Dachau in Words

Dachau Concentration Camp was the first of the Nazi concentration camps established in Germany. It opened in 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor, and it operated until its liberation by American troops in 1945. Situated just north of Munich, Dachau served as a model for other concentration camps that followed.

Initially, Dachau held political prisoners, particularly those deemed enemies of the Nazi regime, including communists, socialists, trade unionists, and others opposed to Hitler’s ideology. Over time, it became a site for the imprisonment and extermination of various groups, including Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Roma people, among others.

Conditions in Dachau were brutal, with prisoners enduring forced labor, starvation, disease, and systematic abuse. Medical experiments were also conducted on inmates, often resulting in severe suffering and death. The camp’s liberation in April 1945 revealed the extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, leading to its designation as a memorial site and a stark reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust. Today, Dachau serves as a memorial and museum, honoring the memory of the victims and educating visitors about the crimes of the Nazi regime.

The liberation of the Dachau Concentration Camp happened on April 29, 1945. om the same day as Hitler married Eva Braun.

Below are some testimonies of survivors and liberators.

Henk van de Water, survivor, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation

“I was liberated by the Americans from Dachau concentration camp. I had typhus and was about to die. The liberation should not have happened a day later, because then I would not have survived.
Through all this, I have always experienced freedom very intensely in my further life and tried to get the most out of it.
I was very happy and prepared for the commemorations of 75 years of liberation in Dachau this year. Unfortunately, it is not possible now, but I am now 96 years old and I still hope to experience this at a later date.”

Pierre Rolinet, survivor

“Dear friends,

We former prisoners did not leave the Concentration Camps the same as we entered them. We are marked for life by this event.
All this was planned and organized – to make us disappear. I think that, if the Nazis had won the war, no prisoner would have returned.
Under these extreme living conditions, constantly changing depending on events, each prisoner took a different course more or less depending on chance, at the disposition of other men: SS or Kapos. Life was hanging by a thread, death was always present.
Considered as animals, we were nevertheless able to organize ourselves and resist. Our fraternity and our solidarity permitted some among us to survive this atrocious regime.
In order to prevent that this were to happen again, some survivors decided to give testimony, so that the world would know our living conditions, and to explain, how people in a civilized country could let themselves be conditioned by Nazism and commit unimaginable crimes.
I have long placed the luck of returning home, of being available again, in the service of problems of memory.
On the other hand, the survivors will soon pass on, but luckily their commitment will continue, as there are people to be found in all nations, who are dedicated to carrying on. In this environment, I have re-found this spirit of fraternity and mutual aid which permitted us to endure our suffering and I thank you for it.”

Gerald O. Eaton, liberator

“We had been pushing towards Munich when Dachau was liberated. General Collins sent word that any man who wanted to see why we were fighting should go over. The next morning, we were loaded into trucks for the trip. It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen. Bodies were stacked in rail cars. We were warned not to feed any survivors, doctors would do that.

At the dedication of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, a man grabbed my arm when he saw my Rainbow tie. He said, I want to thank you. He was a Dachau survivor.”

A letter by Glenn Edward Belcher, a liberator written in 1985. written to his daughter

April 20, 1985

Dear Susan,

You have asked me to set down in writing some of the things I remember about Dachau. It’s difficult. It was just about 40 years ago today that I was there and as a consequence of the time interval, I can’t be absolutely certain as to the accuracy of that which I believe I saw and did.

Our division (the 42nd Infantry – about 15,000 men) was heading for the city of Munich, and as I recall we were going across a wide expanse of level land, and over to the left I saw what appeared to be a large factory which was enclosed by a wall — to the best of my recollection this was my first view of Dachau although I didn’t know it at the time and we did not stop.

While crossing this level land we were overtaken by (what seemed to me like) hundreds of American tanks. I read somewhere later that this was the 20th Tank Corps and that they had been ordered to overtake us and enter Munich first. The dust, noise, and confusion was one thing I recall – for some reason or another, I have a recollection of Munich being exactly 17 kilometers from Dachau. Whether this is the correct distance – or why I remember it as such is beyond my comprehension.

I don’t recall where I spent the night but I do remember being in Munich early the next day – strange – I found a book there about the 1936 Olympics and remember looking at Jesse Owen’s picture. For some unknown reason—me and several other guys in our company were loaded into the back of a truck and driven out of the city. We were taken to Dachau.

I don’t know how long we stayed there or what we were supposed to do there – but I do recall that we went back to Munich later that same night.

Now for Dachau – we saw nothing unusual from a distance – some smoke coming out of smokestacks – you couldn’t see inside the walls or whatever the enclosure was. We got out of the truck and walked toward a gate (wide enough for a vehicle).

Before we got to the gate we found a railroad siding with a bunch of box cars on it. Some of the doors to the box cars were open and as we got closer to them I saw that they were piled up with emaciated bodies – it seemed to me that they were lying on top of each other and piled up to a depth of 4 or 5 feet. As I walked toward the end of the train toward the gate I saw a dead German soldier and beside him a rifle that was broken in half. I recall supposing that someone had hit him so hard with the rifle that it had killed him and broken the rifle.

We went in the gate and there was some people inside – as the day went on more and more people came. I didn’t know who they were at the time but found out later that some of them were war correspondents – as you probably know from your journalism studies many of them traveled with front-line troops.

Just inside the gate and to the right was a high wire enclosure—it was filled with big, mean-looking dogs who were barking like hell – this went on all the time I was there. I recall hoping that nobody turned them loose – this was before I saw all the other unthinkable things. I never ever saw any mention of those dogs in anything I ever read.

Immediately in front of me after entering the gate – and about 20 yards away was a moat with water in it about 4 or 5 feet wide – a dead soldier was laying face down in it. Just beyond the moat was a high fence – I’d guess it to be 8 or 10 feet high – I understood it was electrified. On the other side of the fence was a valley which was about 20 feet wide and 8 or 10 feet deep – on the other side of the valley were barracks and those locked up.

We did not talk to the prisoners and they did not talk to us – between us, there was a moat, an electrified fence, and a steep up-and-down valley. We stared at them and they stared at us. It was as if they didn’t know what to do and neither did we.

On our side of the fence and to the right of where the dogs were – were the gas chambers and ovens where people were killed and then burned. There were stacks of bodies (all looked like skeletons) apparently prepared for burning.

There was a long walk (cement) and roadway (black-top) to the right of the ovens which ran alongside the moat and fence that I mentioned before – it ran the entire length of the compound and I would guess it to be between 1/4 and 1/2 mile in length. Down toward the end of this, I saw a big cart – the kind you used to see around railroad depots. It was filled with bread and was being taken into the prisoners.

Why I should remember this I don’t know—but near this wagon of bread was a woman and a man who were dressed in civilian clothes rather than the striped uniforms that other prisoners wore. They seemed to be in much better health than all the others. Somebody told me that this couple was Kurt Von Schussnig and his wife – and that prior to becoming a prisoner he was the Chancellor of Austria. Whether this is true or not I would have no way of knowing – but this is what comes out of my not-so-good memory.

In retrospect, I suppose we should have done something immediately to ease the prisoners’ pain or to free them from their confinement—but on the other hand, perhaps we were all too shocked by the gruesome discovery to be anything other than immobilized. The only people at that time who were not immobilized were a few prisoners who threw themselves into the fences I told you about earlier. I understand that shortly after I was there guards were established to prevent them from doing this – but neither myself nor others with me did anything.

I’ve already told you about picking up the orange-colored thermos bottle at Dachau—and discarding it a few days later—I wasn’t the only one who did this. I think all of us who were sent out to Dachau that day wanted to get it out of sight – and out of mind as quickly as we could. I don’t think any of us were successful despite the fact that to the best of my knowledge, not a single person who was there with me ever discussed it with me – nor I with them. I even went so far as to not even mention it in my letters to your mother.

As I sit here and write this I am reminded of a monumental inconsistency. During the war, as we traveled through German-occupied territory it was common for us to encounter slave laborers in both cities and the countryside. We did the natural thing and released them—there was joy and celebration on both sides. I guess as I said before—Dachau was too much—all we were capable of doing was staring and being immobilized.

The Jewish people and all the rest of us should continue to try to encourage all of us to remember places like Dachau – despite my own constant push to repress that which is so horrible, I too would like to forget but I can’t quite cut it. Perhaps I should be more upbeat like Mr. Reagan.

Your asking me to do this has been helpful – it makes me feel more thankful for what is as opposed to what used to be and what was.

Warmest regards to you and Frank, and the kids.

Love, Mom & Dad

P.S. You suggested taking a half-hour for this. It took about 4…

Sources

Glenn Edward Belcher: Dachau Liberator

Messages by survivors and liberators

Glenn Edward Belcher: Dachau Liberator