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History of the Liberation of Dachau: April 29, 1945
I remember what my father had told me of his involvement in the liberation of Dachau, shortly before he died in 1976. Some of his war buddies discovered the tribute site I’d created for him and called or emailed me to recount stories I’d not known previously, or only in part.
In 2001 before HBO premiered their miniseries Band of Brothers, they asked for historical background for their website to introduce each episode. My father’s story was featured on their website to introduce Episode 9, “Why We Fight,” when Easy Company liberated one of the Dachau sub-camps.
Over the two decades since, scores of people have contacted me:
The son of a liberated inmate had seen the pictures on the site, pictured above, and identified his father, Stephen Ross (Rozenthal) — 14 at the time, an orphan from Poland who had survived 10 concentration camps in 5 years — as
“the first striped pajama in the left foreground… your Dad saved my Dad’s life.”
An 89-year old former inmate emailed me saying,
“Yes for me it will be always The American Army who did it.”
They’re almost all gone now but not forgotten. I’m indebted to the stories of the other men of the Rainbow Division recounted in the book “Dachau 29 April 1945 The Rainbow…
