MASACRE de Dachau – EJECUCIÓN BRUTAL de guardias NAZIS por la liberación de Dachau – Holocausto -WW2 

Sunday, April 29, 1945, one week before the end of World War II in Europe. The 45th Infantry Division of the U.S. Seventh Army liberates Dachau, the first regular concentration camp built by the Nazi government. American soldiers smell not only human excrement, but also decomposing bodies, which causes many of them to cry or vomit.

  In addition, they found more than 30 railway cars filled with corpses and 30,000 survivors in a state of extreme emaciation, so much so that they looked like walking skeletons. The vast majority of them were seriously ill.  Many will die from typhus and starvation during the months following the liberation of the camp.

The shocked and furious American military, as well as the prisoners who survived years of humiliation and abuse at the hands of their Nazi tormentors, want revenge, and their brutal response is about to arrive. After Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, the National Socialists used a series of terror measures to gradually establish a dictatorship throughout the country.

The main objective of the first concentration camps of the 1930s was to imprison and intimidate the leaders of political, social, and cultural movements that the Nazis considered a threat to the survival and expansion of the regime.  In these camps, the prisoners lived in fear of the terrible violence perpetrated by the SS.

The first concentration camp created by the Nazis was Dachau, located near Munich, in March 1933. On March 22, this place received its first prisoners. In October of that same year, the commandant of Dachau, Theodor Eicke, introduced a system of horrific punishments for prisoners who committed minor offenses.

  In this way, Eicke ensured that Dachau would serve as a model for all future concentration camps .  It also became a training center or “school of violence ” for SS guards who would later work in other concentration camps. During the first year, Dachau had the capacity to house 5,000 prisoners.  Initially, the inmates were mainly German communists, social democrats, trade unionists, and other political opponents of the Nazi regime.

  However, over time,  Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma, Sinti, homosexuals, repeat offenders, and so-called “asocials”—those whom the regime imprisoned because they could not or would not find paid employment—were also interned in Dachau. During the first few years, relatively few Jews were interned in this concentration camp.

  The Jews who were sent to this place belonged to one of the groups mentioned or had violated the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. These codes dealt with the racial issue in Nazi ideology. In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, began construction of a large complex on the grounds of the original camp, destroying the old ammunition factory, which was in terrible condition.

This work was officially completed in mid- August 1938, remaining, without further changes, until the end of the war in 1945. The number of Jewish prisoners in Dachau increased due to the increase in their persecution. On November 10 and 11, 1938, following Kristallnacht, when the Nazi SA, along with the German civilian population, looted Jewish homes, businesses, synagogues, hospitals, and schools, nearly 11,000 Jews were sent to the Dachau concentration camp .

  Most of these people were released after being imprisoned for between a few weeks and a few months, after it was shown that many of them intended to emigrate from Germany. Dahau was divided into two sections: the field area and the crematorium area. The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one for priests imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime and another reserved for medical experiments.

 The camp administration was located at the main entrance.  This sector had buildings with kitchens, laundry facilities, showers, and workshops. However, the most important structure was the bunker.  Detention in the bunker was a method that allowed the SS to isolate rebellious and defiant prisoners from the other prisoners.    They were subjected to long periods of confinement, torture, and ultimately, death.

The courtyard between the prison and the central kitchen was used for the systematic execution of inmates. An electrified barbed wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven watchtowers surrounded the field. Following the start of World War II on September 1, 1939, the living conditions of the prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp deteriorated drastically.

  The appalling working conditions, the shortage of rations and the lack of hygiene led to an increase in mortality. From 1940 onwards, increasing numbers of prisoners were transported to the Dachau concentration camp from countries occupied by the German armed forces. The crematorium area was built next to the main field in 1942. This new crematorium included a gas chamber.

  However, there is no conclusive evidence that this gas chamber was used to murder human beings. Instead, the prisoners were subjected to the so-called “selection”.  All those who were considered too sick or weak to continue working were sent to the Hartheim extermination center for “euthanasia,” near Linz, Austria.

  More than 2,500 Dachau prisoners were murdered in the gas chambers of Hartheim. Mass executions by firing squad were also carried out, first in the bunker courtyard and later in a shooting range specially designed by the SS.  Thousands of prisoners were murdered there, including at least 4,000 Soviet prisoners of war following the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

From 1942, German doctors began conducting clinical experiments on prisoners at Dachau.  Doctors and scientists from the Luftwaffe – the German Air Force – and the German Experimental Aviation Institute carried out high-altitude and hypothermia trials, as well as tests to verify methods of desalination of seawater.

  These efforts were aimed at helping German pilots who were carrying out bombing raids or who were shot down in icy waters. German scientists also conducted experiments to test the effectiveness of pharmaceutical products against diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.  Hundreds of prisoners died or were permanently disabled as a result of these experiments.

The prisoners of Dachau were also used to perform forced labor. They were employed to run the countryside, in various construction projects, and in small artisan industries established in the countryside.  They built roads, worked in quarries, and drained swamps. All of this under terrible conditions. During the war, the forced labor of prisoners in concentration camps became increasingly important for the production of German armaments.

In the summer and autumn of 1944, to increase military production, satellite camps were established throughout southern Germany.  These centers were under the administration of Dachau.  Here alone, there were some 140 subcamps, where prisoners worked almost exclusively in armament factories. Thousands of them worked until they died.

As the Allied forces advanced into Germany, the Nazis began transferring prisoners from concentration camps near the front to avoid losing their convicts.  The evacuees from the eastern concentration camps were continuously arriving at Dachau, which caused a dramatic deterioration in the conditions of the prisoners.  With over 30,000 prisoners, the camp was extremely overcrowded.

The barracks, built to house 200 prisoners, were crammed with more than 1,600. After days of travel, with hardly any food or drink, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often on the verge of death.  Due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, insufficient supplies, and the prisoners’ weakened state , a typhus epidemic swept through Dachau, killing between 100 and 200 prisoners a day.

 Of the 41,500 people who lost their lives between 1933 and 1945, more than a third died during the last six months of the war. At the end of April 1945, the SS also began evacuating prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp to prevent their liberation by Allied troops.  At least 25,000 prisoners were sent to Tyrol on grueling journeys on foot.

During the so-called death marches, the Nazis shot anyone who could no longer continue.  Many also died of hunger, hypothermia, or exhaustion. Several thousand prisoners died during the evacuations. On April 29, 1945, the main Dachau camp was liberated by units of the 45th Infantry Division.

 Before the American soldiers arrived at Dachau, the camp commander, Martin Weiss, had already fled.  However, there were still SS guards in the camp, who did not hesitate to fire on the American liberators.  However, they soon surrendered to American superiority. After the guards surrendered, the American troops were finally able to access the concentration camp facilities.

  However, none of their previous combat experiences prepared them for what lay ahead .  The first clue that something was terribly wrong was the smell. As they approached the camp, the American soldiers found more than 30 railroad cars filled with corpses in a state of decomposition.  At that moment they understood the origin of the smell.  It was the unbearable stench of death.

Inside the camp they found even more lifeless bodies, often naked, lying everywhere.  Sometimes the corpses were piled on top of each other like firewood. For many soldiers, witnessing these atrocities gave new meaning to the war.  They realized that they were not just fighting an enemy, but pure evil. The Nazis tried to incinerate as many bodies as they could before leaving Dachau, but there were too many.

A soldier later recalled: “Wherever you look, you feel utter horror. People are so close to death or in a state of complete decrepitude that you can’t even process it.” While many of the American soldiers broke down in sobs, others were filled with rage, anger, and hatred. When four German officers emerged from the forest with a white handkerchief in their hand, an American lieutenant ushered them into a wagon filled with corpses.  He shot them right there.

 When the mortally wounded Germans screamed in agony, another American officer finished the job. Later, the situation only worsened. After the American soldiers ordered the SS guards to form a line along the wall of the coal yard, Lieutenant Walsh shouted, “[ __ ] them !”  And the American soldiers opened fire with rifles, pistols, and .30 caliber machine guns. After a 30-second burst of gunfire , the Nazi guards were killed instantly.

However, even this was not the end. The prisoners themselves, many of whom had been tortured and treated worse than animals during all these years, also took revenge.  While all the inmates had lost at least one family member, some of them even had to watch their wives being abused and raped.

  Others had to witness shooting competitions in which SS members threw small children into the air while others shot at them.  Some saw their friends and family members die of starvation or during the death marches that occurred shortly before liberation. Some prisoners swore on everything sacred that if they ever had the chance to kill their SS guards, they would not hesitate.  And they kept their word.

  When the prisoners caught the SS guards, they tried to escape.  However, the prisoners stopped them again and, this time, killed them all, thus completing their revenge. Other SS men and kapos were beaten to death by prisoners with sticks, tools, or even their own fists.  An American soldier witnessed an inmate stomping on the face of an SS soldier until, he later claimed, nothing was left.

There were some SS guards who had changed their uniforms for concentration camp clothes.  However, they were recognized and lynched on the spot. While all this was happening, both the prisoners and the American soldiers often remained motionless, coldly and without compassion watching the revenge unfold.

An American officer later said: “We stood to the side and watched as these guards were beaten to death . They were beaten so badly that, in the end, the bodies of these Nazis were torn apart and their guts were spilling out. We watched these scenes with less feeling than if they were beating a dog.

”  In reality, it could be said that we were completely devoid of feelings.  Deep anger and hatred had destroyed all our emotions.” Upon finding a kennel full of German Shepherds and Doberman Pinschers, the American soldiers decided to kill these animals as well, since there were rumors that the Nazis had fed the dogs the bodies of political prisoners.

Later, American troops forced German citizens of the town of Dachau to go to the camp to see for themselves the atrocities that were committed there and to help bury the bodies.  Many of the local residents were shocked by the experience and stated that they had no knowledge of the atrocities that had been committed there for years.

To this day it is unclear how many SS guards died, but the number is estimated to be between 30 and 50. Because General Patton, then military governor of Bavaria, dismissed all charges, no one has ever been tried in court for this reprisal. Of the more than 200,000 people who were imprisoned in Dachau and its numerous subsidiary camps during its 12 years of existence, between 1933 and 1945, almost 42,000 people were murdered.

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