History Series: Dachau

History of the Liberation of Dachau: April 29, 1945

Part 1

Bill Petro
7 min readMay 1, 2024

--

Young and old survivors in Dachau cheer approaching U.S. troops, April 29, 1945. Image: US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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 ten concentration camps in five 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.”

--

--

Bill Petro

Writer, historian, technologist. Former Silicon Valley tech exec. Author of fascinating articles on history, tech, pop culture, & travel. https://billpetro.com