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War Series: Liberation of Dachau
History of the Liberation of Dachau: Part 3
Present Day
n Part 1, I discussed the Nazi Concentration Camps and Dachau. In Part 2, I talk about my father’s involvement in the liberation as part of the 42nd “Rainbow” Division and his subsequent capture of the Nazi general in charge of Munich’s anti-aircraft artillery.
Epilogue:
Almost 60 years after WWII was over, I visited the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial in 2003. When I mentioned to the tour guides there that my father had liberated the camp, they all asked me a question. It was the same question:
“Do you have photographs?”
I sent them to the tribute website I’d created for my father, with the pictures he’d left me. I spoke to one young tour guide at Dachau, who was studying history at the local university. When I told him I had studied history at the University of California when I was his age, I asked,
“What do the German people think of what happened at Dachau?”
He told me:
“People my grandparents’ age who were adults back then are ashamed. They knew. Sometimes, the townspeople who worked the day shift in the Dachau factories would leave a sandwich in their desk to be found. They knew…
