolf Hitler took power as German chancellor. The camp was situated on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory on the outskirts of the town of Dachau, near Munich.
It was only in 1938 that Jews began to be interned here.
Initially, most prisoners were used as forced labourers to construct and expand the camp. Later, they worked in the production of military weapons and equipment. The camp was a training centre of the Secret Society (SS) guards and a model for other camps due to be built. Prisoners were used as human guinea pigs in medical experiments. Many of them died or were crippled as a result of these experiments. The crippled and injured were transferred to an extermination centre near Linz, Austria.
As the Allied forces advanced, many prisoners were transferred from camps near the front to Dachau. This lead to overcrowding, and deterioration of conditions leading to typhus epidemic.
On April 27, 1945, almost 7,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to begin a death march from Dachau to Tegernsee in the far south.
The next day, many of the SS guards abandoned their posts.
On April 29, the main camp was liberated by the two units of the U.S. Seventh army with support from the 20th Armored Division.
According to reports at least 160,000 prisoners passed through the main camp, and 90,000 through the sub camps. Incomplete records show that at least 32,000 of the inmates perished at Dachau and its sub camps. Countless number of prisoners were shipped to extermination camps elsewhere.
