On Sunday, April 29, 1945 Colonel Sparks gave the marching orders to the 3rd battalion of his infantry regiment. The US troops came from the West, advancing towards Munich. They didn't know exactly where Dachau, the concentration camp the Nazis set up in 1933, was located. When they discovered it, the troops encountered gruesome sights. War reporter Martha Gellhorn shared what she saw with the world.

The liberation of Dachau, 75 years ago:

WHAT US SOLDIERS FOUND AT DACHAU

The arrival of the US army 

On the morning of April 29, 1945 the "Rainbow Division" of the Seventh US Army reached the closed gates of the Dachau concentration camp near Munich. The German Wehrmacht had long since withdrawn, and most of the SS guards were on the run.

Without exchanging fire, the US soldiers entered the camp, and were shocked by what they saw: hundreds of corpses in barracks and freight cars, half-starved traumatized prisoners, many with typhoid. Only a few of them could stand on their own.

There was, however, a group of somewhat stronger concentration camp prisoners as well, who, earlier that month, had conspiratorially formed a secret resistance group in the chaos of the overcrowded barracks. They introduced themselves to the American GIs as the International Prisoners' Committee.

Prisoners rejoicing following the liberation of the concentration camp on April 29, 1945

The smell of death wafted through the camp

"Behind the barbed wire and the electric fence, the skeletons sat in the sun and searched themselves for lice. They have no age and faces; they all look alike..." wrote American journalist Martha Gellhorn, who as a war reporter, had been accompanying the advancing US troops through occupied Europe since the previous October.

A few days later, in the early days of May 1945, she entered the liberated concentration camp and described her shock in her writing: "We crossed the wide, dusty compound between the prison barracks and went to the hospital. In the hall sat more of the skeletons and from them came the smell of disease and death. They watched us but did not move: No expression shows on a face that is only yellowish stubbly skin stretched across bones."

Reporting from the gates of hell

Since the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936-38, Martha Gellhorn had been reporting for major American newspapers from wars all over the world. She also happened to be the wife of novelist Ernest Hemingway, whom she married in 1940. As an "embedded journalist" she accompanied the US army on the front lines. On April 26, 1945, she and the GIs reached the Allgäu, and in early May, she was sent to the liberated Dachau concentration camp.

The main gate of the former concentration camp, with the infamous Nazi slogan 'Arbeit macht frei' ('Work sets you free') 

"What killed most of them was hunger; starving to death was a routine matter here," the reporter summarized her shocking observations and initial conversations with surviving prisoners, who told her about forced labor and everyday life in the camp. "One worked these long hours on meager rations and lived so overcrowded, cramming bodies into unventilated barracks, waking up weaker and weaker each morning, expecting death."

Living next to the crematorium

Gellhorn gathered from the camp files that well over 200,000 prisoners were interned in Dachau concentration camp since its opening in 1933. "It is not known how many people died in this camp in the 12 years of its existence, but at least 45,000 are known to have died in the last three years," the American journalist wrote in one of her reports.

The facts and figures related to the death toll and human conditions inside Dachau shows that even the experienced war reporter was shaken. Towards the end of her article, she can no longer suppress cynicism. 

Inhumane medical experiments were performed at the concentration camp; here a subject is immersed in a tank of ice water

"And in front of the crematorium, separated from it by a stretch of garden, stood a long row of well-built, commodious homes," she wrote in May 1945: "The families of the SS officers lived here: their wives and children lived here quite happily while the chimneys of the crematorium spewed out the unending human ashes. ... And last February and March, 2,000 were killed in the gas chamber because, though they were too weak to work, they did not have the grace to die, so it was arranged for them.”

Training camp for the SS 

Dachau was the first concentration camp that the Nazis built on German soil. By order of Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police, an internment camp for 5,000 male prisoners was built at the gates of the small Bavarian town in spring 1933. From its construction to its administrative organization, Dachau became a model for all other concentration camps, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

Opened March 22, 1933 on the initiative of Heinrich Himmler, Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp

The first commander was Theodor Eicke, an SS officer who, in accordance with Himmler's orders, made Dachau into what he considered to be a "model camp." The wooden prisoners' barracks were aligned along long streets, with space in between for the SS guards.

The first prisoners in Dachau were political prisoners: opponents of the Nazi regime, trade unionists, social democrats, communists, and in some cases, conservative politicians. They were later followed by criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Sinti and Roma, politically committed Christians, and also Jews. With military drills and merciless severity, Eicke trained SS supervisors to get used to torture, brutal violence and being part of the killing machine.

Dachau prisoners were used as forced laborers

30 April: Invasion of Munich

As the prisoners dragged themselves from the barracks to the roll call square in the early morning of April 28, 1945, they were amazed to see that the SS had raised a white flag on one of the watchtowers. Most of the SS men had long since fled.

The remaining guards tried to keep the prisoners in check with machine guns. Rumors ran through the camp like wildfire. The next day, the liberators of the Seventh US Army reached Dachau. It was the second to last of all concentration camps to be liberated by the allied troops.

On April 30, 1945, the Americans marched into Munich, where the Nazis had established the "capital of the movement," as it was called in Nazi jargon, which contained the party headquarters of the Nazi party. On the same day, they learned that Hitler and his partner Eva Braun had committed suicide in their bunker in Berlin.

The last transports of prisoners were liberated by US troops in early May. On May 8, the "unconditional surrender" came into effect, and the war was finally over.

---

Deutsche Welle, German public international broadcaster Recommends:

Confronting a disturbing truth: 'My father was in the SS'

The Nazi past of relatives could and can be a taboo subject in some German families. But a number of descendants of Nazi criminals want to find out more in a quest to come to terms with themselves. (21.04.2020)   

At Auschwitz, Angela Merkel expresses shame over barbaric crimes

After 14 years in office, the chancellor has visited Nazi Germany's most notorious concentration camp. While there, she underscored her country's enduring responsibilities. (06.12.2019)   

Pence visits Dachau concentration camp amid fears of rising anti-Semitism in US

The US vice president paid tribute to victims of the Holocaust in a visit to the Dachau memorial site. The trip took on an added dimension after President Trump's exchange with a Jewish reporter about anti-Semitism. (19.02.2017)   

Stolen Nazi concentration camp gate found in Norway

The wrought-iron gate was stolen two years ago from the former Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, sparking domestic and international outrage. The gate bears the famous slogan "Arbeit macht frei." (02.12.2016)   

Auschwitz commemoration: Holocaust survivors and world leaders gather for 75th anniversary

Hundreds of Holocaust survivors have joined delegates from world governments at the Auschwitz concentration camp on the 75th anniversary of its liberation. Jewish groups urged Germany to do more to combat anti-Semitism. (27.01.2020)   

Selfies at Dachau: New film reveals embarrassing reality of remembrance

Is it ok to take a selfie at a concentration camp? The new documentary, "Austerlitz," shows how casually tourists deal with Holocaust memorials. Their actions speak for themselves. (27.01.2017)   

Leaders use Dachau liberation anniversary to warn of rising discrimination

Ceremonies have marked 70 years since the Dachau concentration camp was liberated by US forces. Leaders used the occasion to call on people to stand up in the face of hatred, warning of rising discrimination. (03.05.2015)   

New figures on extremism in German military 'tip of the iceberg'

Germany's top military intelligence agency has announced a 30% increase in suspected extremists within its ranks. Analysts say the figures indicate a deeper problem. (27.01.2020)   

Opinion: The Nazi pogroms: They just looked on

Eighty years after the Kristallnacht pogrom, every German can ask: How did my family react at the time? DW's Felix Steiner takes a personal look at how his family experienced the Night of Broken Glass. (09.11.2018)   

What US soldiers found at Dachau

When the soldiers of the US Army reached the Dachau concentration camp gate, they had no idea what was behind it: over 30,000 prisoners, many of whom had died, starved to death. (29.04.2020)