Liberating Dachau 1945
The story of the complex events that occurred during liberation of Dachau Camp by the US Army in April 1945.
Special thanks to Frederick at www.filmhauer.net for access to footage. Also visit / @m1945
Dr. Mark Felton is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers 'Zero Night' and 'Castle of the Eagles', both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. He has written extensively on Japanese war crimes, POW camps, Nazi war criminals, the Holocaust, famous escapes, Hitler and other Nazi leaders. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fe...
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Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the 'Comments' section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the 'Comments' section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.
Credits: KZhead Creative Commons; WikiCommons; Google Maps; Google Commons; Mark Felton Productions; FilmHauer; Steve J. Morgan.
Eisenhower said “take as many pictures of this as possible because at some time in the future someone will say it didn’t happen “…..document everything.
Ike knew human nature well.
Including members of our new pro islam pro terrorist pro criminal anti jew leftist government. Very disturbing.
And it still didn’t stop the idiots….
As horrible as the pictures are thank God they were takin so it won't by any sane person claimed false, any form of bigotry is ugly and horrible
It’s sad that what he sad came true.
My grandfather was there. He was 42nd infantry and liberated the camp. He just passed away this month at the age of 95. Thank you so much for this video.
My condolences to you and your family.
Mark Felton Productions thank you. He would have loved to have seen this video. It was an incredibly tense day and he was always a very calm and compassionate man. A Dachau guard gave him something for helping him that I still have in my possession to this day. Videos like this are so important. Thanks again, Mark. I couldn’t believe it when this video came up on my subscription page.
@@MarkFeltonProductions the USA strafed that train during their targeting of german supply lines....i am sure u know this so why do u continue to perpetrate untruths
@@WillyEckaslike He's NOT perpetrating untruth Nazi lover. Mark doesn't take any sides or get involved with politics. He just simply presents the facts.
@@WillyEckaslike Whether the engineless train was strafed or not, it's 2000+ occupants were killed by starvation, dehydration & neglect - all of which was caused by the SS. You know this...
My father and uncle were medics whose units both released Dachau. They had not seen each other in 4 years. They were allowed to work together so they could reunite. They had to help clean the still warm ovens side by side. Dad had terrible ptsd from it. He went on to serve in the Army for 22 years. He went as a medic to Korea during the worst of the fighting. He would tell us stories of Korea. But he only talked to me of Dachau one time. We had learned about the camps that day in grade school. I was so shocked I told my parents about it at dinner that night. I have never forgotten the look of horror that came over his face as I told them. He braced himself and went on to tell me about as calmly as he could. My mother had been WAC carrying for US soldiers who had shell shock. She knew all about the camps too. She just never had to see them. After dinner, when she and I were washing the dishes, she explained more to me. She also asked me never to mention to dad again. She was the one who had to help calm him to sleep on the bad nights. She told me to bring all my questions about the war only to her. That she would answer them. She was true to her word. Over the years, we had many deep conversations about the war and the occupation period in Germany. My parents were stationed and met during the occupation in Germany. I am very grateful that so many have shared here about their families' experiences. It is hard for us to share, but we each know that this truth must be shared shared with the world. You each give me hope at 74 years that this won't be forgotten after I am gone.
@Anne5440 I am only 32 and I won’t let it be forgotten
God bless your father. I wish I could thank him for his service.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
@@williamjoyce8842 So you were there at Dachau. Tell us more.
@@williamjoyce8842 So what's your point? It was total war and if it meant Nazis starved to death so be it.
My grandmother was in Dachau for most of the war, how she survived 5 years there is amazing.
Very glad that she survived!!
I am happy to hear she survived
GOD bless her❤
My father was there with your grandmother. WE know of Schindler's list and I met the man who told that story that later became the movie. Leopold Page told my parents, who themselves were survivors, the tale of the gentile who saved Jews. Leopold said prophetically it would make a great movie. This was 1964. My parents in the car heading home after this Boy Scout meeting said Heck we ALL have an amazing story to tell and so they do!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so glad she survived.
My dad at eighteen liberated Dachau. It ruined the rest of his life. He had terrible depression and PTSD in his later years
😢 So sorry.
He is hero
He was too young for that horror…❤
Yes, my Dad and Uncle were both medics involved in the release of Dachau. Dad was a 24. He had horrible ptsd from it. Your dad was a hero who paid a terrible price for serving and freeing the world from true monsters.
@@Anne5440_ my brother in law was sent to kuwait during the iraq-kuwait war in the 1990s. He was a medic in our army. We noticed when he came back also he wasnt the same. More quiet. But he did tell us he saw things ordinary humans dont see ! He said he saw legs, hands, bodies without heads, strewn everywhere children suffering…. , bodies blown up! I guess that never leaves you. Now he suffers frm some medical prblms. Still working in his own business. Wont rest. Feel so sorry fr him. He wont talk much abt it all. . Except fr the little he did. 😕😞
I love these videos. No waffle, no cheesy re-enactments, no background music dictating how you should feel. Just pure, unadulterated history.
Yes. Well said.
I hate that background music..
No boring old men talking trough the footage! That's the biggest plus for me
It's the real History Channel
I agree, especially the no music soundtrack.
One of my JROTC instructors was 1SGT Milton Mautner in Chicago in the late 1970s. He liberated Dachau and un-stacked the LIVING prisoners who were incredibly weak; they had been stacked like cordwood by other prisoners under orders from camp guards. Every dying prisoner (malnutrition) was tended to by one soldier and given very small amounts of water. They were comforted and made to understand that they were going to die, but that they would die free. He told me that this made the prisoners smile and most passed very soon after. He cried like a baby as he told me this story. He fought in Korea and multiple tours in Vietnam. He was 6'2" and strong as a bull, but telling that story reduced him to uncontrolled sobbing. It changed my life. RIP 1SGT Mautner. (Silver Star, never wore his jacket. I learned about it years later.)
God bless him for his service. Maybe you can write his story to share with the world. Shalom.
Thank you for sharing.
We don’t hear many of the stories from the men who liberated these camps. The world will never shed enough tears to shed the horrors of this war.
I belief in the Afterlife, and think the prisoners, in their Innocence.will not "remember" their internment, torture and murder.I belong to no church. I am a Christian.
It figures that he never talked about the Silver Star. Real heroes never talk about their own heroism. Be glad you had the privilege of knowing him.
Back in the 90s I interviewed an American veteran who had been among the first liberators inside this camp. He was from Nebraska, where whole towns were populated with German immigrants, and was himself bilingual; all 4 of his grandparents spoke only German. In his own words, he said, "I had years of problems after I saw that. I was mad at my own people."
Kind of unreasonable
@@wurzel9671 No, it's not
A human reaction.
@@annabellevy3388 If he's a german-american immigrant, how are the nazis "His people" exactly?
@@annabellevy3388 Less than 30% of Germans were actual Nazis. The rest were coerced into support after the Nazis won the elections.
Mark Felton and the larger community of dedicated Second World War historians deserve far more praise. And despite the demonetizations you’re telling the stories that need to be told. Way better than the watered down stuff on cable TV.
I agree, I think he hits that sweet spot of being direct and clear about the horrible events that occurred (little, if any, sanitizing) without crossing over into sensationalism and shock imagery.
@ndestro0r, did you ever wonder when the NEW Dachau Camp, Gaza, will be liberated by the colony of the zionist state in the Middle East, that used to be known as America? Did you know that America executed Germans for what the Israelis now do to the Palestinians? Of course not. Joe Magnets
+ ndestr0yr Dont insult the TV.
Good comment
@@joemagnets9940 Or maybe the Americans should explain Guantanamo Bay and what goes on there. I'm sure that is breaking the rules they persecuted the Nazis for, inhuman treatment, starvation, torture. But these are mostly rumors, because the Allies lie better. Or is it different because there is no "official" bodies? The Allies are the biggest hypocrites of all time. And people like Mark perpetuate the BS they keep trying to feed the world. Sorry Mark, you're a blinkered embarrassment.
My uncle was liberating Dachau. His last name was Trzecieski. He was tank crew member. His testimony was passed to me by relatives. Now I am 73 & I listened to this story several times as a child. He was young man from NYC. He said that horror discovered by young American soldiers was to big to handle. He said that German guards were lined up by US soldiers against the wall & machined down. Prisoners finished them off by ripping Germans to pieces, stepping them down into the soil. Some of the prisoners were so fragile, malnourished, that emotions (happiness) of the day caused them to die that day. Later my uncle became engineer & worked on first intercontinental ballistic missile Polaris. He suffered from PTSD.
Wow! Thanks for posting.
Thank you for your family's service to humanity
Tat what i would have wanted to do
Shutter Island
My doctor when I was young was a army doctor at the liberation, He related his experience there to my father....
My dad was part of the troops who liberated Dachau. He spoke very little of what happened. He told my brothers about the town’s people being made to tour the camp. A Hitler Youth laughed when a body was removed from a crematorium. Dad broke his jaw with a rifle butt.
Your dead was lucky to liberate only a labor/prison camp and not a death camp. A death camp was so much worse
God bless your dad for teaching that punk a lesson 🙏
sono furbi I TEDESCHI fino ad una trentina di anni fa' se andavi a visitare il campo c'era un senso di oppressione sentivi che era un luogo maledetto attorno non c'era nulla solo campi ( la campagna ) MONACO A 15 KM adesso DACHAU è ormai parte di MONACO e attorno al campo è sorta una ZONA INDUSTRIALE neanche te ne accorgi che il campo è lì !!! Mi spiego ?
Physical violence over someone laughing? Pretty fascist of your dad. Free speech for me but not for ye, or, something. We weren't there, maybe something about the body was funny.
@@alessandrocarraro6845Not really.
My grandfather died in the camp. Much respect to the liberators!
God rest his soul 🙏🏼. Sending love and prayers to your grandpa.
I'm so sorry 😞
WHAT A TERRIBLE LOSS.
I’m sorry for your loss. So many were close to liberation, but just couldn’t hold on any longer.
@@sharonstonts I am sorry for your loss. May he rest in peace.
My father Michael Kaminsky was a liberator with the 42nd infantry division. He will never forget April 29th. He is still alive.
Thank you for sharing and I thank him for his service. I hope his remaining days are filled with peace, comfort and fulfillment. My grandfather escaped in the kindertransport. Other relatives were ruthlessly murdered by the Nazi regime. Sharing the personal stories helps to preserve history and helps us honour our family/ancestors.
Edward! Please thank him for his service we have not forgotten!
@@Lisah707 thank him for me
@@MsBhappy Thank him for his service for me. He is the reason I can sleep peacefully in my bed at night.
Tell him I said thank you
My father is pictured in the liberation at 11:37-40, front bottom left corner, hat in hand over head. He turned 90 last month. Thank you USA!
Happy Bday, thank you and my best wishes to him.
And I. would like to thank him for serving the Great Republic.
@Chapman Correct. Hungarian, your dad?
God bless your father and your family.
How long was he in that concentration camp?
My father helped helped liberate Dachau. He suffered from PTSD as well. RIP Dad. I love you.
Father in law was a US medic at the camps. He told me the major cause of death of inmates immediately after liberation was, ironically, food. People in late stage starvation were fed as much military rations as rhey wanted & their bodies shut down, some dying right after they first ate, many within days. Medics learned to give small them quantities of soup & bread till they could handle more.
Yes, exactly! Starving people cannot be fed what I saw them being served -- beans, stew, etc. And for heaven's sake, not all they want. Geez. Teeny, tiny amounts of bland foods, like you would someone recovering from an illness. They have to recover slowly. It's a shame the US was so unprepared to deal with late stage starvation, with the proper foods.
I think they did their best and did not know. I do know as well that many died from eating too much after liberation. @@virginiasoskin9082
Yeah, we've all seen band of brothers dude
@@virginiasoskin9082not a shame at all, how could they be prepared for the rationing?? They had no idea what horrors they were walking in to!!
@@virginiasoskin9082Most of these soldiers were just young men with no medical training who walked into some unimaginable hell. And you want up criticize them for doing what they thought was kind and merciful?!?
History Channel: We’re going to play “Pawn Stars” instead of history programs. Mark Felton: Fine, I’ll do it myself.
history channel has sure gone to the dogs
Great observation Cody!
Sad, but true. The History Channel,has ruined itself. Sad that schools don’t teach history anymore.
The quality of programming on the history channel was never actually good anyway. Lots of misinformation and Nazi sensationalism
@Ortum Lynx 👍👍🙂
My Dad helped liberate Dachau. He said that they could smell the camp while they were still a mile or two away because of the rotting corpses. He had nightmares about it for the rest of his life.
I have respect for your dad and I hope he knows millions of people are proud of him.
@@marianoviking maybe germany shouldn't have attempted to sieze control of europe and should have surrendered earlier then. not like germans didn't bomb europe too
@@marianoviking war is a terrible thing my friends
@@20ZZ20 yes,im not gonna argue your point...i just wanted to say that because i studied the subject,i been in Dachau and Mauthausen too...most of the prisoners died as a result of the massive bomb campaign...no food,no train lines,no nothing.
@@davidbates6565 100% agreed David.
My grandfather(who died 20+ years ago) was part of the soldiers that liberated Dachau. There had been a fire fight a week prior and many died. He and 3 others were absorbed by the 42nd while waiting for new assignment. He said it was horrifying and confusing. Rumors were rumors but to actually see the torture the prisoners had gone through was beyond comprehension. He always cried when he talked about how grateful the prisoners were to be saved.
Their God is proud of them.....
How can it be, that every American commenter here had a family member that liberated Dachau? Some of you are certainly lying...
@@user-gz1nv6nw3q perhaps that’s the target audience.
@@user-gz1nv6nw3q They're interested in Dachau since their relatives took part in it's liberation and thus searched for videos on Dachau.
@@user-gz1nv6nw3q not EVERY American commenter, but don't you think people related to soldiers who liberated Dachau would be interested in what their family members went through, therefore looking for information on the subject?
My uncle, Nick Klop (my father's younger brother) was a sergeant and Colonel Felix Sparks jeep driver in the 157th Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division ... the first unit into Dachau. He had no children and throughout his life he told only me the stories of what he had seen and done during that awful time. I shall never forget them ... or him.
Write his stories down. Don't let them die with you.
Please write all those real stories here so that it can be a big proof for our next generation... I'm so sorry for ur Uncle 😔😔😔
Yes please publish them! We have my grandpa's stories of taking back Manila, and after we transcribed his tapes the Library of congress eagerly took the file when we offered. Their stories need to be preserved.
Thank you. My father was in HQ in the 99th Infantry Division. They liberated Muhldorf, a satellite camp of Dachau, and 2 other satellite camps on May 2 and 3, 1945. I once asked him what it was like. He sighed and looked at the floor, then said quietly, "Horrible. Horrible."
@shutup Yep, and EVERYONE's grandfather was there and said it was horrible. Uhuh!
@Православни Келт Many shown were the new prisoners,the boxcars were full of dead new prisoners still locked in. The ones who had been there awhile were skeletal. Just his choice of photos.
Im calling bull on your claim
@Православни Келт Some of the prisoners were new arrivals, others had administration jobs - having a job indoors meant that they could organise, acquire and trade things for food and take better care of themselves. As for clean uniforms with all the buttons: there were plenty of uniforms in the stores, which even if they were not new, would have been repaired if needs be
He no doubts are the killing of the German cars. Based on a humanitarian crisis of which the Germans had no control because of allied bombing.
The death march went past my first apartment when I moved to Germany. My landlord was a small child during this time and gave his lunch to prisoners on his way to school that day. it is something you never forget. Thank you for publishing this
He was very unusual, my father was on a death March. No one gave them food. There was so much hate.
@@Barbara-ld4ug Gerd Bauer was a special man and I can imagine the same as a young boy that he was. He was from Bodensee and the entire family didnt subscribe to the crazy that was going on. The SS showed up that night, had a serious talk with his father and said if it happened again his uncle would be found hanging from a lamppost. I will never forget the story.... Be safe and be well my freind
Death march the one done to Germans..... there was no other one
@@prophetnozza4150 Not only Germans, many were consist of other countries' citizens, including even their own.
For a minute I thought you where saying that you where an adult living back then and that your landlord was a child lol I was thinking “what the hell” until I realized
My Dad was in the US 7th Army 42nd Field Artillery Regiment under General Edward Brooks. He went through Dachau and took lots of pictures that I saw. The images are some I will never forget. I know He hated the SS because of what He saw. All my aunts and Uncles said that after the war, my Dad was a different person than before He went over. He was in the Army from 1942 and went through North Africa, Tunisia, Kasserine Pass, Sicily, Italy, Anzio, Southern France, Alsace and So. Germany. He never really talked about the War until just before His death and the things He did finally reveal were horrifying beyond imagination. I also have to say that He was the best Dad a child could have despite the things that He witnessed. May God bless all those that went through those events and cleanse them from the bitterness of the memories of seeing things that no one should ever see.
Friend of my grandfather was there. One prisoner who was a little healthier and stronger than the others came to him and gestured for his rifle. He understood and, through the language barrier, tried his best to tell him to bring it back because he would be in trouble otherwise for losing his rifle. Guy went off for around 10 minutes and, just as he was beginning to worry about weather he would bring back his gun, the guy came back, hard but visibly avenged look in his eyes. The previously full magazine was half empty now. Guy shook his hand and hugged him in thanks then moved on. Never found out who he shot with it, but grandpa’s friend was always happy he did that. The man obviously had some serious business that was in dire need of finishing. I’m sure whoever was on the other side of that barrel bloody well deserved it.
Hahahaha "lemme borrow that for a second" - I've got a couple of those I need to handle myself...
Awesome story- thank you for sharing this!
Good therapy for the prisoner
That’s for sure.
Doesn't matter if they're a Nazi, you don't shoot an unarmed man with his hands above his head. If you do that, you're no better than them
Thank you so much for this. My grandfather was a prisoner in Dachau for almost a year. He died after the liberation on the 10th of May 1945. We, his (grand-)children never knew what really happened. This documentary is really valuable to us.
I'm so sorry to hear about your grandfather, but glad to hear his grandchildren is alive and I hope do well in all things, and that you will have grandchildren of your own. Be blessed in all things. Friendly greetings from Alv from Norway.
Petra van der Lugt May your good granddad rest in peace.
I am not 100% sure, but my grandfather was in Dachau too. And he said that a lot of people died soon because they were starving and started to eat a lot. Their body could not handle the amount of food. My grandfather was on recovery for three months, with special diet.
@@ivicabotica1856 A lot of people probably died from 'Refeeding' syndrome'. This is largely caused by a lack of basic minerals in the body which are required in sufficient quantities to process proteins, fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients. For example, the metabolism of vitamin B12 requires potassium and the other B vitamins. If a person is deficient in potassium and is given meat or other protein sources containing high amounts of B12, the person will suffer with severe potassium and B1 deficiency symptoms including heart attacks.
🙏🕉
My father was liberated from Dachau. Thanks for producing this.
That is great, can't imagine the horrors he witnessed, it was so bad that even we the Americans was fighting each other to kill the Nazis, thats crazy, but in war nothing makes sense
My father was also liberated from Dachau. This was a very good production, and explained the day of liberation well. Thank you.
I'm glad your father made it out!
In 1984 I was to ask men in Waycross, GA their remembrances of liberating these camps. Forty years later, all they could do was burst into tears when reminded of this horrific event. The son of one of the liberators told me that he was never the same after this.
🙏God Bless your father sir. If I could. I'd like to recommend an international best seller titled "Light One Candle" by Solly Ganor, another soul liberated from Dachua. It's one of two books that are required reading for German high school students, the other is Ann Frank's Diary. (that saids alot) What's ironic about this story is who liberated him from his Dachua "Death Camp" nightmare, a Nisei soldier - PVT Clarence Matsumura who's own family's "Interment Camp" nightmare existed at the time. (not that you can really compare the two). But non the less highly recommended reading. 🇺🇲Stay well. Go in peace.
I heard a story about the liberation of Dachau. A soldier was handing out oranges and potatoes and a emaciated man asked if he could have more. The soldier told him he could have all the damn oranges and all the damn potatoes he wanted. Hearing the soldier tell that story always brought tears to my eyes.
A reminder; feeding malnourished people may actually kill them. One must be cautious about how much food to give.
As generous as US soldiers were, this was extremely bad for the "walking skeletons" who needed very careful diets to recover. If only there had been some nutritionists planning food procurement.....and proper foods may not have been available either. My Dad, serving in Linz after the war, said they were only getting creamed spinach and pancakes for days on end. The GIs were pretty upset by that.
Which is why so many died after liberation…
My Father was in Dacheau for 18 months. He weighed 165lbs when he entered and weighed 65.5lbs when the camp was liberated. The forced him to watch his fathers execution, there is more to his story, but it’s too graphic, brutal to tell. Schindler’s list is just a tiny glimpse. The kids of today think they have it bad. They have no idea on just how good they have it. If you have the chance, take them to a WW2 concentration camp. The birds won’t even fly over the camp.
For what crime was he interned there?
I’m happy that he survived. My grandfather and grand uncles served in the USMC in WW2 and then Korea. They were part of the liberation of several camps.
@@marionsinger6335 The crime of being Jewish more than likely? You’re not serious, are you?
@@MS-ns2pj My question, I'm completely serious, is that mainly serious criminals were interned in Dachau and have been since 1933!!!
@@marionsinger6335 Dachau was used to house Hitler’s political prisoners. The crime was defying Hitler.
My father was one of those American soldiers that captured a camp where medical experiments were being conducted. He was a First Sergeant at the time and his orders were to seize all the documents they could. The internees were so grateful for the capture of the camp that my father and his company were told to remain after the larger bulk of the advancing American army caught up. He was field promoted to a second lieutenant and made temporary head of the camp in order to keep the internees in place to be treated, fed and questioned until the Army could figure what to do with them later. After the war, My father stayed in Europe until 1947 . He returned to the states then went to college on the G.I. Bill. He eventually became a doctor and later on a psychiatrist.
Do you mean 'liberation' of the camp instead of capture...
@@epramos6800 they were captured because they weren't liberated, as in set free. The prisoners were malnourished and sick, liberating them would have been a death sentence. I think capture is the proper word in this historical context, where the liberators had a moral obligation to capture the camp in order to eventually liberate the prisoners.
@@mikethunder84 both words are appropriate but in the correct order. I think we know what he meant. My grandfather was one of the British troops who, along with Canadians, captured Bergen-Belsen and liberated the poor souls there. He hated Germans from that moment on so my grandma said, but he preferred not to talk about it.
Dear Heavens ! He needed to SEE a psychiatrist after what he lived through! May God grant him His peace.
Great story.
My grand-father was there, having been arrested by german soldiers in Belgium. GIs took good care of him and, one day, feeling strong enough, he just decided to walk away, walking his way all the way out of Germany to his Belgian home town.
simple but profound story. Thank you.
@@adrianmaxwell7483 the story is an epic & tragic adventure through war-torn Germany. Stealing food and clothes from Germans, sleeping in barns. He lived through Hell.
POIGNANT TALE
My dad was at the release of Dachau. During the occupation after the war in Germany, he was a medic who worked with many displaced persons as they were trying to get home. Your grandfather went through many unbelievable trials.
I suspect your grand-père was not a Jewish man. Please, do tell us more. Thank you.
My Uncle with the 45th ID helped liberate this place. He never spoke of it till I noticed an Thunderbird patch in a picture and called him years ago. I was hesitant to ask as my mom said the war changed him. We chatted and I explained the picture. He said, “we were there, son there are some things in life you see but have to go on and live your life.” I knew that was all he was going to say.
My dad was in the 45th also. He said it was horrible.
My uncle was deployed in one of the infantry battalions that liberated Dachau. A sensitive man, what he saw there haunted him the rest of his life. He became a terrible alcoholic and eventually took his own life. I remember him from my childhood. He always looked distant and vaguely disturbed. He was a nice man.
Indeed!.....The prisoners were not the only victims of Dachau....................
My father lied about his age and went in at Age 16 near the end of the war. He saw Dachau and told me "Son, don't let anyone ever tell you this never happened I saw it with my own eyes." Apparently a then 17 year old had seen way more than he had counted on. I had never seen my father tear up before then. It for sure had an effect on him. He was an interpreter and helped round up Nazis for Nuremberg. He would only tell me that they would gather intel then stake a place out and go capture the perpetrators they were looking for. His only other comment was. "Walking skeletons" referring to the prisoners. R.I.P. Dad
God bless your dad. A true HERO. Thank you for his service.
+Steve : Dachau is the example how the american soldiers and its goverment try to cover their own WAR CRIMES!!!
@@salvadorvillegas3569 Killing that evil is not a war crime. Get your morals straight my friend. What those son of a bitches did to those prisoners is what got them lined up against a wall and shot or tore up by the prisoners. They got what they deserved.
My father was there with the 45th ID, 19 years old. We visited the camp in 2007 when I was based in Europe (AF). Only the second time I ever saw him cry. I can’t remember ever seeing him tremble like that.
GOD MUST SURELY BE PROUD OF HIM, AND THE FAITHFUL WORLD OF DECENT CITIZENS IS BLESSED TO KNOW HE WAS IN SERVICE,AT SUCH AN EARLY AGE. BLESS HIM....XOXO
My grandfather helped liberate Dachau, it haunted him for the rest of his life.
Makes it sound like he regrets it
@@Aaron19987 Reading is difficult, isn't it?
Mine too. He was still having nightmares 20 yrs later
As a Vietnam veteran, I understand being haunted. The VA tries to treat for PTSD, but it never goes away.
Poor man, I feel sorry for him. Bless him! Stay safe.
I went to a camp in Czechoslovakia. It’s important to visit one not only to remember this history but also to remind us all of just what human beings are capable of if evil despots are not stopped.
One of my uncles commanded a medical company and was involved in liberating more than one of those camps. That haunted him for many years after the war ended. My father and uncles all served in World War II, and I with my brothers-in-law all served in Vietnam. While I was at Danang I met the uncle of a high school best friend who was a Korean War veteran who rejoined the Corps when Vietnam began heating up. One day I asked him why he was there: “You did your war.” His reply was “As long as I am here doing my job some kid is still at home behind Mommy’s skirt and doesn’t have to be here.” That memory returned instantly when I was asked if I would deploy as a volunteer to a different unit than my National Guard unit, which I had joined 17 years after I returned from Vietnam. Of course I replied “Yes.”
Respect!
I appreciate both of you for your honorable service. The draft boards quit calling up people the year I turned 18 and got my number.
My dad was with the U.S. Army Signal Corp, and their job was to reestablish communications, repair telephone equipment, cut wires, switchboards, and switch rooms in phone offices. His group followed Patton's 3rd Army into Germany. As they were approaching a railroad yard, soldiers investigated a boxcar sitting in a turnaround. When they opened it, they discovered bodies of death camp victims stacked to the brim. Dad's Commanding Officer ordered everyone under his command to walk past the open door of one of the box cars filled with bodies and take a good long look. When asked later why he ordered his men to do this, his response was, "So that each man would go home and tell others of what he saw, and ultimately this would never happen again!"
reminds me of that episode from band of brothers, "why we fight".
Sadly, problem is humans just do not seem to learn.
Happen again? Visit your local 'hospital' and ask to see how many of the unborn boys and girls bodies they ripped apart for the day. 'Oh, I see nothing. '
Yes, there was much of that too.
@Boogie man Errrrrrrr ? It's not difficult to distinguish deaths from hunger, disease, and physical brutality from gunshot and shrapnel injuries ! But then you wouldn't know that would you !
My grandfather was a Sgt Maj in the 42nd and was there that day. He hasn't talked much about it over the years, and after watching this piece, I understand why. He's still going strong in his mid 90's.
Wow. Would be so interesting to hear anything these veterans feel comfortable to share. This history is so recent it’s scary. And most people really have no clue how ugly bad ideology can get.
Ben, I spent my early years in the Guard in the 42nd, first in the 42nd MP Co then in the 2/210th Armor back in the '80s. Thank him for his service from this now-retired Colonel (I had moved on to the 26th ID in the early '90s)
@Ron Lewenberg Or maybe it will stir long hidden memories which the poor fella doesn`t want to recall. My own father went right through WW2 and hardly ever talked of the dark moments, only the lighter times. As he aged those memories returned and although he never mentioned them the fact that I saw him weep (something he never did) whilst watching the Armistice day parade on TV showed that the ghosts hadn`t gone away.
@Ron Lewenberg . Yeah, or maybe it will traumatize him,..,,.,?
Wow I'd love to speak to him. I think. God. What sorrow
My uncle was part of a british unit that liberated belson and said you could smell the camp three miles away and the villagers said they had had no idea what was going on and the whole village was made to go to the camp and witness the horrs that had accured there
They were told by the officials that air raid victims were cremated.
The care and willingness to try and save so many is a huge testament to US compassion. Huge respect.
We don’t call them our Greatest Generation for nothing! 🇺🇸
Has nothing to do with being US. Its normal human behavior to be compassionate. But to think about that almost every human can be manipulated to be as cruel as the germans, especially if its part of a system and institutionalised., is terrifying.
@@ActionfigureGeek Well it WAS 'to do with being US' - as this was a specific moment in history that the video is referring to. Compassion is indeed a worldwide behaviour - but the world was at Dachau that say.
My father was in the unit that liberated Dachau. He never spoke about it, but once when I was 10 years old just before he died, I asked him about it. We had just studied WWII in history class. My mother knew he had been there when they came to the camp. He couldn't speak and actually cried. I was stationed in Germany from 1977 - 1980 and 1985-1992. I visited the camp in 1986 or 87. I was overcome by emotions, remembering the impact that just saying the name had on my father, and I cried also.
Such and incredibly sad and emotional place. I would sob uncontrollably if I'd witnessed what your father did. They were an amazing generation
Great respect for your father and his fellow soldiers. The sight and smell of what they ran into in Dachau must have been like running into hell. Killing the SS guards must have felt a relief.
good man god bless xxxx linda in scotland
I was stationed in Germany from 1984-6 and also went to Dachau in 1985. Our captain put us all in deuces and a halfs and made us go so that we would never forget what happened.
@Alex Snowflakes like you probably wouldn't even defend your own family, you're nauseating.
when i was in high school, my 9th grade english teacher was able to bring in a member of the us army that liberated dachau. it was over 10 years ago and i still remember him talking about it. his speech was obviously hard to understand with him being older, but his story was incredible. i can’t remember his name unfortunately. when he was walked into our classroom, my entire class gave him a standing ovation. that moment is forever etched into my brain
Respects to your English teacher and the veteran who took part in the liberation.
Your whole class gave him a standing ovation?!! Thats wonderful! And here I thought the kids of your generation had forgotten already. Thank you so much, you've just made my day! Be sure to teach your kids someday. ;-)
I know when I was in 8th grade there was a presentation from some WW2 vet's held in the auditorium... I remember next to nothing about it aside from all the cool uniforms and medals they wore. 13 year old me didn't realize how big of a deal it was.
Hearing your story and watching this video makes me wonder how many nightmares the men who liberated Dachau made over the course of their lives. No way something like that doesn't haunt you for the rest of your life.
@@billd.iniowa2263 Nope, in fact, history is more and more remembered BY THE DAY due in part to the internet, it's a blessing and will ensure that we WILL NEVER forget :)
My father helped liberate a concentration camp in Germany. He told me what it was like being involved in the liberation of that camp. So terrible were the conditions but the prisoners were so grateful. Man's inhumanity to man seen first hand. He also told me how the American soldiers would give all their food rations and anything else they had, cigarettes or whatever to the prisoners. He also told me of a young man that they gave oranges and food to and that he died that night of the liberation. I am sure their were other atrocities he did not want to tell his only daughter about. I can only imagine how horrible it was.
+Nancy Sloan : Dachau is the example how the american soldiers and its goverment try to cover their own WAR CRIMES!!!
Currently sitting in the parking lot of Dachau after doing a walking tour. The tour guide of my group recommended this video. I never felt such heavy energy in my life. I feel so terrible for all those affected by the camp. The stories and history behind this camp are horrific. Even now, years later, the atmosphere has a lingering sickening feeling around it. May that never happen again.
In the 1970s, my boss was a physician - a real grandee of British medicine - Buckingham Palace, Harley St. Royal Colleges etc. He'd been a young British Army doc at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in 1945. He often spoke of the experience - well, actually he didn't. He started speaking, went red, then grey then began to tremble and choke on his words, went silent and quite often, had to leave his ward round. It was alarming to see such a grand old man being crushed by the toxicity of his memories, so many years later. Americans on here describe their parents and grandparents doing exactly the same over Dachau.
Easy to understand
My father was the same way. He was with the 9th US Infantry and, while he spoke of other memories of the war, the only thing he would say about a “work camp” they liberated was “I’ll never forget what they did to those people.” He said it with such intense sadness that we dared not ask him anything further about it. Same with his veteran comrades I saw at their reunions.
@Johnny Xander what did you say?
@Johnny Xander Why does my dog make statues of you all over my yard???
@@randyw4972 Haven't heard that one before (though I've seen and smelled the statues). Good one.
My dad was with the 101ST Airborne during WWII. He was part of a group that liberated a Dachau subsidiary ( for lack of another word) camp. He had some pics that would make you cry. He also told me they were told to cover their Airborne patches when they did so, but he was not sure why they were told to do that..He passed 7/20/2020 at the age of 100
When I was stationed in Grafenwoehr, I visited Dachau. It was amazing to know what happened there. They probably told them to cover their patches so the unit couldnt be recognized. RIP to your dad. Him and his buddies did an outsanding job.
@@wolfmp1 Thanks bro. 2 of my brothers and I, 10 years ago, took dad back to Europe for dads 90th birthday. We visited 7 countries and got to see a lot of the places that dad was during the war. We visited Dachau too. We went to a bar in Munich and drank a bunch of beer with some of the locals. I now have the privilege of throwing up on 2 continents.
God bless your father. Respect.
TheBrabon1 no they didn’t
thank you for his service
I am a post war boomer. My WWII vet uncle did date an aristocratic German woman living in NY in the 60s. I got to know her, and when she learned I planned an extensive European tour in '69, she invited me to visit her family home in Heidelberg, which I did and it was then that she confided the story of her brother during the war. He was wounded and was considered no longer fit for combat and sent to serve at a concentration camp, which he did not want to do, but he hoped that maybe the stories might prove to have been exaggerated. Within two days, he protested the conditions to such a degree he was threatened with internment himself. Instead, he was allowed to go back to the front, with his limping condition and all. He was killed one week later. His story was not unique. There was a large turnover of soldiers who refused concentration camp duty.
it really is interesting how a person is willing to let injustice continue, so long as they have to have no direct part in it.
@@albdamned577 As if you would have done any different. Gonna single-handedly take down even that one camp by yourself or die trying? It's not interesting at all. People are rational enough to know when they have no chance to succeed and rather not die for a doomed effort by themselves. What's more interesting is that nobody that heard a man's continued protestations about the injustice and thought there IS a chance to stop it because they AREN'T alone. Or that they heard them just fine, there are actually so many people convinced that it isn't injustice at all and threatened to imprison HIM. The man really IS alone and has no chance to stop it.
In fairness, what the heck was he supposed to do? Strange and dangerous times.@@albdamned577
I wasn't aware of that but of course, not every German was a Nazi or depraved.
My uncle served under Patton and helped to liberate Dachau. He lived to be two weeks shy of 100 (I am 70 now - 2023) and I have always been fascinated by the history of WWII. Uncle Bud didn't tell me much -- partly I believe because I was his 'little niece' and surely because so many men didn't want to talk a lot about their experiences. I understood this so I never pushed. He may have talked more with my brother; I do want to ask him so that I can possibly learn a bit more. I wonder what kind of conditions he was exposed to throughout that war. When I see videos like this, I always look for him. History never ceases to amaze me. The brave men and women who work and fight in and for wars are special heros to say the least. But the ultimate sacrafice to me, would be for mankind to be brave enough to make peace at all costs -- a notion far more difficult than fighting for any cause.
My great grandpa was in Dachau, he luckily survived it... RIP to all the ones who didn't, thanks for sharing this story
I'm so sorry for what your great-grandfather went through at Dachau. I hope he was blessed with a long life filled with good fortunes and happiness! May God bless you and your family!
@@madisondean1074 I was about to write (almost) the same thing... ...and for those who wonder and doubt about "why the nation of Israel exists, and why it needs to continue to exist" have no clue...they need to see these films, and all others like them.
Swedish, May your great grandpa rest in peace. 🥀🌷🏞️
I had a great uncle on my mom's side of my family who worked in the Dutch resistance during WW2. He got into some hot water with the Germans and was told by his family not to return home. He was known to be a very stubborn person and ended up retuning home. He was captured by the Germans and sent to a camp in France before bouncing around from camp to camp and eventually ending up in Dachau. When I visited Dachau, I kid you not the book listing all the known people who died there was flipped open to the exact page where his name was which is how I found out. While he died on new year's eve 1944, his name is listed as dying on January 2nd, 1945 but like many others, that information was wrong since the Germans were likely celebrating the new year and thus recorded the deaths of all 3 previous days on January 2nd instead of their actual dates.
Your great grandfather is an absolute legend for being strong enough to survive Dachau.
Can we take a moment to consider the bravery of the cameramen taking these pictures? Without them we wouldn’t have good documentation of the events.
A good friend of mine was a combat cameraman in the south Pacific during WW 2. He said all of his buddies wanted good action shots but they were considered targets like any other GI.
This is a fantastic comment. Thank you for making it.
And Eisenhower video taped everything in the camps we liberated
Just think about all the footage of this war that never survived. It's astounding to think of.
@@ridethecurve55 I'm retired from the National Archives and Records Administration. There are hundreds of thousands of feet, perhaps millions, of film in the National Archives. Like Hollywood's storage vaults it was not understood until the 60's that film had to be stored at specific temperatures and levels of humidity to last undamaged. Newer film products have a wider window of survivability but still need fixed conditions to endure. To my knowledge no historical research program has ever addressed the film archives of NARA with a view toward preserving, restoring and perhaps digitizing the whole. Nor have I any idea of what the cost might be for an effort on that scale. The bottom line is that film is perishable, can become unrecoverable before it actually breaks down and those things are happening for lack of outside historical interest. And yes, we still have the Ark of the Covenant in warehouse. 🙄
I toured Dachau in the early 80s and even “sanitized” as it is today, it was very emotional. The barracks were gone but the ovens were still standing. I had always read accounts of Germans saying they didn’t know about the “Final Solution”, but the town of Dachau is so close to the camp it’s impossible that they didn’t know.
I remember reading a comment that a family member of the person commenting liberated one of the camps and you could smell it miles away. It happens even with farms or other smelly places, I don't believe for a second the Germans who lived nearby didn't know.
Absolutely, they carried on with their daily lives like nothing happened. @@user-is7xs1mr9y
@@user-is7xs1mr9y You don't know what you don't want to know.
Having visited Dachau in 1992, I can say that my mind has forever been changed by what I felt there. Visiting any concentration camp would have the same effect, of course. As dark as the camps are, I would recommend every person on this planet to go and experience this past evil. Mark Felton, Sir….you are a genuine treasure and a master storyteller. We are indebted to you.
People often don't realize the PTSD that can afflict someone who's part of an operation such as the liberation of these camps was. Seeing people in that condition, and the horrors that humans can inflict on one another, is deeply damaging to one's psyche.
A father of my friend liberated the camp & he never forgot what he saw & neither did I after I heard his story.
Not to mention the victim's of the camps
My father would often yell out in his sleep from the horrors he saw at this camp.
@@Cissy2cute Oh, I'm so sorry. I can only imagine how that would haunt him.
Yeah this would mess alot of us up..
My grandfather was held at one of Dachau's sub camps in Landshut as a forced labourer for BMW. In the 90's he was offered a compensation package from BMW but he turned it down. He said he couldn't accept it due to the death of his dear friends.
Wow. I did not know BMW tried to compensate for the horrors they profited off of. Thank you for sharing.
OMG...i didn't know BMW used prisoners for labour..appalling...and to think I used to want one of their cars...thank god that never came to fruition because i would definitely sell it!
I hear you my dad was a survivor he called it blood money but he felt take the money use it for charity, help someone. The money can never expunge what these low life’s did. There is never an excuse for the hate people received from the Germans and collaborators
@@dawna4185 Most german companies that already existed during the 1930s had a problem working with the government, didnt need to give the workers any rights
@@christophmaier4397 wow...
My father in law was among the first U.S. Army medical doctors at the liberated camp. He commanded the medical team that did the initial triage, he directed the initial calories and water the prisoners could intake. Their bodies were shutting down and you had to feed the calories slowly. Plus he had to locate and separate TB and other infectious diseases. It took weeks before they were fully ready to be liberated. His staff was two other junior officer MDs, a few nurses and several corpsman.
My father was in the first medical corps that went in after liberation. He lamented that they did not know how much food to give out to the prisoners safely and saw many perish after eating.
THE RESCUERS CANNOT BE BLAMED. FACED WITH THE STARVED, BEGGING--MOST PEOPLE WOULD HAV HANDED OVER FOOD. I AM HE DAUGHTER OF 2 PHSICIANS,AND HAVE READ A GREAT DEAL OF THE LIBERATION.........I LIKE TO THINK I WOUD HAVE PROVIDED SOUP, IN THE NAZI'S FILTHY BOWLS--BUT THE DID SO WANT REAL FOOD......CCO
MY DAD WAS A PHYSICIAN, AND NO, MEDICAL FOLK HADN'T LEARNED THIS UNTIL JUST BEFORE THE END OF HE WAR--INFO DID NOT ALWAYS GET THROUG
Yes they were killed by kindness. It was no-ones fault, they just didn’t know and thought they were doing the right thing.
My grandfather never spoke about this ...my grandmother said that it changed him,and he avoided anyone that would bring the subject of the nazis up...God bless the surviving people.
The einzatsgruppen were just pure evil, too.
Another tragic piece of WW2 history that had to be told. Who better now than Mark Felton to give us its tragic story in 2020.
Indeed, we must never forget the horrors of socialism and the terrible things that the Germans are capable of in their endless obsession of dominating Europe.
Roller Ghoster what if German had won the war and came across the American Concentration Camps containing the Japanese Americans?
Del Lawrence Not socialism, fascism! The Nazis sent the German socialists to work camps! The Nazis was a ultra right party, like their buddy Mussolini and Franco. Please don’t try to re-write history!
@@lindanwfirefighter4973 dont even go there. Crawl back to whatever rock you slithered out from under.
@Chandy Alexander They called themselves socialists and they acted like socialists, if it walks like a duck.....
Ill always remeber when I was in the 7th grade, our class had a speaker come visit us. This man was one of the first soldiers who arrived at Dachau, and almost 50 years later you could see how it scared his psyche.
Back in the 1970s, I knew a guy who had served with the 45th Division and helped liberate Dachau. He was a quiet, mild-mannered man who ran a used bookstore in Denver. When I asked about his experience, he politely refused to talk about it ....
@Greg Grimer Allied command did see that it was documented. It's expecting too much of a soldier on the ground to be able to talk about such a traumatizing experience. They had to put in a box and not open it. Remember these young men got no counseling or psychological support. Or worse. I had a great uncle who was on a ship hit by kamikazes saw his friends burned up and die horribly and for his PTSD the VA gave him electroshock therapy. I guess just to try to erase the memory of it? A grandfather when he got older would tell me about his time in WW2, he was with the 101st, including once about having to leave a friend he knew would die to keep fighting but only did so when a medic showed up to so he wouldn't die alone. He told me they liberated a camp but would only speak vaguely about it. It's upsetting to learn about third hand many decades later. To be there and smell and see one with no notion that people could possibly be so cruel... the desire for information and details sometimes has to be put aside and it's amazing how much a person can convey by just saying "It was bad."
"When I asked about his experience, he politely refused to talk about it" if you want to know how it was there then you can read Stanisław Grzesiuk book "Pięć lat kacetu" (Five Years in Concentration Camps). But you need to learn Polish first as he was christian guy so you will not gonna be able to find english translation of that book... in this book he is trying to describe his daily life and what he was forced to do to survive five years in camp where average prisoner lifespan was only 90 days(after that time most people were physical too weak to work=instant execution; or mental breakdown = suicide by walk into electric fence).
@ϟϟ Franz schmied 卐 That is ... strange. Those rings were relatively rare to begin with, I don't suppose you know anything more, dates, name and number of units involved?
my first job was at a elderly apartment complex in the mid 90s and i loved talking to the WW2 guys...once i got know them they opened up...one guy was airborne the night before D day and another battle of the bulge....i could listen to them all day...great memories.
@@Grubnar "SS" and "honor" are not words that belong in the same sentence.
My Grandad was an ambulanceman in London throughout WW2. A lovely, good natured bloke, he couldn't talk about what he had lived through but when asked about it you could see the grief on his face. RIP Grandad. Thanks to all who helped in defeating fascism. Lest we forget.
Yes, Thankyou
God bless him. 🙏🏼
My dad served in the Royal Navy in WW2. What he experienced he kept to himself.
happening still paul salute to your granda and mine linda in scotland xx
I was a child growing up in the UK during world war 2 , still remember the sound of the German planes overhead as they were constantly trying to bomb the shipyard nearby ...the bombs they had left over theyd drop on our villages and homes..we used the piles of rubble to play on..its nothing we really thought about..it was our lives back then...remember tooo..being wrapped up in eiderdowns at night as we had to visit air raid shelters...also remember the moonlit nights and white frost on the ground...AND FROSTY COLD NIGHTS !!
My grandfather was one of the liberators. What he told me about this place horrified me when i was just a young teen.
My father was part of the liberation...he was with a CIC unit (counter intelligence corps). He spoke 4 or 5 languages and was part of a team that put together an official report for Eisenhower and his staff. I have a copy of the report as well as a long letter my father wrote to my mother.
My great grandpa was a close friend of Eisenhower's because of his work engineering certain high end military equipment, and my great uncle on the other side worked under Eisenhower for a time when he was president. While I have my great grandpa's rocking chair, kitchen knife and coffee mug, zero documents of any of his work survive. I appreciate that you and your family have taken care of that report, and if by chance it is online and you could link to it I think many of us would want to read it.
That’s so friggin cool. God bless your family and thank y’all for your service.
While stationed with the Army in Augsburg in 1976-77, I made 2 trips to Dachau. The crematoria and many of the original buildings were still standing. The first visit was unbelievably haunting. I couldn't wrap my brain around the inhumanity that had occurred beneath my feet. The second visit was my attempt to really perceive, understand, and come to terms with history. More than 45 years later, I stand still-awestruck by the depravity of mankind on that site. May God have mercy on the souls who perished in Dachau, and all concentration camps!
+Landon Edwards : Dachau is the example how the american soldiers and its goverment try to cover their own WAR CRIMES!!! If you have make holocaustic sightseeing without make any cleverly logical question ...so sorry telling that you have graduated of stupid!!!
If you watch this and other Mark Felton productions, I'm absolutely amazed at how young the colonels were. They look like undergrads! (5:06)
I was stationed at Nurenberg, I visited Dachau also, mid 70s. Horrible place.
I did the same only once. I was stationed in West Germany during the same time. It was a horrible place to see.
My wife's grandfather was in the Rainbow 42nd. I met him once and he told me about it, which she was surprised because he had never talked about it to anyone. He told me that he never forgot the smell, that it haunted him, and that the bodies were "stacked like cordwood". And not little stacks but he said the stacks of piled bodies were much taller than him and he was a very tall man even in his old age (he was at least 6'1 or 6'2). I could tell the memories haunted him just by the way he looked when he told the story, I couldn't imagine the horror he experienced and those who actually suffered there.
Yeah, it’s pretty common. One relative of mine served in Vietnam. He doesn’t talk about it.
He must have felt some sort of bond to you. Usually we never talk of such things. That generation will never be forgotten.
Like your Grandfather, my Grandpa also was in Rainbow42. I can't in my wildest nightmare imagine how horrific this was. Rest in Peace Grandpa.
@@tonyhedberg Wow that's awesome, they were a much different breed of men back then. Most 18 yr olds couldn't imagine getting up off the couch and going outside, let alone given an M1 Garand, helmet, and face certain death every day
My dad helped liberating dachau. He was in the 808 tank battalion. Thanks for the video.
I visited Dachau in 1994. It's an unforgettable day. Great documentaries here. Well done.
My step-grandma was at Dachau for almost 6 years. Only survivor of her entire extended family. Grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, everyone dead. Three Americans (a doctor, a lawyer, and a GI) sponsered her and she moved to America as an orphan. She made her life here, got a degree, got married, had children and passed peacefully over 7 decades later. Though she never spoke of it, it was clear it deeply affected her in her later years.
VERY SAD, INDEED. THERE ARE EVIL PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD 🌎.......RUSSIA 🇷🇺, COMMUNIST RED CHINA 🇨🇳 , NORTH KOREA 🇰🇵 GERMANY 🇩🇪 , IRAN 🇮🇷 , IRAQ 🇮🇶 , AFGHANISTAN 🇦🇫 , PALESTINE 🇵🇸, ISRAEL 🇮🇱.
Very sorry to hear that, Im glad she survived and made it too America!
I'm so sorry for what your grandmother went through. May God bless her, you and your family with good fortunes and happiness!
It must have been beyond painful for her to share those horrific experiences. Can't even imagine her pain! 💔💔
Heinrich Himmler was at least just as evil in his own way as Hitler and Goering were. May God bless those who survived Dachau and the other Nazi deathcamps.
My father was also at Dachau. After the war his job as an engineer took us to Holland. During my summer break he took us there to show us the tragedy it was. If you've been there and seen the huge piles of eyeglasses, rings, clothing and all of the things the prisoners wore you might hope that such a war never happens again.
And the saddest thing about it is the fact that those piles of eyeglasses, rings, clothing and bodies weren't even the result of the war directly, but of incomprehensible human evil towards other human beings just for not being catholic German.
I was at Dachau about 4 yrs ago. It was a very humbling experience. I could almost imagine all the people whom were starved, beaten, and murdered there. I felt almost guilty walking on the paths due to I might be walking on someone's ashes. The place is heartbreaking.
@@mickeypopa Catholic priests were also in Dachau dude. Anyone that spoke against the Nazi scum could be put in a camp if they weren't killed on the spot.
@@mickeypopa Just for not being catholic German? Hundreds of Catholic priests were deported to concentration camps, some executed. A major Catholic saint, Maximilian Kolbe gave his life in a camp as exchange for a Jewish prisoner who had a wife and family. Reich leadership considered Catholic priests and certain Protestant clergy to be enemies due to their preaching against the campaign against the Jews.
There's a soldier who openly admitted shooting an unarmed commandant of a concentration camp. He was calmly explaining to him that because of the conditions of the camp and what happened, he was going to be arrested and taken into custody by MPs and go on trial. He spit on him, because he was Black, and the soldier shot him. He said so, unabashedly. The SS were animals; there was no saving most, if any, of them. Himmler had plans to ensure that each person in the SS would have to shoot and kill a Jew as an entry requirement. Beyond sick.
My uncle, Charles Caputo , was a medic in the 3rd Army. Once after I was discharged from the Marine Corps, he told me for the first time his experiences in the liberation of a death camp. One thing that really stood out was how GIs began giving their food, such as Hershey bars, to the inmates. An American army surgeon drove up and was very mad and ordered the GIs to stop sharing their rations with the inmates. Their bodies could not handle normal food; they needed a special diet. How sad that some died so soon after liberation due to the good intentions of their liberator.
NO REASON TO BE MAD=== SHOCK. ........90% OF PEOPLE WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN
My grandfather was in the 42nd. He didn’t speak of what they found there often or openly. Godspeed Wilbur”Bill” Condit.
This video is amazing, I never realised American soldiers were so shook they started fighting amongst each other. I wish they taught this stuff at school, I can finally understand a bit better the emotions that people felt on that day.
Normal soldiers might have been shocked. But Allied high Command knew very early what's happening there.
I knew that tempers where flying but didnt realized what actually happened on that day before watching this video. Imagine being frontline GI under constant stress of battle coming to the camp and witnessing this horror. It's very difficult to judge if under these circumstances executing surrendering Waffen-SS soldiers was justified or not.
@@acotojest It was not. It was _understandable,_ and I'm certainly not going to judge anyone harshly for reacting that way to such a horrible scene, but that doesn't mean it was _justified._
@@acotojest Of course it's not justified. Murder can never be justified. The question is whether it's excusable.
@@acotojest no matter how the soldiers felt it wasnt justified. If youre going to make excuses and start justifying "your own" for the crimes you executed the "enemies" for, whats the point of these laws? Its obvious the allies wouldnt apply the same laws on this scale to themselves. War is ugly, all sides commit heinous crimes. No point justifying these actions unless you would do this for all sides. History needs to be told and be told unbiased. Ofc the victors will have more sway over how this history will be presented, but at least the lesser evil won and we have the chance to at least try to learn the unbiased truth.
Being raised and still living in Dachau i can not express how sad and angry it makes me to see my hometown in this context. I visited the Concentration Camp twice, once with my school and once with my Mother. Despite being Summer, when we went into the Gas Chamber and furnace area it gave me the chills. Please come visit, and share your experience so that something similiar hopefully never happens again.
I toured Dachau in 1979 when I was a USN sailor.
Let's MAKE SURE it never happens again, by driving neo-Nazis and fascists driven by race-hate and love of authoritarian dictatorship out of present-day politics.
Wake up out that brainwashing You got took there on an anti white anti German BRAINWASHING COURSE! Your country is lied about! YOU WERE THE VICTIMS OF THAT WAR! WAKE UP!
@@prophetnozza4150 are you nuts?
@@8gbusby No I look outside of what you are told with ZERO proof. People who are nuts believe this anti white hate filled narrative....... can you not see what is happening to your race and your races nations? ...... NO we are not one race, ALL science OUTSIDE of controlled academia by THEM, haplogroups, DNA, hominid records , anthropology and a vast number of other things prove we are NOT one race! LOOK WHATS HAPPENING TO THE EUROPEAN ONE!!!!!! OpEN YOUR EYES!
My grandfather was with the 42nd ID. He told me verbatim "we didn't take any SS prisoners after that. Period"
I went there as part of my study abroad in Germany. The feeling of sorrow was so overwhelming I was crying almost the whole time. I hated my teacher for making us go through it but now I understand why.
My uncle who was a tough as nails Scottish warrior part of the Black Watch was involved in the liberation of the camps. What he told me he saw brought him to tears barely able to speak. He said he could not believe a human could do that to another human. When they approached the camps he said they were met by walking skeletons. Each skeleton thanking him and his squad for coming, for saving them. He only told me this one time....he was so overcome by his memories.
"Good! Then he wasn't lying!" Yep, they talk about it; only once. Just like Vietnam vets. Vets of all wars. Once is enough. But never forget.
TEARS....
A friend of mine didn't know about his father's involvement in the liberation of Belsen (British job) until they cleared his attic following his death. He'd been a medic's assistant and written down notes. Apparently it explained a great deal about his mental health issues that had impacted my friend's family throughout. Poor man hadn't said a word.
I played Bridge for several years with a man who had spent over 2 years at Dachau. David Frost had him on his TV show twice. I talked to his widow after hr died. She said practically every night he wold be pacing the floor in their house crying. Also it was quite common for her to find crusts of bread in his pants & jackets pockets. He also spent time in the Warsaw Ghetto. He stole art supplies for an artist to draw pics of what it was like there. I understand the pics are in a museum in Israel. HE told me some amazing stories!
Keno Man The bread crusts are an amazing detail. What an insight into how human habits are born and maintained.
I've read a book by a Dahau survivor who was a Polish POW officer sent to Dahau as punishment for refusing multiple offers of German Citizenship since he was born in Berlin while his parents were traveling back to Poland from I think France. He spent 5 years in Murnau POW camp and then 9 last months of the war in Dahau. There were 3 other prisoners sent there with him. The best part of the book was that after his liberation he was hired by the American army to serve in the Guard Companies watching over german POW prisoners. He became a commandant of a camp holding top German officers. The lowest rank in his camp was a major. It had over 50 generals. The book was called "Odwrucone losy", which translate to Reversal of fortune. I don't think it was ever translated in any other language which is a pity. It was fascinating read.
@@Luvurenemy Read a book a couple years ago, wish I could remember the title.....but one passage still haunts me.....a soldier returned home after WW2 ended (think he was in the ETO)....first night home, he tried to sleep in the same bed and bedroom he grew up in. His mother woke up in the night after hearing odd noises, and noticed he wasn't in bed; she went outside, and saw he had dug a foxhole in the yard, draped himself in a blanket and was sound asleep...per the passage in the book, she broke down sobbing at the sight, realizing what he must have been through that made sleeping in a foxhole out in the yard preferable than a warm bed inside his home......
@@notyou6950 What a pity. An English translation would give many more people to read about his experience.
Ron Shouse There are nightmares in our deep evolutionary past that get exposed by stories like this veteran’s experience. His free will was gone. The unconscious took over. What suffering our evolutionary forbearers must have experienced millions of years ago. for this programming to be coded into us. It just sits in our brains waiting to be activated by some calamity. Thanks for sharing.
My father was one of the first American Soldiers to approach Dachau. His squad approached the camp prior the the main body of US forces arrived. He was an Army Ranger. His story confirms some of the executions by the prisoners of the SS Guards. My Father's version is that he captured the Commandant highing in the woods, squatting behind a tree in prison clothing. He arrested the prisoner because his boots were shined, he was clean shaven and his nails were trimmed and clean. Prisoners at the camp identified the Commandant. My Father was also shown the door of no return, as it was labeled by the Prisoners. That door is currently at a WWII museum in Beckley , West Virginia. My Father saw this door at the Grand Opening of the museum and almost fainted because he had gone through that door when he reached the camp. A Prisoner told him it was the door of no return. My Father passed away in 2017 at 93 yrs old. He fought the Germans in Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany and Austria from 1942 to 1945 and came home in 1948. He spent the last 6 months of his last 4 yr tour, 1944 to 1948 at Hitler's Austrian mountain retreat searching for Nazi stolen treasures in the mountains. He was highly decorated and was never wounded during 44 months of combat in 5 major campaigns. I salute him as a great American and soldier for freedom and as my Father. All 6 kids miss him greatly. There will never be another man like him. God has him now. I will see him again. We love you Dad!
great story, thanks for sharing!
My grandpa was there. He spoke about it one time after he saw a documentary over Dachau during Christmas break I was like 15 ish. He talked about the execution of the SS guards and how one of the GI’s that helped separated the German Army and SS had been shot in the head by an SS officer execution style earlier in the war but somehow survived. After that, this GI executed every SS officer he found. I even remember him saying that when they loosed the 30 cal machine guns into the SS a US Officer kicked one of the gunners trying to stop it but by then they were all dead anyways. Never forgot that story and when you started talking about it I immediately thought back to my grandpa Pvt 1st Class Charles Mccloud of Whitedeer,Tx 1919-2002
This guy actually teaches history
True History!🤔🇺🇸
Can you imagine taking courses taught by Dr. Felton?
He spoon feeds you history you mean. I learned this in a book years ago. It’s all out there. One just has to look for it, or wait and hope for someone to tell you.
@@SeanRCope What does it matter where the knowledge comes from? If Mark's videos prompt even one person, no matter how they came upon the video, to read and dig more deeply into a subject and try to gain a greater knowledge of how the world they live in came to be the way it is, then I would say he has succeeded beyond measure.
Yea hé is better tegen my history teacher
My great grandfather participated in the liberation of one of the Kaufering Sub Camps of Dachau at Landsberg, Germany. He was a Medical NCO with the 3rd Battalion Medical Detachment, 409th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division. Seeing footage from these camps is sobering. I cannot begin to imagine what that day must have been like for him, his comrades, & the people who were liberated.
Bless your great-grandfather
Not far from the sub camp my beloved 12th Armored liberated 👍
My grandfather did as well. He NEVER spoke of it. Can't imagine what these men felt to see the aftermath of such evil.
jvleasure Hey JV, funny seeing you here. You certainly are the person who got me into the history of the 12th Armored. 🤙🏽
@captain crankypants no such thing as denial....thats a clever word to demonise anyone who questions the establishment version of history
My father fought in the 157 Inf Reg/45th Inf Div at Anzio - where he was badly wounded. He served under Sparks when Sparks was a captain. Sparks had an excellent combat record. You have to understand - this is what war does to people. The 45th was a federalized Oklahoma National Guard outfit - with a distinguished record during the war - Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Operation Dragoon in southern France and finally into Germany. Of course there weren't many original NG guys left by then. Can you imagine surviving the war and then finding what the Germans had at Dachau? Of course you would want to retaliate. Thank you another great program.
Sparks was more than excellent, he was amazing. One of the men I wish I could've met.
It's an unimaginable part of our collective human history. But what amazes me is the resilience of the human spirit, the smiles on the faces and the will to live that was present.
There was someone in these comments who shared the story of their Dad or Uncle involved in liberating the camp and emancipating prisoners; some of them were too weak to survive but they could at least tell them that they would die free which made them smile. The strength of those people is bewildering. To smile in the face of death after enduring the absolute worst of humanity.
@@jasonlast7091 Agreed.
In 1982, I was an ArmyBrat living in Stuttgart WestGermany when my Dad (US Army 22Yrs Retired) and Mom took my Brother and I to Munich to visit Dachau. I love these history shows and it’s one thing to watch something on a two dimensional device in so far, that it plants a seed in your head. The biggest take away about visiting Dachau are the seeds that were planted in my soul. When governments do this to people and you see the effects it does, it is incumbent upon you to always fight your government. I don’t think there’s a government on this earth that isn’t truly fearful of its people that it won’t do anything to harm you. The crematoriums weren’t as devastating as the visual displays in the museum that showed paper that was made from human skin or the sculpture made from human bones. Pictures aside, may have burnt your retinas, but the faces left marks in your heart you can never unsee. It’s one thing when you and your neighbor go to war but it’s another thing when your government goes to war upon you.
Thank you Phillip, for your comments. My father was stationed at Krabenloch (Ludwigsburg) from 1961 - 1965 and we lived in Pattonville. My parents felt much like yours did and took our family of four kids through Dachau in 1963. The "Political Correctness" had not yet infected society and the displays were truly horrific. My dad and I were just discussing that visit this evening when I was sitting with him, not knowing that this video was even on KZhead. He told me that he and my mother discussed this topic at some length, regarding the value of showing this piece of history. He's also retired Army and had heard the comments that General Eisenhower made regarding his opinion that these places must be shown to the public; he was specifically talking about the German neighbors who lived near the camps. My parents felt that this issue would very likely not be covered well, if at all, in our American schools. Since we lived only 2-3 hours drive north of Munich it was a fairly short trip but I've never forgotten what I saw that day.
True. Most governments in the world are evil and most of those in power are evil . How many people throughout history were imprisoned, tortured, abused and had their lives ruined and even killed , for the sake of security and stability of the regime, plus for the sake of a evil man getting and keeping power ,which he could not take with him to the grave
My Grandfather was a medic in the 99th infantry. He died when I was 7 and obviously I wasn't as engrossed in WWII as I am now. But my father tells stories that he refused to talk about the liberation to any of his kids. He even had a angry ban on Mercedes' because they made the parts for German tanks. I only wish I could ask him about this. Thank you Grandpa Bob, what a badass. 🖤
You should also have a ban on Porsche and VW! They were run by many ex SS soldiers after the war!! Jochem Piper the convicted war criminal was one!!
Yes, Mercedes And Porsche were part of the war effort. Here is the Porsche history: Ferdinand Porsche[a] (3 September 1875 - 30 January 1951) was an Austrian-German automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche car company. He is best known for creating the first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle (Lohner-Porsche), the Volkswagen Beetle, the Auto Union racing car, the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, several other important developments and Porsche automobiles. An important contributor to the German war effort during World War II,[1] Porsche was involved in the production of advanced tanks such as the VK 4501 (P), the Elefant (initially called "Ferdinand") self-propelled gun, and the Panzer VIII Maus super-heavy tank, as well as other weapon systems, including the V-1 flying bomb.[2] Porsche was a member of the Nazi Party and was called the "Great German Engineer" by Nazi officials.[3][4] He was a recipient of the German National Prize for Art and Science, the SS-Ehrenring, and the War Merit Cross. Porsche was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996 and won the Car Engineer of the Century award in 1999. And the Daimler-Benz history in the Nazi-Era: From 1937, Daimler-Benz AG increasingly produced armament items such as the LG 3000 truck and aircraft engines such as the DB 600 and DB 601. To create additional capacity for aircraft engine production in addition to the Marienfelde plant the Genshagen plant was built in a well-concealed forest location south of Berlin in 1936. Armament production accounted for an ever-growing proportion of the company’s revenues up to the start of the war. In the summer of 1941, the Daimler-Benz AG Board of Management, chaired by Wilhelm Kissel, no longer envisaged a swift end to the war or an imminent return to producing civilian vehicles. The most important line of business was truck production, whilst passenger-car manufacture - already limited to military requirements since the beginning of the war - was in decline and virtually came to a standstill by the end of 1942. The company was now focusing on the manufacture and assembly of military components for the army, navy, and air force.
@@bobbybogs6864 @Ripper36068 I think it was more that Mercedes had an actual physical point, like they made the engines. I'm sure he had a terrible view on all of them as a whole but it was just that distinction having a physical thing to hate.
Yep. My Dad and his brothers fought in that war. None of them would ever buy anything German. I'm 53, and I still have never bought a German vehicle- I know it's weird, but I still think about how badly it would have upset my Dad, and he was a good man.
BMW has history of forced labor production during WWII as well
How can people still deny that this happened? It baffles me🤔
I had a great uncle on my mom's side of my family who worked in the Dutch resistance during WW2. He got into some hot water with the Germans and was told by his family not to return home. He was known to be a very stubborn person and ended up retuning home. He was captured by the Germans and sent to a camp in France before bouncing around from camp to camp and eventually ending up in Dachau. When I visited Dachau, I kid you not the book listing all the known people who died there was flipped open to the exact page where his name was which is how I found out. While he died on new year's eve 1944, his name is listed as dying on January 2nd, 1945 but like many others, that information was wrong since the Germans were likely celebrating the new year and thus recorded the deaths of all 3 previous days on January 2nd instead of their actual dates.
Amazing story, thanks for sharing. I don't believe in coincidence I think the book showed what you were supposed to learn. Divine intervention.
I cannot even imagine the trauma this caused the Army soldiers. My husband's Grandpa was an Army medic in WWII whose job was to drive an ambulance and load up the dying and dead men. When he was deployed, he was a happy man who loved his wife and daughters. He came home a completely different person. No one ever asked him directly about his experiences, that was understood in the family. But Grandma told me once that he had regular nightmares about the dying men screaming to be saved and calling out to God and their mothers.
I can't imagine the things he saw. My uncle was there about 2 days after the camp was liberated. After the cleanup had started and it deeply scarred him till the day he died. He would talk openly about all of the other battles he was in. From Sicily and Italy, through France, but he couldn't talk about the concentration camp. The camp gave him awful nightmares of the most horrific kind. Till he was well into his 80's.
I guess another way to look at it is, by then the liberating soldiers -- infantry, no less -- had surely spent months wallowing through all the horrors of war, deaths, maimings, privations, the lot. Yet Dachau was too grotesque for guys like that to stomach. It really puts the sadistic monstrousness of Hitlerism in perspective.
If it was hard on the American liberators try to guess how much more traumatic it was for the prisoners.
My grandfather was an ambulance driver in WWI.. I wish I had known him better, but I was 7 when he died. My mother said he rarely talked about the war, but one of the things they were most frightened of at that time was mustard gas.
When you see this few views on a Mark Felton video, it mustn't be here long, or the world suddenly doesn't care about history, but no one can make us care about history more than Mark.
Unfortunately there's a large portion of the population currently that want to remove history in the name of Marxism under the guise of "anti-racism" that is ironically very racist.
This subject is hard for people to watch. Most WWII buffs are more interested in the tanks and the maneuver of troops. I have to admit I nearly glossed over this, having seen all about the camps before. But then something told me to watch it anyway... as a duty to the victims if for no other reason. I'm very glad I did now.
There are those who wish to learn, or be reminded, and there are those who find it difficult to learn but should look anyway. Because, as we know, history has a habit of repeating itself.
@@fellmann12 Well it is by comparison to how many views Marks work usually gets!
@@Dee-nonamnamrson8718--- Might you be a little clearer in your accusations regarding what "a large portion of the population wants" to do and stop beating around the bush! And why is anti-racism supposedly synonomous with Marxism?!
Dear Marc Felton, I am Marc Schölermann, born 1965 in Hamburg, Germany. Thank you for showing and remind me what we did. Truth only can set us free.
A Monsignor at my Catholic school was liberated from Dachau. He spent years there. Believe it or not, he and Pope John Paul 2 knew each other as kids. He spoke to my history class about his experience at the camp. He had the courage to tell us all about it. Sadly I was only a kid, so I didn’t understand the gravity of what he told us. He died peacefully at 91 years young. May he Rest In Peace ⛪️
Eisenhower said take as many pictures and films of this because sometime down the line some bastards will say this never happened
John Codling, that is so true to this day!! Know your history!!
Not so many pictures were taken of his own 'Rheinwiesenlager' camps postwar. (Not officially POWs but 'disarmed enemy forces')
Are you kidding me???? He knew for years this was happening and didn't do a damn thing to help!!!! He only gave the go ahead to join the war after pearl harbor!!! USA always takes credit for winning WW2 when as a country you killed more of your own soldiers than the enemy!!! USA joined in the last 17 months after it had already been going on for 6 years!!!! USA has no issues starting wars and yet they can't win one!!!
@@oakley3815 now they are being accused for being a warmonger for helping other nation, wtf, other nation will hate everything they do
@Flame Resistant Troll awe truth hurts doesn't it yanky doodle 😂😂
This guy hands down has the best history videos on the entire internet.
Check out World War Two by Indy Neidel.
When I was stationed in Europe 1984 to 1988 I visited there. I was glad it was a rainy day. To hide my tears...
As an American I'm proud of what our guys did to save these prisoners who were nearly dead, Many of these young soldiers came from all across the country and came from places such as New Jersey where I'm from or Maine and Virginia barely out of school.
This account brings home how horrific this was. Military discipline broke down, and people who were on the same side were actually threatening or fighting each other because of the what they had seen. Remember, so that this may never happen again!
It happened in the war of 1812. It may have happened in every war.
There were actually a lot of war crimes carried out by the Americans that were hidden especially German prisoners of war but clearly not as many as the Germans had done karma always get you in the end .
Humanity is stupid. They'll do it again... and again... and another ad nauseum...
@John Smith There were war crimes committed by all sides during WWII - it was the nature of the beast. Total, dehumanizing warfare. But in the case of the SS guards at the camps... nah, killing them was certainly not a war crime. Way too many of them got away with their crimes as it was, so those that the Allies and Russians shot out of hand to me was a small counter to that. I know what I'd have done to the bastards.
Tell that to the CCP putting uighurs in "education camps"
It's so nice to watch a documentary that doesn't utilize a soaring musical score.
Nope, no music... just the facts. 👍
No Kidding!!! I have seen so many presentations absolutely cheapened and ruined by overdone musical sound effects... ok for a little intro or so, but all the way through ... beginning to think i was the only one. thanks for this!!
Exactly - the majesty of nature requires no mood muzak.
Truth does not need an orchestra ♠️ 71+ 🇨🇦 expat
You seem not to get the point wjth your absurd, trivial response!
Just going thur and reading all the different comments with stories….just brought me to tears. We need to really teach this in the schools. Never again.
My grandfather was there during all of this chaos, I don’t know how involved he was with the killing of the guards, but as a young Jewish soldier seeing all of the skeletal corpses really fucked him up and with me in particular I only was ever told maybe two sentences worth of information about the war from my grandfather’s lips because talking about the war made him so upset.
My beloved Dad helped liberate Dachau. He always said I hope you never know of the horrors I experienced at liberating Dachau. 💗
@The Last Crusader You have found it necessary to repeat the exact same post many times. Just who are you trying to convince? Yourself?
@@dindinprivate3477 chutzpah. Be understanding and accepting and make this world a better place.
Poor, poor man!. Bless him!
Thanks for the kind words! My Dad was an extraordinary gentleman. My Uncle Paul was a POW and his experiences were written in a book called A Bridge Too Far. My Italian great uncles also served in WW2. These gentleman were the best guys you would ever want to know. My cousins fought in Korea and Vietnam. Heroic men.
@@marykayreese8850 there's nothing "heroic" about what the allies did to the German population and soldiers... get your head out of your a....