Beyond imagination
Corpses, garbage, emaciated and terminally ill prisoners – when the Allied troops liberated the concentration camps in the Reich territory in 1944 and 1945, they were met with incomprehensible suffering. The soldiers were unprepared for the gruesome scenes they encountered in the Nazi labor camps and killing centers.
The first concentration camp to be liberated by the US Army was the Ohrdruf sub-camp near Gotha, code name SIII. Around 20,000 prisoners from various European countries passed through the camp between November 1944 and April 1945. They were forced to dig tunnels in the neighboring Jonastal valley, presumably with a view to setting up temporary quarters for the Nazi leadership. American troops under General George S. Patton arrived in Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945.
Witnesses to the brutish murders
Charles Thomas Payne, great-uncle of former US President Barack Obama, was one of the first soldiers to enter the camp. More than 60 years after the liberation, he described in a newspaper interview how he experienced the situation back then:
”Then we arrived at the camp with the big wooden gate and the barbed wire fence. Earlier that day, the guards had rounded up prisoners and mowed them down with machine guns near the entrance to the camp. They were all still clutching their mugs, as if they had been called to dinner. […] They had starved to death. Never before had I am imagined I would witness something like this.”
Charles Thomas Payne, great-uncle of former US President Barack Obama
The US Army operations report of April 4, 1945 read: “Battle-hardened veterans, who had seen death many times before, gazed silently at the Nazi slaughterhouse. Some cried. Death on the battlefield was something they were able to comprehend. But this premeditated, brutish murder was beyond their imagination.”
Documenting the horror
General Patton and his commanders decided that this horror had to be documented for the world to see. The US Army’s Signal Corps was dispatched to Ohrdruf to take photos and shoot film footage. A week later, US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, also came to Ohrdruf to see for himself. He visited the barracks and grounds and also inspected the instruments of torture and the camp gallows.
During the inspection of the liberated Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, General D. Eisenhower and a group of high-ranking US Army officers, including General Patton, view the charred remains of prisoners who were burned along the railroad tracks during evacuation of the camp. Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Harold Royall
Eisenhower also suggested bringing American and British journalists to Thuringia to document the horrors of the liberated camps. He wanted the world to know about the crimes that the Nazis had committed. Major American newspapers ran the reports. The images from Ohrdruf shaped public awareness of Nazi crimes in the USA, although the camp has remained largely unknown in Germany to this day.
Securing supplies
Later that same month, on April 23, 1945, the US Army also liberated the Flossenbürg concentration camp in the Upper Palatinate Forest. Between 1938 and 1945, around 100,000 prisoners from over 30 nations were imprisoned in the main camp and the sub-camps – and at least 30,000 of them perished. Many were assigned to extremely hard forced labor in the Flossenbürg quarry.
The SS also evacuated this camp before the Allies arrived, sending tens of thousands on death marches or loading them into freight cars. Around 1,600 prisoners remained, many of them mortally ill. The US Army’s military report shows that the soldiers initially focused on providing basic supplies.
Help came too late for many prisoners
According to the report, Major J. Blum – the officer in charge – initially requisitioned milk, butter, eggs and other agricultural products to feed the prisoners, especially the sick. The SS mess hall was converted into a kitchen.
There was no medical staff in the camp, so doctors among the prisoners helped to provide medical care for the sick. All patients and beds were treated with DDT powder to eliminate lice. The soldiers prepared the SS barracks so they could place seriously ill people in quarantine. Those in somewhat better health were transferred from the main camp. But the help came too late for many prisoners: some survived liberation by only a few hours, and over 100 died in the following weeks.
Treating the dead with dignity
The liberators did what they could to give the deceased a dignified burial. Major Blum halted cremation of the bodies and had the crematorium closed. Due to the large number of dead, there were initially not enough coffins available and the mortuary had to be enlarged so that the morticians could work properly. Protestant and Jewish military chaplains visited the camp and attended to the funerals at the cemetery.
Executions and acts of revenge
Most SS members had long left by the time the Allies arrived in both Flossenbürg concentration camp and Dachau concentration camp, which was liberated on April 29, 1945. Only a few were left behind – and some paid for it with their lives. For example, shots were exchanged between American soldiers and SS men in the Dachau concentration camp on the day of liberation. Originally planned for 6,000 people, the camp was home to around 32,000 prisoners vegetating in the cramped conditions of the completely overcrowded barracks, many of them terminally ill and almost starving. Some guards who surrendered were executed by US soldiers at the camp wall, a few others were killed by prisoners. But the overwhelming majority of concentration camp prisoners rejected these acts of revenge.
Perspectives on liberation
Our dossier marking 80 years of liberation presents a range of perspectives on the end of Nazi rule and its aftermath.
Forgotten helpers: Displaced persons and their commitment to a critical appraisal of Nazi crimes:
After liberation, large numbers of displaced persons were not just survivors – they became witnesses, activists and organizers. Many campaigned for documentation, education and justice – often on their own initiative and almost always under extremely difficult circumstances.
Facing the guilt: The days of concentration camp liberation through the eyes of German neighbors
How did Germans perceive the suffering endured by concentration camp prisoners? Civilians – children and adults alike – were confronted with the horrors of the Nazi regime not only during its rule, but also in the days following liberation.
“It was a hunger march”
Coercion, violence and exhaustion: the death marches mark the last gruesome chapter of Nazi crimes. Petro Mischtuk survived 13 camps in total and was sent on grueling marches. He survived those as well. We summarize his story and provide a link to an interview with him as a contemporary witness.
Defeat, Liberation or Victory?
How was May 8, 1945 commemorated in the GDR, how is it remembered today in the FRG and in the countries that fought against the German Reich? How has the view of the end of the War changed and what does it look like today? These are a few of the questions we address in our digital learning module “Suspicious: A Landscape of Crime”.
After liberation: Nazi perpetrators on the run
With the collapse of the Nazi regime, many perpetrators fled – and many evaded accountability. Guilt was systematically concealed, prosecution avoided and trials prevented.
