The men discovered Ohrdruf, a Nazi labor camp and a subcamp of the Buchenwald system.

That same day, Marshall received permission from the Secretary of War, Henry Lewis Stimson, and President Harry S. Truman for these delegations to visit the liberated camps.

He cabled General George C. Marshall, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., requesting that members of Congress and journalists be sent to liberated camps to witness and document the horrific scenes US troops were uncovering. In one room, where they were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. In late March 1945, the camp had a prisoner population of some 11,700 to 13,000. Many prisoners who were too weak or ill to partake in the march were summarily killed.

info@nationalww2museum.org The soldiers reacted in shock and disbelief to the evidence of Nazi atrocities. A week later, on April 12, Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and Omar Bradley visited Ohrdruf to see, firsthand, evidence of Nazi atrocities against concentration camp prisoners. Connie Gentry received her bachelor's degree in history from Nicholls State University, and her master's degree in public history at the ... Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, 75th Anniversary of the End of World War II, "Straw" Vote Gives FDR the Lager: The 1944 POW Vote, Mark Gordon Hazard, 79th Infantry Division, Fascination and Hatred: The Roma in European Culture, Part One, Soldier in a Tinderbox: Ferris LeBlanc, World War II, and the Up Stairs Lounge Fire, "Even the Dead Won't Be Safe": Walter Benjamin's Final Journey. ', At Ohrdruf concentration camp, 4th Armored Division soldier David Cohen said: "We walked into a shed and the bodies were piled up like wood. Courtesy of Eisenhower Library. TTY: 202.488.0406, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia.

This article is part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible by Bank of America. As more camps were uncovered by Allied forces, it became evident to the world that the Third Reich had committed unprecedented atrocities everywhere the regime had reigned.

They were not very successful in their operations because there was a pile of human bones, skulls, charred torsos on or under the griddle which must have accounted for many hundreds.

Patton, a man privy to the violent scenes of war, refused to enter this shed as the sights and smells in the camp had previously caused him to vomit against the side of a building. Main telephone: 202.488.0400

[8][9], When the soldiers of the 4th Armored Division entered the camp, they discovered piles of bodies, some covered with lime, and others partially incinerated on pyres.

When the shed was full—I presume its capacity to be about 200, the bodies were taken to a pit a mile from the camp where they were buried. There are no words to describe it. Prisoners were to connect the castle with a railway by digging tunnels through nearby mountains. On April 4, 1945, the US 4th Armored Division and 89th Infantry Division of the Third US Army came face to face with the horrors of Nazi brutality. American soldiers walk past the bodies of prisoners killed during evacuation, An Austrian-Jewish survivor points out the gallows to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, A survivor views a pile of bodies stacked in a shed, An American soldier drives past buildings set afire by survivors. There is insufficient attention paid to the long history of the Roma within European culture.

The military training area of Truppenübungsplatz Ohrdruf was taken over in July 1945 by the Red Army, since Thuringia became part of the Soviet occupation zone. Besides the temporary quarters for the Reich leadership, the extensive tunneling and other works at Jonastal point to an armament factory of some kind.

[4], Those unable to work were moved by the SS to Sterbelager: 4,300 sick inmates were moved to Bergen-Belsen, or the Kleines Lager at Buchenwald.

In late September 1940, the German-Jewish intellectual, Walter Benjamin, embarked on a dangerous and ultimately ill-fated journey across the Pyrenees to escape the Nazis.

Ohrdruf was a German forced labor and concentration camp located near Ohrdruf, south of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. Two memorials to the dead were erected at around this time. Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics, Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically, Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust, Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. In addition, the camp housed prisoners who the Nazis judged as anti-social,  plus homosexuals and Jews.

Ohrdruf was liberated on April 4, 1945, by the 4th Armored Division, led by Brigadier General Joseph Cutrona, and the 89th Infantry Division.It was the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by the U.S. Army.

Other possibilities are an improved V-2 rocket or long-range jet-powered bombers, but all of this is speculative. As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they found tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners in deplorable conditions.e Malnutrition and disease were rampant, and corpses lay unburied. The bodies of prisoners lie stacked in a shed.

Formed in 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I, the 89th Infantry Division participated in several major military battles.

Private First Class Ferris LeBlanc served his country honorably during World War II.

[5] Together with those worked to death here but moved elsewhere to die, estimates of the total number of victims are around 7,000. After his visit, Eisenhower cabled General George C. Marshall, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, describing his trip to Ohrdruf:[2], ... the most interesting—although horrible—sight that I encountered during the trip was a visit to a German internment camp near Gotha. The 89th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the US Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988.

The tunnels would also serve as an emergency shelter for the train that contained Hitler’s headquarters, the Führersonderzug, in the event of an evacuation from Berlin. Formed in 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I, the 89th Infantry Division participated in several major military battles. Mass graves were re-opened and SS men tried to burn the corpses.

SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, "Spurensuche in der "Hölle von Ohrdruf" (German)", "Concentration camp liberator David Cohen speaks to teachers", History of the 602nd Tank Destroyer Battalion - Description of the liberation by Raymond J.

Following the discovery of Ohrdruf, Eisenhower stated simply but profoundly: “We are told the American soldier does not know what he fighting for.

The inmates claimed that 3,000 men, who had been either shot in the head or who had died of starvation, had been so buried since the 1st of January.

In early April, with the oncoming advance of Allied forces, the SS evacuated almost all of the prisoners in a death march to Buchenwald. Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and Omar Bradley view charred remains in a crematorial pyre and bodies of prisoners killed prior to the SS evacuation of Ohrdruf. [2][3][4], By late 1944, around 10,000 prisoners were housed here; through March 1945, the total number sent here was around 20,000, mainly Russians, Poles, Hungarian Jews, some French, Czechs, Italians, Belgians, Greeks, Yugoslavians and Germans. The men discovered Ohrdruf, a Nazi labor camp and a subcamp of the Buchenwald system.

[5] Towards the end of the war, the prisoners were used to construct a subterranean headquarters for the government (Führerhauptquartier) to be used following a possible evacuation of Berlin. From Two Survivors. It was never completed. The SS guards killed many of the remaining prisoners in the Nordlager that were deemed too ill to walk to the railcars.

It made use of huts originally built in 1940 for Wehrmacht troops using the Truppenübungsplatz nearby as well as other facilities.

[10], Seeing the Nazi crimes committed at Ohrdruf made a powerful impact on Eisenhower, and he wanted the world to know what happened in the concentration camps. Even while held as POWs by the Germans in the POW camp Stalag Luft IV, American servicemen exercised their civic duty and made their voices heard, at least to each other, when they held a straw vote for the 1944 presidential election. Courtesy of Eisenhower Library. Since 1993, the Bundeswehr has been in charge of the area. Despite the season, not all prisoners were housed in huts—some were accommodated in stables, tents and old bunkers. [2], Ohrdruf had also made a powerful impression on Patton, who described it as "one of the most appalling sights that I have ever seen." The 4th Armored Division and the 89th Infantry of the Third US Army liberated Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945. In a shed, a pile of roughly 30 emaciated bodies were discovered, sprinkled with lime in an attempt to cover the smell.

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